45°26'•0N 12°19'•4E ,
Mood : CONTEMPLATING.
21.06. 2012
I have also learnt more about the technology of this web-page. So if you go with your cursor onto HOME, you can see a sub-page appearing where I intend to store previous home-pages. Just as a nostalgic notion rather than a concerned meaning. As if anybody these days is interested in history.
ENJOY ! |
EDITOR'S REFLECTIONSDear Reader,this is the second edition of the Munch report, and your editor is still alive and kicking. Since the release of the first report I had a number of positive feedbacks, 2 actually, which encourage me greatly to release more of what the world never needed to hear from a hobby-cosmologist / biologist and sailor. Here we are, NOBODY IS PERFECT.
Then you still have me as the - INTERPRETER OF OZ - Master Mike or Michele di Venezia, writing the blogs in Atlantic Adventures. A sideline of mine which hopefully will not lead to mid-ocean crisis and despair for me, but fun and marine curiosity for you. There are not many people in the world who try to work out whether whales in particular accept maritime law and let you pass first when you meet them whilst coming from the right hand side. But then the law only puts you 'on stand-by' anyway, ie if the whale doesn't know, or doesn't want to know, or has a bad plankton day that day and is in a bad mood, or feels he is much bigger than your little sailing boat, then you - although coming from the right - are obliged to make the correct manoeuvre to avoid the crash. Gosh, life can be so simple ! But is that a reason to kill these beautiful creatures ? I mean you don't torpedo the big tankers either, although they often show a similar pattern of disregard for the maritime law as the whales do. SORRY,SORRY ! OF COURSE ALL TANKERS ABIDE BY INTERNATIONAL LAW !
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HOW DID THE CROCODILES SURVIVE OVER A PERIOD OF 55 MILLIONS Of YEARS ??
September 2011,London
A PERFECT GOOD-NIGHT STORY FOR ALL THOSE WHO DO NOT BELIEVE ANYMORE IN THE TOOTH FAIRY !
I found the other day a crocodile on my breakfast table, and I was thinking how old it might be. The species that is. And you will be surprised because crocodiles appeared first during what the scientists refer to as the Eocene Epoch, some 55 million years ago.
I repeat : 55 million years ago ! If I had been around at that time , it would have probably been me being on their breakfast table.
Anyway, don't you wonder how they have been able to survive to this very day-as a species that is — with so many changes on earth and in the universe ?For all those answer-seekers.......
I had a dream : HOW DID THE CROCODILE SPECIES SURVIVE ? So here it goes :
Many millions of years ago the earth was hot. Not as the opposite to what my son says is 'cool', but hot as in hot. Volcanos all over, lava, geysers, you name it, whatever can make the climate hot, they had it. But some of the crocodiles realised that something was changing. Slowly at first though, but surely changing.Somehow the air was getting slightly cooler, only by margin, but they felt it. Also that some of the volcanos became less active, not spewing anymore so much ash into the sky, which suddenly became less toxic, and lighter in colour. So some crocodile leaders said: Let's save our earth from doom, let's meet and discuss. They met in a location called RIOMIO. And they discussed strategy and concluded that the earth would start to cool down over the years to come, and so badly and rapidly, that even some parts of the green land might be covered with snow and ice. That really scared them. So a sub-committee that was charged with discussing countermeasures, came up with the one and only strategy: We must increase greenhouse gases as they will warm up the existing climate, and so maintain the current status quo. Of course technology was limited at that time , so they decided on the only measure that was available to them :
FARTING !
Now, let's interrupt here for a moment and talk about some farting facts. The earth's surface would be roughly 33° centigrades on average cooler than without the release of greenhouse gases. 98% of these gases have a natural source. That does not mean we are not responsible for releasing them, for example through hacking down and burning the rainforest in Brazil ( releases carbon dioxide ) . But opposite to public belief that Flatulence - the expulsion through the rectum of mammals and other animals — is the single largest contributor from a natural source to greenhouse gases in form of methane, it isn't actually. While livestock , specifically cattle, account for roughy 20% of global methane emissions, 95% of that is through exhaling or burping ! New Zealand has been trying to reduce these emissions in the wake of the Kyoto Protocol through a levy , with the result that it became widely known as the Fart Tax ! Isn't there always a smart guy ?
Anyway, methane — which has increased since the industrial revolution relatively more than the release of carbon-dioxide — can be regarded as a more aggressive gas. An average cow is thought to emit between 540 litres and 600 litres of methane per day through belching ( burping) , making it a major contributor to the greenhouse effect.
Only kangaroos don't belch!
Environmentalist and green politicians take note, if you want to save the world,this might finally work :WHY DON'T WE DROP CATTLE AND ONLY EAT KANGAROOS ? As a side-effect, Australia might be grateful, and New Zealand could finally stop laughing.
Now let's go back to my dream, and let me assure you that any comparisons between my dream and today's life is pure accidental and un-intentional.
When they came back home, the crocodiles, they farted and farted. Of course some more than others, some were asked by their crocodile wife or girlfriend, or else, not to do it for the sake of their families and communities, others did not believe that farting was the right answer,so whatever it was,when they met again in a far place called Kyotomoto, they realised, that not all crocodile communities had farted as much as required. As a consequence they discussed quotas. Some larger crocodiles, together with their pond, should fart more than others, etc etc. But of course some of these bigger ones objected, saying: It's not fair, and anyway,over time it starts hurting ,you know.
Before my imagination carries me away at this point, and I might start to sound unreasonable, let's cut a long story short: There were many more farting meetings and even contests in other places, and I start wondering where and when the breakthrough was..........
When I woke up, I was sitting at the breakfast table looking out of the window, it was the beginning of June, and it was raining and cold. No volcano in sight. But the crocodile on the table as much as its species was still around ! Unbelievable, I thought, how can that be after all what happened over 55 million years of climate change.
And whilst I was listening to all the gloom of the weather report , I started contemplating : should I or shouldn't I .......?
I found the other day a crocodile on my breakfast table, and I was thinking how old it might be. The species that is. And you will be surprised because crocodiles appeared first during what the scientists refer to as the Eocene Epoch, some 55 million years ago.
I repeat : 55 million years ago ! If I had been around at that time , it would have probably been me being on their breakfast table.
Anyway, don't you wonder how they have been able to survive to this very day-as a species that is — with so many changes on earth and in the universe ?For all those answer-seekers.......
I had a dream : HOW DID THE CROCODILE SPECIES SURVIVE ? So here it goes :
Many millions of years ago the earth was hot. Not as the opposite to what my son says is 'cool', but hot as in hot. Volcanos all over, lava, geysers, you name it, whatever can make the climate hot, they had it. But some of the crocodiles realised that something was changing. Slowly at first though, but surely changing.Somehow the air was getting slightly cooler, only by margin, but they felt it. Also that some of the volcanos became less active, not spewing anymore so much ash into the sky, which suddenly became less toxic, and lighter in colour. So some crocodile leaders said: Let's save our earth from doom, let's meet and discuss. They met in a location called RIOMIO. And they discussed strategy and concluded that the earth would start to cool down over the years to come, and so badly and rapidly, that even some parts of the green land might be covered with snow and ice. That really scared them. So a sub-committee that was charged with discussing countermeasures, came up with the one and only strategy: We must increase greenhouse gases as they will warm up the existing climate, and so maintain the current status quo. Of course technology was limited at that time , so they decided on the only measure that was available to them :
FARTING !
Now, let's interrupt here for a moment and talk about some farting facts. The earth's surface would be roughly 33° centigrades on average cooler than without the release of greenhouse gases. 98% of these gases have a natural source. That does not mean we are not responsible for releasing them, for example through hacking down and burning the rainforest in Brazil ( releases carbon dioxide ) . But opposite to public belief that Flatulence - the expulsion through the rectum of mammals and other animals — is the single largest contributor from a natural source to greenhouse gases in form of methane, it isn't actually. While livestock , specifically cattle, account for roughy 20% of global methane emissions, 95% of that is through exhaling or burping ! New Zealand has been trying to reduce these emissions in the wake of the Kyoto Protocol through a levy , with the result that it became widely known as the Fart Tax ! Isn't there always a smart guy ?
Anyway, methane — which has increased since the industrial revolution relatively more than the release of carbon-dioxide — can be regarded as a more aggressive gas. An average cow is thought to emit between 540 litres and 600 litres of methane per day through belching ( burping) , making it a major contributor to the greenhouse effect.
Only kangaroos don't belch!
Environmentalist and green politicians take note, if you want to save the world,this might finally work :WHY DON'T WE DROP CATTLE AND ONLY EAT KANGAROOS ? As a side-effect, Australia might be grateful, and New Zealand could finally stop laughing.
Now let's go back to my dream, and let me assure you that any comparisons between my dream and today's life is pure accidental and un-intentional.
When they came back home, the crocodiles, they farted and farted. Of course some more than others, some were asked by their crocodile wife or girlfriend, or else, not to do it for the sake of their families and communities, others did not believe that farting was the right answer,so whatever it was,when they met again in a far place called Kyotomoto, they realised, that not all crocodile communities had farted as much as required. As a consequence they discussed quotas. Some larger crocodiles, together with their pond, should fart more than others, etc etc. But of course some of these bigger ones objected, saying: It's not fair, and anyway,over time it starts hurting ,you know.
Before my imagination carries me away at this point, and I might start to sound unreasonable, let's cut a long story short: There were many more farting meetings and even contests in other places, and I start wondering where and when the breakthrough was..........
When I woke up, I was sitting at the breakfast table looking out of the window, it was the beginning of June, and it was raining and cold. No volcano in sight. But the crocodile on the table as much as its species was still around ! Unbelievable, I thought, how can that be after all what happened over 55 million years of climate change.
And whilst I was listening to all the gloom of the weather report , I started contemplating : should I or shouldn't I .......?