texascavers Digest 22 Sep 2009 04:36:45 -0000 Issue 857
Topics (messages 12131 through 12144):
more cave video games
12131 by: David
on-line caving video related
12132 by: David
music performances at commercial caves
12133 by: David
upcoming cave related movie
12134 by: David
Re: UT Elementary School
12135 by: Mark Alman
Re: Countries with the most surveyed underground passages?
12136 by: Mark Minton
Italian 'cave dweller' Montalbini dead at 56 :
12137 by: JerryAtkin.aol.com
Norm Pace on Science Friday
12138 by: Mark Minton
WNS Science Strategy Proceedings Available
12139 by: Mark Minton
12142 by: Mark Minton
Moths Jam Bats' Sonar
12140 by: Mark Minton
Thanksgiving Laguna de Sanchez expedition
12141 by: Jim Kennedy
Speleotruck related
12143 by: David
Hanglider goes caving
12144 by: David
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Here is a link to an on-line video game:
http://www.tbam.com.ar/play--caverns.php
You play it by moving the arrow key and click on the boxes
on the menu.
There are Pacman-like cave critters crawling around.
That was as far as I got.
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--- Begin Message ---
Here is an interesting diving video:
http://www.mefeedia.com/entry/ressel-09-2008-cave-diving-on-x-scooter/23443011
Click on the full-screen toggle box.
It looks good on a big monitor.
They added sound, music and text to the video
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This is probably old news to some of you:
http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=252287&SecID=2
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http://www.spartaexpositor.com/articles/2009/09/08/news/doc4aa65e3142c99032257011.txt
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Anyone in the Austin area interested in helping these folks out?
Please get back with me, if so.
Thanks,
Mark
Sent: Friday, September 18, 2009 9:35:36 AM
Subject: UT Elementary School
Hi, my name is Danielle Zibilski and I am a science teacher at The University
of Texas Elementary School. We are a charter school located in East Austin that
primarily serves low income families. (We are a Title One School) I am
organizing scientist/presenters to come to our school. We are hosting a Science
Exhibition Week at our school October 26-30. We will be focusing all of our
activities and learning around science. I am looking for speakers/presenters
that can come share their expertise with our students. If you are willing to
volunteer your time at our school please get back with so that we include you
in our schedule and discuss what your presentation may look like. Also, if you
know of other contacts that may be willing to participate in something like
this please feel free to forward this on or send me their information so that I
may get in touch with them. I look forward to establishing a great relationship
between you and our amazing school.
Sincerely,
Danielle Zibilski
PS-If this week isn’t available for you we would love to still find a way to
include you in our science program. We can discuss a day later in the school
year that may work better.
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--- Begin Message ---
Fofo,
Very interesting, but there's got to be something wrong with
your entry for France. If France has 43 caves longer than 15 km,
then it must have way more surveyed passage than the 23,266 m you
gave. Just two such caves would give at least 30,000 m, and 43 would
give a minimum of 645,000 m. Checking Bob Gulden's long cave list
<http://www.caverbob.com/wlong.htm> shows that the longest cave in
France is 105767 m by itself (Reseau Felix Trombe / Henne-Morte). I
didn't take the time to add them all up, but perhaps you dropped a
digit or two.
I think this would make a good article for the NSS News!
Mark Minton
Hi!
A few days ago there was a question in the Spanish language list
Tlamaqui about which country had the most surveyed passages in the
world, so as a quick estimate I took the list of caves with more
than 15,000 m and grouped it by country. Bill Mixon found the
information interesting and suggested posting it here too. Here it is.
By surveyed length (in meters, only for caves with more than 15,000 m):
3,512,792 U.S.A.
1,108,194 Spain
950,217 Mexico
756,530 Austria
492,463 Switzerland
459,558 China
416,831 Ukraine
360,890 United Kingdom
323,901 Malaysia
310,133 Italy
239,000 Cuba
185,890 Brazil
183,103 Australia
173,821 Romania
135,065 Russia
126,800 Papua New Guinea
90,200 Moldova/Ukraine
76,401 New Zealand
74,134 Slovakia
70,668 India
57,000 Turkmenistan
56,000 Belize
36,010 Puerto Rico
34,600 Venezuela
32,500 Czech Rep.
24,080 Georgia
23,916 Hungary/Slovakia
23,700 Japan
23,620 Poland
23,266 France
21,814 Norway
21,000 Philippines
20,718 Canada
20,570 Slovenia
18,400 Algeria
18,400 Morocco
18,200 Indonesia
18,100 Madagascar
18,000 Bulgaria
16,396 Croatia
16,000 Belgium
15,100 Ethiopia
15,000 Ireland
And by number of caves with more than 15,000 m:
76 U.S.A.
43 France
28 Spain
20 Mexico
18 Austria
13 China
11 Italy
10 United Kingdom
7 Cuba
7 Romania
6 Switzerland
6 Malaysia
5 Ukraine
5 Brazil
4 Australia
4 Papua New Guinea
3 Slovakia
3 India
3 Russia
2 Belize
2 Puerto Rico
2 New Zealand
2 Venezuela
1 Belgium
1 Indonesia
1 Slovenia
1 Morocco
1 Algeria
1 Ethiopia
1 Ireland
1 Madagascar
1 Bulgaria
1 Croatia
1 Moldova/Ukraine
1 Georgia
1 Hungary/Slovakia
1 Turkmenistan
1 Czech Rep.
1 Japan
1 Philippines
1 Canada
1 Poland
1 Norway
Have a great weekend! I'm off to the mountains.
- Fofo
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Italian 'cave dweller' Montalbini dead at 56
ROME — Italian sociologist Maurizio Montalbini, who spent months dwelling
in caves to study how the mind and body cope with complete isolation, has
died at 56.
Montalbini died of a heart attack Saturday while in a mountain hamlet near
the central Italian town of Macerata, said Guido Galvagno, a longtime
colleague. Galvagno said the death did not appear connected to Montalbini's
record-breaking cave stays.
Montalbini spent a total of two years and eight months underground since he
started his experiments in the 1980s, according to a biography on his Web
site.
In 1987 he claimed his first world record after spending 210 days alone in
a cave in the Apennine mountains. A year later he led an international team
of 14 spelunkers, including three women, to take the world group record
with an underground stay of 48 days.
During his endurance experiments Montalbini subsisted mostly on a
high-calorie diet of powdered foods and pills similar to those used by
astronauts
on space flights. Scientists on the outside monitored him through
instruments.
Montalbini's biography says his experiments were done in collaboration with
NASA and top universities worldwide. They yielded insights on the effects
of long-term isolation including weight loss, changes in the perception of
time and in the sleep and menstrual cycles.
For the sociologist, who worked with drug addicts before turning to
spelunking, the experiments were also a personal challenge of willpower and
endurance.
"One cannot fight solitude, one must make a friend of it," he said after
his 1987 exploit. "I succeeded in doing this. I carried everything inside me
for seven months - affections, convictions, ideals."
Montalbini broke his solo cave-sitting record in 1993 by living a year and
one day in an underground base built to study the reactions of individuals
and crews on simulated space missions.
In his last experiment, which ran through 2006 and 2007, Montalbini spent
235 days in the base built in the Apennine "Grotta Fredda" (Cold Cave).
Montalbini, who had no children, is survived by his wife, Galvagno said.
_http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iStdd5Es3GPzK-bsoZQCwsdh7
-zAD9AR2T980_
(http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5iStdd5Es3GPzK-bsoZQCwsdh7-zAD9AR2T980)
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Last week's NPR show Science Friday featured a discussion
with well-known caver and microbiologist Norm Pace about microbes in
shower heads. Although this show was not cave related, Norm has been
involved in extremophile research over the years. The show is
available for download at
<http://www.sciencefriday.com/program/archives/200909181>.
Mark Minton
You may reply to [email protected]
Permanent email address is [email protected]
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Proceedings of the Second WNS Science Strategy Conference,
which took place May 27-28 in Austin, Texas, are now available:
<http://www.batcon.org/pdfs/whitenose/WNS2FinalReport.pdf>http://www.batcon.org/pdfs/whitenose/WNS2FinalReport.pdf
Mark Minton
You may reply to [email protected]
Permanent email address is [email protected]
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--- Begin Message ---
Bob Griffith said:
Every time I see something aoout "developing a possible vaccine" to
combat WVN [WNS?] I want to scream "What idiot came up with
that?". There is no vaccine to treat life threatening fungal
diseases in humans. What makes these people think some
pharmaceutical firm (or anyone else) is going to develop a vaccine
to treat a fungal infection of bats?
Maybe not a vaccine, but just today I heard an interesting
program on the radio about a fungal infection that is killing frogs
worldwide. So far the best counterattack seems to be bacteria that
kill the fungus but don't hurt the frogs. Surely this is known to
bat researchers. The radio segment is
here:
<http://www.withgoodreasonradio.org/2009/09/the-courtship-of-barking-frogs/>.
See also the Companion Feature at the bottom of the page. If you
Google 'frog fungus bacteria' you'll get lots of hits, but here is a
good
introduction: <http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/06/080604104404.htm>.
Mark Minton
You may reply to [email protected]
Permanent email address is [email protected]
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--- Begin Message ---
Here's an interesting piece about how some moths can escape
from bats by jamming their
sonar: <http://www.sciencefriday.com/videos/watch/10229>.
Mark Minton
You may reply to [email protected]
Permanent email address is [email protected]
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Greetings, friends. I apologize if some of you get this more than once, but I
wanted to make sure that some of the people who have been on past trips, those
who expressed an interest about future trips, and those of you whom I think
might enjoy one of these trips got the message, and I don't know who all is or
is not subscribed to CaveTex.
Our next trip to the Laguna de Sanchez area in Nuevo León, Mexico, is 21-28
November. We will be camping at La Camotera the whole time. There are still
at least 12-15 unsurveyed caves there, and literally dozens of sinkholes and
leads to be explored for additional caves. The main purpose of this trip is to
finish some uncompleted cave surveys and continue surveying in all the new
caves. None of the caves are huge and long, but there are a lot of them, and
it is an incredibly beautiful place. Most of the caves have some short
(generally 20-25m) pits, but there are scattered caves that are horizontal or
free-climbable. The deepest drop is the nice open-air pit entrance to El
Infierno de la Camotera at 55m.
Laguna de Sanchez is about an hour and a half or so south of Monterrey and up
into the mountains. There is a paved road the entire way to LdeS, but you need
a high ground clearance vehicle to continue from LdeS to La Camotera.
Tone Garot and I are working on a Project website in our spare time. A rough
early version temporarily resides on Tone's site at www.garot.com/LdeS. Check
it out for some additional information.
The main purpose of this email is so I can start putting together a participant
list and begin working on the logistics. We will be mainly limited by rugged
vehicle availability. Note that you also need to have your paperwork in order
for crossing the border. If you don't have it yet, there is still time to
apply for and receive a passport if you get on the ball. If you think you are
interested in participating on this trip, fire me back an email sometime this
week and let me know. I will start an email list of respondents and send out
more information as we get closer and closer to the trip dates. Camping is
primitive, and we take our own water or buy extra in LdeS. We usually do group
meals to save time, fuel, and cleanup. I'll spare most of you additional
details, but there will be lots of info for those of you who sign up. Oh, and
did I mention the beautiful scenery, the oak-pine forest, and the 1500m
(5000-foot) elevation?
I am really looking forward to this trip! I hope you can make it.
-- Jim "Crash" Kennedy
[email protected]
512-663-2287 cell
Confidentiality Note: This email and any attachment to it are confidential and
protected by law and intended for the use of the individual(s) or entity named
on the email. If the reader of this message is not the intended recipient, you
are hereby notified that any dissemination or distribution of this
communication is prohibited. If you have received this communication in error,
please notify the sender via return email and delete it completely from your
email system. If you have printed a copy of the email, please destroy it
immediately. Thank you
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--- Begin Message ---
This post is about a truck I saw sitting at the dealer:
______________________________________________________________
I just saw a new Toyota Tundra "Rock Warrior" edition.
( This one was the CrewMax model which has colossal room in the
rear seating area. )
It was $ 46,500, of which $ 3,300 gets you the Rock Warrior package.
It was a 2009 model.
I surfed the web looking for a truck like the one I saw and could not
find a good example. I had never seen "this model" before, and I
didn't see any "specific" reviews on the web.
It "sort of resembles" the photos below, except with 33 inch off-road
tires on 17 inch
rims, and a few more inches of ground clearance ( dealer lift-kit ? ),
and a heavy-duty step-rail along the side, ( not a rock-rail ).
http://images6.ecarlist.com/photos/1738/88073/640/00.jpg
http://photos.leftlanenews.com/photos/cars/imageresizeronfly/phpThumb.php?src=/photos/cars/toyota/toyota-tundra-crewmax-3.jpg
http://photos.leftlanenews.com/photos/cars/imageresizeronfly/phpThumb.php?src=/photos/cars/toyota/toyota-tundra-crewmax-1.jpg
It had a big "Rock Warrior" label on the bed, which you pay a whole
lot of money for.
The truck I looked at, which probably had some dealer added
accessories was impressive looking.
However, the plastic skirt on the front was cheezier than on their
regular 4x4 model, so there is likely an option to fix that defect.
( Most off-roaders will immediately remove it, before they go anywhere.)
The rear tow connection is called "integrated hitch connection." It
hung low and
would not be good for off-roading, and removing it looked very difficult and
very impractical. Looked ideal for towing something really big and heavy.
There are only 2 skid plates, one under the front approach angle, and the other
on the bottom of the plastic gas tank, but they were just thin metal sheets.
There was not enough skid plating, like what you would expect on a
real off-road vehicle.
It has large rear disc brakes. What do you think about rear disc
brakes on a Speleotruck ?
It had a sticker that said "Made in Texas," on the rear window, and an
large green E85 badge on the
tailgate.
Although it had nearly 11 inches or more of ground clearance, it was so long
that the middle would be dragging on all kinds of humps on a good off-road
drive, like going up to Conrado Castillo.
If I ever can afford another truck, I would like one to take up into
the remote areas of the Sierra
Madres; however, I can't imagine doing that in a truck that I owe $
46,000 plus on.
Here are some possible specs for the off-roaders:
Axle ratio: 4.30:1
Transfer case low range: 2.618:1
Crawl ratio: 37.52:1 ( six-speed automatic )
I think you the electronic roll-down rear window is standard, and
there is also an optional sun-roof.
I think the rear seats recline, so rear passengers can snooze comfortably.
The truck I saw probably only got 10 mpg on a good day.
Personally, if I had $ 46,000 plus to spend on a truck, I would want a
nicer truck,
but the one that I saw was one of the finer looking trucks I have ever
laid my eyes on,
and some of the defects could be fixed with money.
The off-road forums have said the "Rock Warrior" label is just
marketing hype and
should be called "Pavement Warrior." I agree with that, but still
would like one.
It would not be fair to review this truck and not mention that Dodge
has had a similar
and much more rugged truck on the market for at least 2 years, the
2007 Dodge PowerWagon,
which had a much better off-road package. But I haven't seen one
of those on the road in
a long time. And the Powerwagon did not come in the luxurious
Tundra CrewMax trim.
http://carphotos.cardomain.com/ride_images/3/1345/2801/28361400053_large.jpg
David Locklear
Ref:
http://www.fourwheeler.com/roadtests/129_0908_2010_toyota_tundra_v8_engine_review/index.html
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The attached video clip is interesting.
It starts with a advertisement clip.
Click on full screen once the cave video starts
http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid28096224001?bctid=41247273001
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