Odd News

[Denny]

Scientists baffled by unusual upper atmosphere shrinkage

(CNN) -- An upper layer of Earth's atmosphere recently shrank so much that researchers are at a loss to adequately explain it, NASA said on Thursday.

The thermosphere, which blocks harmful ultraviolet rays, expands and contracts regularly due to the sun's activities. As carbon dioxide increases, it has a cooling effect at such high altitudes, which also contributes to the contraction.

But even these two factors aren't fully explaining the extraordinary contraction which, though unlikely to affect the weather, can affect the movement of satellites, researchers said.

"This is the biggest contraction of the thermosphere in at least 43 years," John Emmert of the Naval Research Lab was quoted as saying in NASA news report.

[Denny]

Divers Find 200-year Old Champagne In Baltic Wreck

(AP) STOCKHOLM (AP) - Divers have discovered what is thought to be the world's oldest drinkable champagne, fishing a bottle of the centuries-old bubbly from a shipwreck in the Baltic Sea.

Dive instructor Christian Ekstrom says the champagne, believed to be from the 1780's, "tasted fantastic." Ekstrom said Saturday he's "98 percent sure" of the champagne's age, having conferred with experts.

About 30 bottles are believed to remain in the wreckage. Swedish wine expert Carl-Jan Granqvist says each bottle could bring as much as euro50,000 if the corks are intact and the age and authenticity can be proven. Samples have been sent to champagne laboratories in France for testing.

The bottles were discovered Tuesday near the Aland islands, in the Baltic Sea between Finland and Sweden.

[Denny]

Ohio To Test Chia Pet-like Sound Wall On Highway

(AP) CLEVELAND (AP) - Ohio plans to build a sound barrier made out of soil and plants in the state's first eco-friendly attempt at muffling highway noise.

A spokesman for the state transportation department says the 12-foot high wall will be like a Chia Pet: Workers will water bags filled with soil and seeds and watch it grow.

The transportation department says the noise wall will be built this fall. It will span 400 feet along a westbound stretch of Interstate 70 near Columbus.

Wisconsin tried a similar idea. It built a sound wall made out of plastic forms filled with soil and plants, but removed it in 1996 after part of the barrier collapsed and weeds spread.

[I.D.10-t]

I don't understand why this is not more common. Even with existing barriers things like ivy could be planted and allowed to grow. Leaves and grasses absorb sound better and would have the additional benefit of cooling the nearby area better than say a concrete wall, helping to tame some of the temperature extremes that place additional stresses on the road system. It may even help to reduce air pollution.

[dwest]

I don't understand why this is not more common. Even with existing barriers things like ivy could be planted and allowed to grow. Leaves and grasses absorb sound better and would have the additional benefit of cooling the nearby area better than say a concrete wall, helping to tame some of the temperature extremes that place additional stresses on the road system. It may even help to reduce air pollution.

The most important innovations may come from road surface changes to reduce traffic noise. It requires a substantial amount of living biomass to effectively absorb sound, most right of ways for sound walls lack sufficient space. Unfortunately both federal and state departments of transportation's have a long and inglorious history of introducing the most invasive plants of any other organizations in the USA. Ivy(Hedera helix) is one that has received a great boost in introduction to new and unsuspecting habitats nationwide due to various DOTs efforts, they don't even like it in England.

[hans]

Plans to extend America's Appalachian Trail to Africa

"Why not... persuade people with strong thighs and a very great deal of time on their hands to stroll all the way from Georgia to the Atlas Mountains, north of the Sahara?"

[dwest]

Plans to extend America's Appalachian Trail to Africa

"Why not... persuade people with strong thighs and a very great deal of time on their hands to stroll all the way from Georgia to the Atlas Mountains, north of the Sahara?"

Appalachian Trail to leap abroad toward Morocco

TOWNSHIP 5, RANGE 8, Maine —

First, there was the Appalachian Trail, which winds 2,175 miles along the mountainous spine of the eastern United States. Then came the International Appalachian Trail, stretching the AT's northern end in Maine to the edge of Canada's Maritime Provinces, where Vikings long ago landed.

Now they're extending the walk: across the Atlantic to western Europe, where the mountain chain's other half loops south to Morocco.

One needs strong knees too, all that down hill really hurts the knees after awhile.

[hans]

oops, I missed Denny's earlier post. So they are serious and working at it! It disconcerts me a little to think of the beloved Scottish mountains as being an extension of the Appalachians.... but we ought to think big, and geologists have the right mindset for this. - I hope those trail walkers will be able to travel by longboat and pick up some Viking seafaring skills on the way.

[dwest]

oops, I missed Denny's earlier post. So they are serious and working at it! It disconcerts me a little to think of the beloved Scottish mountains as being an extension of the Appalachians.... but we ought to think big, and geologists have the right mindset for this. - I hope those trail walkers will be able to travel by longboat and pick up some Viking seafaring skills on the way.

Just don't think of them as the Scottish Mountains, they're really the eastern edge of the Greenland Shield, which in turn is just the northern most part of New England. That's right those mountains are our mountains. There will be a knarrr leaving L'Anse aux Meadows every week to carry hikers to Far Eastern North America(EU) during the summer month.

[crookedtune]

I'm making no editorial comment whatsoever.

http://newsfeed.time.com/2010/07/20/bla ... rl/?hpt=C2

[Denny]

Breaching whale crash-lands on sailboat

(CNN) -- A sailor has described her "miraculous" escape after a whale leapt out of the water and crash-landed on the deck of her boat off the coast of South Africa.

Paloma Werner, 50, of the Cape Town Sailing Academy, and her partner Ralph Mothes had been watching the whale from a distance in Table Bay, near Cape Town harbor, when it moved toward their 10-meter vessel and breached 20 meters away.

[Denny]

Stonehenge Discovery: New Monument Found Nearby

(AP) Archaeologists have made a new find near Stonehenge - another ceremonial monument only a few hundred yards (meters) from the stone circle.

Scientists from Britain as well as teams from Austria, Germany, Norway and Sweden made the new discovery at the start of a new project to map the site.

They found a second henge-like structure - a circular area thought to have once held a wooden structure.

[Denny]

Breaching whale crash-lands on sailboat

(CNN) -- A sailor has described her "miraculous" escape after a whale leapt out of the water and crash-landed on the deck of her boat off the coast of South Africa.

Paloma Werner, 50, of the Cape Town Sailing Academy, and her partner Ralph Mothes had been watching the whale from a distance in Table Bay, near Cape Town harbor, when it moved toward their 10-meter vessel and breached 20 meters away.

pictures

[mutepointe]

[Denny]

did ya get a special case price?