I Didn't Know That

[Ann]

I just heard that in Pajala in northern Sweden, north of the Arctic Circle, the "vegetation season", the time of the year when it is warm enough for plants to grow, is two and a half weeks longer now than it was in 1960.

The picture can be found here.

And here is another of my "linked images" that already exist on the net. It shows you the location of Pajala versus the Arctic Circle. (There is a lot of barely legible information that comes with the image. Ignore it.)























Ann

[Beyond]

I found an 84 pound salmon to go with the giant lobster i posted earlier.
Unfortunately you can't eat this one either, as it was released. So just put the tartar sauce back in the fridge.

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/r ... d=obinsite

[bystander]

Tartar sauce on salmon? Probably just as well they released it. You probably use steak sauce on steak, too.

[Beyond]

Actually, i don't like any of that add-on stuff. BLAH!! But a lot of people do.

[Beyond]

If anyone ever needs a helping hand, call on this guy. He's got 6-digits on each hand and foot!!
He climbs trees and gets the coconuts for a living.
It's a good thing he doesn't need gloves!

[Ann]

He's a handy guy, indeed! What a shame they don't make gloves for him!

Here is a guy who hasn't got too many body parts but too few, but he is doing splendidly with what he has got...


Oscar Pistorius, a double amputee from South Africa, has just qualified for the semi final of the 400 meter sprint in the World Championships in South Korea. The regular World Championships, not the Paralympics.


Some people have argued that Pistorius' metal "running legs" are so efficent that they are an advantage to him, not a drawback. So everybody would run faster with Pistorius' kind of legs, then? All I know is that I wouldn't cut off my legs in order to run like Oscar Pistorius!



Ann

[makc]

blue whals may be largest animals alive, but they sure aint largest living beings. shrooms grow as large as 8800000 square meters in america and 350000 square meters in europe. err wait... I'm gonnabe censoresd again for shizzle. welll, their burden

[neufer]

General Sherman

---

blue whales may be largest animals alive,
but they sure aint largest living beings.

At 30 metres in length and 180 metric tons or more in weight, the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is the largest known animal to have ever existed.

<<The General Sherman is a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) tree located in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in Tulare County, California. At 1,910 metric tons, it is the largest known living single stem tree on Earth.
The General Sherman Tree is neither the tallest known living tree on Earth (that distinction belongs to the Hyperion tree, a Coast redwood), nor is it the widest (that distinction belongs to the Sunland Baobab, a baobab tree), nor is it the oldest known living tree on Earth (that distinction belongs to the Methuselah tree, a Great Basin bristlecone pine). With a height of 83.8 metres, a diameter of 7.7 metres, an estimated bole volume of 1,487 cubic metres, and an estimated age of 2,300 – 2,700 years, it is however among the tallest, widest and longest-lived of all trees on the planet.>>

[Ann]

Thanks, Art, that's an amazing picture. And an amazing tree, to be sure.

I have to post another kind of an amazing image, although it's a small one. I read in a newspaper about a small Cessna plane whose pilot was forced to make an emergency landing on a residential street of a German town, Stockstadt am Main. Apparently, the landing was quite successful, although one house was nicked and a streetlamp was cut down. The pilot and his passenger were brought to hospital for treatment of minor injuries. No one elese was hurt.

As you can see, the street was barely broader than the wingspan of the Cessna.


Ann

[Beyond]

General Sherman

---

blue whales may be largest animals alive,
but they sure aint largest living beings.

At 30 metres in length and 180 metric tons or more in weight, the blue whale (Balaenoptera musculus) is the largest known animal to have ever existed.

<<The General Sherman is a giant sequoia (Sequoiadendron giganteum) tree located in the Giant Forest of Sequoia National Park in Tulare County, California. At 1,910 metric tons, it is the largest known living single stem tree on Earth.
The General Sherman Tree is neither the tallest known living tree on Earth (that distinction belongs to the Hyperion tree, a Coast redwood), nor is it the widest (that distinction belongs to the Sunland Baobab, a baobab tree), nor is it the oldest known living tree on Earth (that distinction belongs to the Methuselah tree, a Great Basin bristlecone pine). With a height of 83.8 metres, a diameter of 7.7 metres, an estimated bole volume of 1,487 cubic metres, and an estimated age of 2,300 – 2,700 years, it is however among the tallest, widest and longest-lived of all trees on the planet.>>

Just to the right of the base of the tree, behind what looks like a rock, it looks like ET is starting to point his finger at the General Sherman. Ya think maybe he's spotted a bit of tree rot or something

[geckzilla]

Have you ever been to Sequoia Forest, Beyond? It's amazing! There are several old trees one can walk inside of. Living specimens, even. I've always wondered why exactly the inside of some of them becomes hollow. It's usually blackened. Fire survivors? Struck by lightning? Disease?

[Beyond]

Nope. Never been there. I've only seen pictures. A long time ago i saw a picture of one that a road (dirt) ran through. A 'tunnel' was cut through a big one, so the cars just drove right though it. I think the picture showed something like a model A sitting in the tunnel. I don't know if that particular tree is still standing or not. They don't treat the trees like that anymore.
As to the ones that become hollow inside, i wonder how long they let them stand before they think they will be a safety hazzard and cut them down? That's a lotta tree to all of a sudden just snap and fall!

[Ann]

This summer I listened to a tree expert - I forget what these people are called, even in Swedish - who said that when trees begin to die, they die from the inside out. And that is why old trees become hollow.

Ann

[bystander]

tree expert - I forget what these people are called,

arborist, or arboriculturalist.

[Ann]

tree expert - I forget what these people are called,

arborist, or arboriculturalist.

http://www.thefreedictionary.com/arborist wrote:

Noun 1. arborist - a specialist in treating damaged trees
tree surgeon

So an arborist is a person who, basically, cuts off branches from trees.

I found, however, this on the net at this site:

Arborist meaning one who studies and considers a tree as an individual.

Arboriculturist meaning one who studies and considers trees in, or as, a group.

Arboriculturalist meaning one who studies or promotes arboriculture in its own right.

So I guess the word is arboriculturalist, although the word appears to be missing from many dictionaries.

Thanks, bystander.

Ann

[bystander]

My mistake, I should have said arboriculturist, not arborculturalist.

In the US, arborist and arboriculturist are pretty much synonymous. Arborist is prefererred for obvious reasons.

Arboriculture focuses of the cultivation of individual trees. Forestry focuses on the management of the forest environment. A forester specializes in forestry. Silvology is the science or study of forests and woodlands. Maybe the word you were looking for is silvologist.

[Beyond]

Oldest woolly rhino discovered. Oldest I didn't know that there was such a thing in the first place http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14754317

[Ann]

Dad, I want an animal! A woolly one!

Sure, son, I know just the right one for you...










Ann

[orin stepanek]

Oldest woolly rhino discovered. Oldest I didn't know that there was such a thing in the first place http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-14754317

I can't imagine a rhino living around Ice and snow. I guess if you don't wear clothes; you need to grow hair.

[Beyond]

How about a 21-foot (6.4m) Crocodile? It's not woolly, but it's got lots of big teeth, and weights about a ton. That's a lot of Croc
http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.acti ... 4980171998

[orin stepanek]

How about a 21-foot (6.4m) Crocodile? It's not woolly, but it's got lots of big teeth, and weights about a ton. That's a lot of Croc
http://news.gather.com/viewArticle.acti ... 4980171998

I'm glad I live in an area where the climate is such that I don't have to deal with them.

[Ann]

In Malmö, the only crocs we have are really small ones in the terrarium of our amusement park.

Click to view full size image

The amusement park also has wallabies, which are incredibly cute and much cuter than you'd think from looking at the only authentic picture of a wallaby from Malmö that I could find on the web:




The amusement park also has giant turtles, which have been infatuated with each other all summer:

Click to view full size image

And a week ago or so, the amusement park had seven little turtle babies - or were there eleven on them?

If you go to this page you can see a video, unfortunately all in Swedish, about the newborn turtle babies.

Hey, this is nowhere near as interesting as the super crocodile, but...

Ann

[neufer]

The [Malmö] amusement park also has giant turtles, which have been infatuated with each other all summer:

And a week ago or so, the amusement park had seven little turtle babies - or were there eleven on them?

If you do need to post something risqué, stick with arcane scientific terminology.

[Beyond]

I managed to find a still shot of the monster Croc. risque' can be rather risky. Getting to close to this BIG fella, when untied, is RISKY!!

[Beyond]

2-minute video of Guinness shortest and tallest(standing up) dog current record holders. The shortest is 4-inches high, and is named Boo-Boo. The tallest is over 7-feet, standing up.http://www.guinnessworldrecords.com/sma ... -(height)/