New Europeana digital library, museum, archive

Soon after europeana.eu launched yesterday on November 20, the site was overwhelmed with 10 million hits an hour and crashed!! They will re-open in mid-December with a more robust version.

The European Union's new Europeana digital library, museum and archive, an online collection of Europe's cultural heritage, allows access to more than 2 million digital objects such as films, paintings, photographs, sound recordings, maps, manuscripts, newspapers, documents and books. Europeana will be available in all 23 official European languages.

This started as a 2-year project in July 2007. The digital content is selected from that already digitized and available in Europe's museums, libraries, archives and audio-visual collections. By 2010, the Europeana portal intends to give everyone direct access to well over 6 million digital items.

Until its mid-December re-opening, Europeana.eu (link here) has its project development site online.

Canada's Mount Logan is growing!

Mount Logan, Canada's tallest mountain, on the Yukon-Alaska border, view from the southwest. Photo from Wikimedia Commons.

Canada's tallest mountain had a growth spurt in the past 15 years, and this majestic mountain may still be growing, according to an aerial survey of the ice-covered Mount Logan on the Yukon-Alaska border.

The University of Alaska aerial survey, conducted with a laser altimeter by Fairbanks-based geoscientist Sandy Zirnheld pegged Canada's highest point at 5,966 metres (19,574 feet), which is seven metres (23 feet) higher than the official height of 5,959 metres (19,551 feet) determined in 1992 after a celebrated climb to the top by a Canadian team of researchers led by Mike Schmidt of the Geological Survey of Canada. The new Zirnheld measurement prompted a second aerial reading with the same result of 5,966 metres.

This variation (in height) could be the result of errors in surveying, a thickening snow pack or tectonic uplift, according to the team's research article on the University's website.

Chris Larsen, lead scientist on the University of Alaska's Geophysical Institute research on the continent's northwest mountain ranges, said "snow and ice accumulation is the most likely explanation," speculating that warmer, wetter weather linked to global warming has resulted in higher than average snowfalls on mountaintops in the area. He said, "That could be what's going on with Alaska, and the high peaks would be a perfect place to measure it."

Larsen added that "it is very unlikely that the difference of seven metres is due to a difference in the accuracy of the two surveys" and geological pressures "could explain--at most--5 to 10 millimetres per year."

Mount Logan is Canada's highest peak as well as the world's "largest" mountain because of its 20-kilometre (12.5-mile) long plateau and massive footprint in the St. Elias-Wrangell mountain range.

Mount Logan was named for the 19th-century scientist William Logan, founder of the Geological Survey of Canada. Mount Logan is the landmark centrepiece of Kluane National Park and Reserve of Canada, named a UNESCO World Heritage site in 1979. The mountain's true height has been debated for almost a century, since it was first surveyed in 1913.


Official Parks Canada link for Kluane National Park and Reserve of Canada

Official Parks Canada link to Archives article "Conquering Mount Logan"

» Sources: Agence France-Presse and Canwest News Service

Tolerance to Cow's Milk Allergy

I just read a brief news item this morning about tolerating cow's milk . . . this brought back childhood memories of my father . . . I remember he always used canned evaporated milk on his oatmeal and only occasionally had fresh milk after he had heated it thoroughly. I recalled asking 'why' . . . he had simply said, "that's how my 'tummy' likes it." As I get older myself, there are these little things which remind me of my parents' wisdom.

O.K., back to the news item . . .

According to a report in the Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology, 75 percent of children with cow's milk allergy will be able to tolerate it if the milk is heated extensively. Dr. Anna Nowak-Wegrzyn from Mount Sinai School of Medicine in New York and her colleagues say that children with persistent milk allergy produce antibodies that react against specific milk proteins that their immune system recognizes as foreign.

Children who have outgrown their milk allergies still have milk-specific antibodies, but the specific milk proteins that trigger this reaction can almost entirely be destroyed through exposure to high temperatures. The researchers therefore reasoned that children with milk allergy might tolerate milk if it were extensively heated.

Lipizzaner Horse's White Coat

Photo: Lipizzaner Stallion. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Ever wonder about the Lipizzaner's white coat?

A new study published Sunday in the scientific journal Nature Genetics solves a decades-old mystery over the white colouring of the Lipizzaner horses. The distinctive white colouring of these famous horses performing at Vienna's prestigious Spanish riding school is caused by a mutated gene.

White and grey horses, including Lipizzaners, are born darker but lose their colour between the age of six and eight due to chromosome mutations, according to Austrian and Swedish researchers for this study.

These genetic changes cause pigment-producing melanocyte cells to be produced more rapidly in these horses so that the stock is quickly used up and the horses lose their pigmentation.

There, simple as that !!!

» Source: The Vancouver Sun

Walking Exercise Benefits Seniors

Photo: Royal Flora Expo 2006, Chiangmai, Thailand. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Now there's proof that walking is good for us, especially for seniors. According to a new University of Georgia study, older adults can decrease their risk of disability and increase their likelihood of maintaining independence (which we all would like) by 41 percent by participating in a walking exercise program.

Now this is good news and a boost to many of us trying to maintain and improve our wellness as we get older and cannot do the more strenuous physical activities.

The study, appearing in the current issue of the Journal of Geriatric Physical Therapy, also found that the walking participants increased their peak aerobic capacity by 19 percent when compared to a control group and also increased their physical function by 25 percent.

For the study, 26 low-income adults aged 60 and older were randomly assigned to either a walking exercise group, meeting three times/week for four months, or to a nutrition education control group. Initially, the walking group walked for 10 minutes continually. As the weeks progressed, the walking group increased their walking time to 40 continuous minutes, beginning each session with a 10-minute warm-up and ended with a 10-minute cool-down that included balance and flexibility exercises.

» Source: The Vancouver Sun

Phil Collins "Take Me Home" & Drums/Percussion

Enjoy this Video Play of the Week: Drums/Percussion & "Take Me Home" by Phil Collins and crew in his First Final Farewell Tour in Paris. Video from 'resonantflow'

Quotes on Compassion and Caring

Photo: Sunflowers. Image from Wikimedia Commons.

Quotes/Thoughts of the Day:

" If you have any care for me, care for yourself. "
~ Publius Ovid (43BC-AD17)

" The gentle mind by gentle deeds is known. "
~ Herbert Spencer (1820-1903)

" Each good thought or action moves
The dark world nearer to the sun. "
~ John Greenleaf Whittier (1807-92)