Which slacker hangouts? Hole in the Wall?

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

Waterloo down by Lamar and Sixth? Did you see the groundbreaking area for the new Whole Foods?

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

They failed. TRh big book chain backed out so it's just WF now.

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?

We're determined to make it as a weird as we can and resist any efforts to the contrary!

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

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!)

you've always had the charm of a southern belle!!!

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.

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)

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.

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.

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.

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 !!

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.

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.

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 � 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 � with Wilbur going the farthest, 852 feet in 59 seconds � before a gust flipped the plane while it was on the ground. Both men were somewhat blas� 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

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.

I have watched all of the PBS programs about the first flight. Fascinating! Happy Winter !!! I LOVE snow!!!

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

Happy Solstice to all from balmy Chicago (48 deg F this afternoon) 73 de AA9IL Mike r-c-i

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!

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.

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.

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

Hi Cosmo. Our echolink node is 135043. Give me a holler!

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

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.

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.

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

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?

...and take pictures if you get to the MIT lashup in Texas!!!It is a Good Thing to share!

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

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

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

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...

i hadn't heard a thing about those dolphins in the gulf. how sad!

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.

MARCIA!!! there you are *HUGS* was getting worried about you, girlfriend!

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?

why is spam so popular in Hawaii? i thought it was just a joke, but maybe i'm not the only one wondering?

Spam is very popular in these parts, well once a year anyway at Spam-o-rama on Town Lake in Austin.

really??? *LAUGH* i may have to take a day trip to see that one!

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� edible," Dick continued, "That would be a challenge. We ought to have a a 'SPAM�-Off.'" " Yeah, a 'SPAMARAMA�!'" 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� 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�! But I was wrong! ....... David Arnsberger The Potentate of Potted Pork Parties Excerpt from the Austin Chronicle Austin's Quintessential Silly Bar Party SPAMTASTIC� SPAMARAMA� BY VIRGINIA B. WOOD March 31, 2000 In the spring of 1984, my wholesale dessert business and catering company entered the seventh annual SPAMARAMA� with a dish called SPAMBOLI�. 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� 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�," my aunt cackled. Mother, who had never served SPAM� in our household a day in her life, was not amused. That's SPAMARAMA� 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� 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� 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� award-winner John Myers (aka Chef SPAM�) always went the haute cuisine route with dishes such as SPAM� Oscar, SPAM� Cordon Bleu, or SPAM� Puffs. Other guys, like Kevin Rollins, took a completely different direction and perennially competed for the "Worst" dish, creating delicacies like SPAM-ALAMA� Ding-Dongs and other questionable food items too disgusting to describe even in an alternative newspaper..... Original article -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Excerpt from the Daily Texan SPAM� 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� drew thousands - an estimated 8,000 to 9,000 people - to the park for music, food, rides and the SPAMALYMPICS. " SPAMARAMA� 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�'s main sponsor. "It grew out of a small neighborhood function and gets better every year. We are always very excited." The SPAM�-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� toss, began the SPAMALYMPICS. The youngest competitor, 11-year-old Alex Hager, opened the SPAM� calling contest, which is just like hog calling but with the word "SPAM�." His unique call, a series of armpit noises followed by a call of "Here SPAM�, here SPAM�!" took the gold medal. Returning to defend their title in the SPAM� toss were Mark and Cody Mikeska, a father-son team with four previous SPAM� tosses under its belt. SPAM� tossers throw a chunk of SPAM� to each other at increasing distances until someone drops it. After three rounds of flying SPAM�, which sometimes christened spectators with SPAM� juice, the defending champions were pitted against two other teams. The Mikeskas won the 2004 championship. "The key is getting enough elevation under the SPAM�," Mark Mikeska said after their victory. Many groups occupied tents, including 10-year SPAMARAMA� veterans the Squealage People. The men dressed up as the Village People with pig-like modifications. Nathan Hinds, who drove from San Marcos for the festival, said he was particularly proud of their accomplishments this year. "Today we have a concoction called 'Queer Pork on a Straight Fork'," Hinds said. "We have won the 'Worst Taste' award eight of the last nine years, and we're darned proud of that." After sampling the creations of various culinary artists, spectators saw the most heated and controversial SPAMARAMA� event - the Collegiate SPAM� Relay. The race pitted UT students against contestants from Texas A&M University in a relay. It started out dead even, but by the final SPAM� handoff, the Aggies had gained a slight lead. UT's Randy Gonzalez, a 23-year-old chemical engineering senior, narrowed the lead but lost control of the SPAM� in the last few seconds. Victory went to Texas A&M, inciting booing and calls for a rematch from the crowd After a short break, people began surging forward, pushing and leaning to get as close to the stage as possible for the final event. For years, the SPAM�-eating contest was known as the SPAM� cram. This year, the International Federation of Competitive Eating sponsored the event, bringing with it Rich and Carlene LeFevre, two of the world's most renowned eaters. The couple whizzed through SPAM� burgers, and Carlene performed her trademark "Carlene bounce," jumping up and down to settle food in her stomach. After the final bell, Rich came out on top, having eaten just more than six 12-ounce SPAM� burgers. Carlene won second place with just under five. When asked about the level of competition, Rich LeFevre said, "I was only worried about Carlene." With the conclusion of the Spamalympics came the awards presentation for the cook-off winners. The Squealage People successfully defended their Worst Taste title with "Queer Pork on a Straight Fork," and the Lone Star Cafe-sponsored Spalamo team won the Best in Show prize for its Alamo-shaped SPAM� appetizers

It's usually held in April.

well, next year then!!

You may want to visit Austin at some point wolfie, it has a lot going on.

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...

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

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 never meant to fool anyone - he just couldn't resist the praise and adulation of the roaring crowd. Lorz was immediately banned for life from any future amateur competition. This ban was lifted a year later allowing him to win the Boston Marathon (we'll assume that he was closely watched). So, if Lorz didn't win, who did? It was a British-born man named Thomas Hicks who ran for the American team. Hicks ran the race in 3:28:53. When he ran into the stadium the crowd was less than enthusiastic. After all, they had already cheered for a winner, even if he had been disqualified. Of course, good little Alice Roosevelt was again ready to pose with the winner. But she couldn't. Hicks had to be carried off of the track. It seems that Hicks had begged to lie down about ten miles from the finish line. Instead, his trainers gave him an oral dose of strychnine sulfate mixed into raw egg white to keep him going. This was not enough - they had to give him several more doses, as well as brandy, along the way. By the end of the race, Hicks had to actually be supported by two of his trainers so that he could cross the finish line (essentially, he was carried over the line with his feet moving back-and-forth). Hicks was very close to death's door. It took four doctor's to get him in good enough shape just to leave the grounds, eventually falling asleep on a trolley. Wait! That's not the end of the story! (can it get any more bizarre?) It seems that another entrant was a Cuban postman named Felix Carvajal. Once Felix heard about the marathon, he announced that he was going to run. He had no money, so he quit his job and went into the fund raising business. He ran around the central square in Havana and jumped on a soapbox pleading for donations. He repeated this several times until he raised the necessary cash. On his way to the race, Felix managed to lose all of his money in a crap game in New Orleans. As a result, he had to hitchhike his way to the games (not an easy thing to do in 1904). When Carvajal arrived at the games, he lacked any type of running gear. The officials were forced to postpone the start of the marathon for several minutes while he cut the sleeves off his shirt and the legs off his pants. He ran the race in lightweight street shoes. During the race, Felix didn't seem to fatigue easily. He constantly conversed with the crowd, even running backwards at times while he spoke to them in broken English. But wait, in keeping with the 1904 tradition it had to get worse for poor Felix: He blew any chance of victory by getting hungry. He first ate some peaches that he stole from a race official. He then took a detour into an orchard to munch on some green apples. Big mistake - he developed stomach cramps and had to temporarily drop out of the marathon. Eventually, Felix got back in the race and managed to come in fourth place. He probably would have won if he had not gotten the munchies. Hold it - the marathon is still not over! The marathon included the first two black Africans to compete in the Olympics - two Zulu tribesman named Lentauw (real name: Len Taunyane)and Yamasani (real name: Jan Mashiani). They wore bibs 35 and 36, respectively. The only problem was that these two tribesmen were not in town to compete in the Olympics - they were actually the sideshow! Yes, they were imported by the exposition as part of the Boer War exhibit (both were really students at Orange Free State in South Africa, but no one wanted to believe that these tribesmen could actually be educated - it would have ruined the whole image). Lentauw finished ninth and Yamasani came in twelfth. This was a disappointment, as many observers were sure Lentauw could have done better - that is if he had not been chased nearly a mile off course by a large, aggressive canine! The marathon was over, but there is still one more little story to go along with this: It seems that two of the patrolling officials driving in a brand-new automobile were forced to swerve to avoid hitting one of the runners - they ended up going down an embankment and were severely injured. In the end, the St. Louis Olympics (along with the previous Paris games) proved to be such a disaster that the Olympic Committee was forced to hold interim Olympic games in 1906 at Athens, in an attempt to revive the flagging Olympic movement. These games were not numbered, but were attended by twenty countries and put the Olympics back on a steady course to success. An interesting useless sidenote: Iced tea made its debut at the 1904 Exposition. It seems that it was so hot during the Expo that the staff at the Far East Tea House couldn't even give away their product. What to do? What to do? Very simple - they poured the hot tea over ice cubes! The drink quickly became the Expo's most popular beverage. And yet another useless fact: A teenager named Arnold Fornachou was selling ice cream at his exposition booth. He ran into a big problem - he ran out of the paper dishes on which to serve the ice cream. In a stroke of genius, he noticed that the guy in the next booth, a Syrian named Ernest Hamwi, was selling waffles. Arnold rolled one of Ernie's wafer-thin waffles up and invented the ice cream cone. Within ten years more than one-third of all ice cream was served in a cone. Useless? Useful? I�ll leave that for you to decide. http://home.nycap.rr.com/useless/st_louis_olympics/

not useless, where would we be without waffle cones and iced tea *licking my jowels in anticipation*

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.

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.

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...

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.

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.

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.

Indians mark "historic moment" By Sara Jean Green Seattle Times WASHINGTON � 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 � 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 � and gaining acknowledgement for the multitude of contributions Indians have made, from food domestication to military service � 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 � and that is a promise we will keep," Small said. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002042767_museum22m.html

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.

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.

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.)

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.

*laugh* I read this one when it first came out and just had to laugh. Thanks for posting it Cheryl!

That's funny.

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/

Thanks for the link, Marcia.

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!

Happy Thanksgiving!

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

It's here.

Welcome Heidi.

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.

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

Check in with at 10 am on 7270 if you get the chance!

Howdy howdy Is that time for weekdays/weekends? Was curious if Bob checks in from Razorback country. 73 de Mike

He checks in more than anyone. He's pretty regular at 10 am on 7270.

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

LOL. Will do

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 .

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).

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

I'm really lookin forward to the fast approching winter soltice. These progressively shorter, short days are really getting to me.

Feels like it was just summer and we're already upon the darkest night.

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 !!

Happy Winter Soltice! Unless you're Rob, in which case, Happy Summer Solstice!

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!

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�tzen 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�tzen 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�tzen. Andrew Whiten, a researcher who studies cultural tradition in chimpanzees at the University of St. Andrews, UK, says the work is very thorough. "Kr�tzen 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�tzen 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�tzen 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�tzen 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�tzen says. http://www.nature.com/news/2005/050606/full/050606-2.html

cool--thanks cheryl!

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 � 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

*laugh*

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!

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. *;)

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!!

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

Bob's in town. We're doing the http://touroftexas.com.

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

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 �1,000, a fortune in those days. Yet due to an economic slump and a UK coal strike an American bought it for only �405. 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