New Scaratings

Warm-up Round (10 Questions, 500 Points each, No clues):

1. Which phenomenon would a meteorologist be most familiar with?_____________________
[Choices: Tectonic shift, Coriolis force, Butterfly effect, Ohm's law, Occluded front ]

2. What does the letter "S" stand for in the acronym WASP?____________________
[Choices: Sex, Southern, Simulated, Saxon, Standing ]

3. The Lower Keys Underwater Music Festival is held in this U.S. state:_________________.
[Choices: Massachusetts, Oregon, Kansas, New Jersey, Florida ]

4. A favorable event would best be described as:____________________.
[Choices: Introverted, Calculated, Propitious, Magnanimous, Somnolent ]

5. This religious group is also called "The Plain People":____________________.
[Choices: Buddhists, Amish, Methodists, Mormons, Lutherans ]

6. Robert Baden-Powell is the author of "_________________ for Boys".
[Choices: Birdwatching, Scouting, Reading, Etiquette, Sailing ]

7. An asterism is a pattern of:__________________.
[Choices: Stars, Mountains, Migration, Landforms, Flowers ]

8. In what book do we read of the fictional land of Brobdingnag?___________________.
[Choices: The Scarlet Pimpernel, The Lord of the Rings, Alice in Wonderland, The Chronicles of Narnia, Gulliver's Travels ]

9. Which continent has 54 members of the United Nations?___________
[Choices: South America, Africa, Asia, Europe, North America ]

10. Which kind of animal is a newt?_________________.
[Choices: Mammal, Reptile, Salamander, Worm, Bird ]




Countdown Round (12 Questions, 1000 Points each, Points decrease over 15 seconds & 3 Clues):

11. This Indonesian island group is still sometimes referred to as the Spice Islands:___________________.
[Choices: Maluku Islands, Seychelles, Solomon Islands, Maldives, Canary Islands ]

12. Which composer wrote "Black, Brown and Beige" in 1943?_______________________
[Choices: Leonard Bernstein, Scott Joplin, Jelly Roll Morton, George Gershwin, Duke Ellington ]

13. Stargazy Pie is a Cornish dish that has _________________ sticking out of the crust.
[Choices: Mushrooms, Hardboiled eggs, Bacon strips, Antlers, Fish heads ]

14. The Battle of Anzio was a crucial conflict that took place late in this war:________________.
[Choices: Iraq War, World War I, Korean War, World War II, Vietnam War ]

15. What would one expect to find on a brochette?___________________
[Choices: Glue, Diamond, Heiroglyphics [sic], WD-40, Meat ]

16. This 1975 book by Susan Brownmiller is considered a feminist classic:__________________.
[Choices: The Feminist Mystique, A Room of One's Own, Against Our Will, The Women's Room, The Yellow Wallpaper ]

17. Bitis arietans is an animal more commonly known as the ______________ Puff Adder.
[Choices: Asian, Antarctic, American, African, Australian ]

18. Which country is home to the world's largest salt flat?_____________________.
[Choices: Canada, Australia, Switzerland, Algeria, Bolivia ]

19. Olay is a skin care line founded in the 1950's by a ________________ chemist.
[Choices: Canadian, South African, Scandinavian, Japanese, Caribbean ]

20. The pirate Blackbeard's ship was named Queen _________________'s Revenge.
[Choices: Esther, Mary, Elizabeth, Anne, Beatrice ]

21. Which man was a world chess champion in the 20th Century?___________________
[Choices: Arnold Stang, Placido Domingo, Jose Raul Capablanca, Ignacio Solozabal, Renaldo Nehemiah ]

22. Philadelphia's famed Liberty Bell was made in:___________________.
[Choices: France, England, Massachusetts, Maryland, Bermuda ]




Category Round (6 Questions, 1000 Points each, decreasing over 20 seconds & 3 Clues):

23.(a) U.S. cities v VOCABULARY: It is a particular form of expression:________________.
[Choices: Lacuna, Extirpation, Gurnard, Cathexis, Locution ]

24.(a) ANCIENT HISTORY v Video games: The city of Jerusalem was destroyed by the _______________ in 587 B.C.
[Choices: Huns, Babylonians, Cathaginians, Nubians, Gauls ]

25.(a) FOREIGN FOODS v 1980's song lyrics: Piri-piri sauce is a very popular ____________ sauce used in southern African cuisine.
[Choices: White, Hot pepper, Teriyaki, BBQ, Curry ]

26.(a) Video games v U.S. CITIES: In which city was the historic City Lights Bookstore founded in 1953?____________________.
[Choices: Denver, Chicago, New York, San Francisco, Los Angeles ]

27.(a) 1980's song lyrics v ANCIENT HISTORY: Phrygia, Lydia and Cappadocia were countries located in _________________ in antiquity.
[Choices: West Africa, India, Iberia, Asia minor, North Africa ]

28.(a) VOCABULARY v Foreign food: Which word would best be used as a synonym for "extrinsic"?_____________________
[Choices: Excoriate, Excusatory, Excipient, Exsiccate, Extraneous ]




Lightning Round (7 Questions: 400, 600, 800, 1000, 1200, 1500, 2000 Points, but time to read & answer decreases from 15, 12, 10, 8, 7, 5, to 4 seconds):

29. Best known for his "LOVE" sculpture, artist Robert Clark renamed himself:__________________.
[Choices: Robert Colorado, Robert Florida, Robert Indiana, Robert Oregon, Robert New Mexico ]

30. Which U.S. city is situated on the banks of the Lehigh River?__________________
[Choices: Salt Lake City, Asheville, Harrisburg, Rochester, Allentown ]

31. "Baby I'm a Want You" and "Make It with You" were huge hits for this music group:___________________.
[Choices: Bread, The Eagles, The Carpenters, The Young Rascals, Big Brother ]

32. The hammer and sickle on the Soviet Union flag stood for Industry and:___________________.
[Choices: Domestic life, Equality, World domination, Agricultural labor, Military might ]

33. Home run champ Barry Bonds played for the San Francisco Giants and the:__________________.
[Choices: San Diego Padres, Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, Pittsburgh Pirates, Cleveland Indians ]

34. It most commonly affects children between five and 15 years old:__________________.
[Choices: Scarlet fever, Cellulitis, Psoriasis, Bipolar disorder, Diverticulosis ]

35. In the 2009 Disney movie "G-Force", who are Darwin, Blaster and Juarez?___________________
[Choices: Snakes, Chipmunks, Guinea pigs, Birds, Pandas ]




Dreaded Pyramid Round (5 Questions: 12000, 7000, 4000, 2000, 1000 Points for 5, 4, 3, 2, 1 Right out of 5; No clues):

36. When the Second Mexican Empire fell, who was restored to the Presidency of Mexico?___________________
[Choices: Emiliano Zapata, Benito Juarez, Bernardo O'Higgins, Pancho Villa, Simon Bolivar ]

37. Which term would a master chef be most familiar with?___________________
[Choices: Gorgonize, Puncheon, Charcuterie, Kabuki, Buccal ]

38. The Lepontine Alps are located in Switzerland and:________________.
[Choices: Luxembourg, Italy, France, Austria, Germany ]

39. Which famous work of art was painted by Hieronymous Bosch?______________________
[Choices: The Birth of Venus, The Blue Boy, The Last Judgment, The Boating Party, The Creation of Adam ]

40. In geometry, they are divided into collinear and non-collinear:__________________.
[Choices: Triangles, Squares, Circles, Ellipses, Points ]




Final Jeopardy Question on LITERARY CHARACTERS (50% Bonus if Right Immediately, Points decrease rapidly over 20 seconds and 2 Clues; 50% Deduction if Final Choice is Wrong):

41. Which literary character was a student at Ingolstadt University?______________________
[Choices: Sydney Carton, Victor Frankenstein, Gregor Samsa, Pierre Bezukhov, Hans Castorp ]






Answers:

1. Occluded front [I (REACH) initially called "Coriolis force", which was Choice #2, but others including Andrew C (GRYFON) pointed out that "Occluded front", Choice #5, was clearly meteorological. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Occluded_front . This was a bad Question by the Quizmaster because the Coriolis force is something every professional meteorologist should know (see the section "Meteorology" at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coriolis_force ).
Here's why: If the Earth were not rotating, an artillery shell fired from the Equator due North (along a line of longitude) would land at a spot at the same longitude. But because the Earth rotates once every 24 hours, and the circumference of the Earth at the Equator is about 25,000 miles, that shell would have an initial speed horizontally (from West to East) of about 25,000 miles/24 hours , or over 1000 miles/hr. Any spot on the Earth's surface at a higher latitude would move at a slower West-to-East speed because the latitude circle would have a smaller circumference. Therefore the shell would land at a longitude further East from its original longitude; it would appear to have been deflected to the right, and this pseudoforce is called the Coriolis force. Conversely, if a shell were fired from the North Pole (where there is no West-to-East speed) due South initially along a line of longitude, the rotation of the Earth would mean that it would land somewhat to the West of its original longitude. It would appear to have been deflected to the right. So in the Northern hemisphere, the Coriolis force appears to deflect winds to the right.
A high pressure zone can be considered to be a mound of dense air, and as air falls downward by gravity from the top of the mound, it would be deflected to the right. If you draw 8 or 16 evenly spaced rays moving from the top of the mound, but deflected to the right, you will see that the net effect is a clockwise rotation of the high pressure air mass.
A low pressure zone can be considered to be a well or dip in the air, and as air falls downward by gravity toward the center of the well, it is deflected to the right. If you draw 8 or 16 evenly spaced rays moving toward the center of the dip, but deflected to the right, you will see that the net effect is a counterclockwise rotation of the low pressure air mass (e.g. in a hurricane or tornado).
In the Southern hemisphere, the Coriolis force appears to deflect moving particles to the left, so you can figure out the net rotation of air masses in high and low pressure systems.

The Coriolis force also deflects ocean currents in the same way. Equatorial surface waters are hotter than near the Poles because the Sun is more directly overhead so its rays are not spread out as much in area. Heat moves from hot regions to cold, but conduction is relatively slow. The real reason warm Equatorial waters move toward the Poles is because warm water (above 4 Celsius) is less dense than cold water, and the rotating Earth is a giant centrifuge which drives dense fluid toward the Equator. This means that less dense, warmer Equatorial water is driven toward the Poles, just as less dense helium balloons are driven upward against gravity (because more dense air can move downward to take the place vacated by the balloon in its journey upward). The Coriolis force then deflects the warm surface water to the right in the Northern hemisphere, explaining the Gulf Current which warms Britain and Scandinavia, and the Kuroshio (Japan Current) which warms Japan. In the Southern hemisphere, the Brazil Current consists of warm Equatorial water moving Southward, but deflected to the left.

Because water is a relatively incompressible liquid, warm surface currents must be balanced by cold water driven from the Poles toward the Equator. Driven Southward but deflected to the right in the Northern hemisphere, cold water explains the California and Canary currents which complete the overall clockwise rotation of surface currents. In addition, there must be some deep cold water currents moving from Pole to Equator, but deflected to the right, explaining the deep cold current which hugs the East coast of North America as it moves Southward.

In the Southern hemisphere, the cold Pole-to-Equator currents deflected to the left are the Benguela Current west of Africa and the Humboldt (Peru) Current west of South America. The Peru current, like the California current, consists of upwelling cold water laden with minerals from the deep which fertilize phytoplankton growth, followed by anchovies and higher predators, including seals and whales. In the South Atlantic, the Brazil and Benguela currents complete a giant counterclockwise movement of surface water.

Surface water in the South Pacific oscillates, reversing direction during El Nino events. IMO this is due to the greater concentration of island groups South of the Equator in the Pacific which act as sources of frictional drag. The centrifuge effect varies as the sine of twice the latitude angle, so it is greatest at latitude 45 degrees, and is zero at the Equator and at the Poles. So even a small extra drag can slow or stop initial Poleward motion of warm surface water near the Equator. So the cold Peru current water, deflected to the left, drives water westward just South of the Equator, and this water piles up at the West. Eventually, like a pendulum, the pile of water falls downward by gravity, and reverses the direction of South Equatorial water. This West-to-East rush of water stops the upwelling Peru current from popping to the surface, the minerals stop rising, the phytoplankton starve, and the anchovy crop crashes. Because the warm water sits atop now, the overall average temperature of the Earth's surface rises during El Nino events. In the last 18 years, there have been 3 such El Nino temperature spikes, each time trumpeted as evidence of global warming by the climate change ignoramuses. In fact, the baseline temperature after discounting the El Nino spikes has not changed much over 18 years (this "hiatus" has been an embarrassment for the true believers of Catastrophic Anthropogenic Global Warming, because CO2 has continued to increase during those 18 years). Yes, CO2 is a greenhouse gas, and increasing its concentration will warm the Earth somewhat, but the effect has been overestimated for 30 years by a factor of 4 or 5 (I can send you mathematical proof if you contact me at rtaguchi@rogers.com ). Richard Lindzen of MIT and William Happer of Princeton are competent physicists who agree with me. The Wikipedia articles on them are salted with ignorant comments by true believers of the climate change cult. ]

2. Saxon [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Ang ... Protestant . It seems to me that "White" is redundant, since Anglo-Saxons were originally White, but WASP looks better than ASP, a snake.]

3. Florida [Myfanwy (SPRAJO) and others called this as a guess from "Keys"; see https://www.scubadiving.com/article/new ... -july-14th ]

4. Propitious [see https://www.dictionary.com/browse/propitious ]

5. Amish [I pre-called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Plain_people ]

6. Scouting [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Ba ... den-Powell ; ah, those were innocent days before the book title on the Internet would have attracted child molesters.]

7. Stars [I pre-called this one; the Big Dipper is an asterism of 7 stars, but is only part of the constellation Ursa major (the Big Bear); see the second Figure at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asterism_(astronomy) ]

8. Gulliver's Travels [I pre-called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brobdingnag ]

9. Africa [Phil (BSLXPN) pre-called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_c ... _continent ]

10. Salamander [I pre-called "Amphibian", but we all got this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Newt ]




11. Maluku Islands [I pre-called "Moluccas", but apparently they have changed the spelling; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maluku_Islands ]

12. Duke Ellington [I called this as a guess; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black,_Brown_and_Beige and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GM2N8_H4me0 ]

13. Fish heads [Dave (YELDOR, BLADOR) pre-called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stargazy_pie . Dave gave his tablet as WITZND to Dorothy (RADFEM), our guest from Big Guys in Winnipeg MB, as her tablet conked out. Dave had logged onto another board as BLADOR, but missed all 10 Questions of the Warm-up Round, forfeiting 5000 Points, which came to haunt us later on at Buster's Bar in Ottawa ON. ]

14. WWII [I think Dave was the first to pre-call this gimme for Americans; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Anzio ]

15. Meat [see https://www.dictionary.com/browse/brochette ]

16. Against Our Will [Dorothy (usually RADFEM) called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Brownmiller and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Against_Our_Will ]

17. African [I correctly guessed this one; some others, not. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bitis_arietans ]

18. Bolivia [Most of us went with Australia, but I switched part-way to Bolivia because of the unique Salar de Uyuni; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salar_de_Uyuni . Wendy (EKWTSM, ANIL K) would have got this right away, as she has been there.]

19. South African [We missed most of the Points on this one, as we went with Scandinavian. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olay ]

20. Anne [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_Anne's_Revenge ]

21. Capablanca [I called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jose_Raul_Capablanca ]

22. England [I pre-called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Bell ]




23.(a) Locution [see https://www.dictionary.com/browse/locution ]

24.(a) Babylonians [I think Andrew C (GRYFON) called this first; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Siege_of_ ... em_(587_BC) ]

25.(a) Hot pepper [Dorothy or Myfanwy (SPRAJO) called this first; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piri_piri ]

26.(a) San Francisco [I pre-called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/City_Lights_Bookstore ]

27.(a) Asia minor [Dave or Andrew C called this one first; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phrygia and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lydia and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappadocia ]

28.(a) Extraneous [see https://www.dictionary.com/browse/extrinsic ]




29. Robert Indiana [I pre-called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Indiana and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Love_(sculpture) ]

30. Allentown [Dave called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Allentown,_Pennsylvania ]

31. Bread [Myfanwy pre-called this one right away; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bread_(band) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XPrL9C2UmaY for "Baby I'm a Want You" (1971) and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s0KXV0gB0dw for "Make It with You" (1970).]

32. Agricultural labor [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammer_and_sickle ]

33. Pittsburgh Pirates [Phil (BSLXPN) pre-called this one right away; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barry_Bonds ]

34. Scarlet fever [Dorothy and Susan (SWIFT) called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scarlet_fever ]

35. Guinea pigs [Phil pre-called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/G-Force_(film) ]




36. Benito Juarez [Andrew C (GRYFON) called this one; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benito_Juarez and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Second_Mexican_Empire ]

37. Charcuterie [see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charcuterie ]

38. Italy [Almost everyone guessed this right, except for me and Richard (ACE) who went with France; see https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lepontine_Alps ]

39. The Last Judgment [I pre-called "The Garden of Earthly Delights", which was not one of the Choices listed, but we recovered in time to get this right. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Last_ ... h_triptych) and https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Garde ... y_Delights (see especially the Right Panel, when expanded, to see hallucinogenic images).]

40. Points [I pre-called this one; see https://www.dummies.com/education/math/ ... ow-points/ ]




41. Victor Frankenstein [Half of us guessed right immediately, and the other half got wiped out. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frankenstein . The top 8 tablet scores were Chris (KAYZED 60891, CEEZED 60847), Dave (YELDOR 60571), Jean (LESTER 59124), Andrew C (GRYFON 58730), Dave (BLADOR 51731), Patrick (MRRED 51276) and Myfanwy (SPRAJO 51205). The average of the best 6 scores was 58,649, good enough for Buster's Bar, Ottawa ON to be #2 Site in Canada & the USA. We were edged out by The Old Barn, Portland OR with a Site score of 58,654 Points, a lousy 5 Points ahead of us (30 Points aggregate on 6 tablets). This makes the 5000 Points lost by default in the Warm-up Round on BLADOR's tablet all the more irritating, because with the 50% Bonus, the aggregate score would have been 7500 Points higher; i.e. the Site average score would have been 1500 Points higher. Oh well, there's always next week..... I'm sure a lot of other Sites have horror stories of similarly just missing out (feel free to amuse us by Commenting on this post). ]

In the answer to Q41, our Site score would have been 7500/6 = 1250 Points, not 1500 Points higher, as the SHOWDOWN Site score averages the top 6, not top 5, Player scores.

_________________
liljol, still residing in a humble lil abode in Buzztime's Backyard, San Diego County, in The Horribly Site-Poor Golden State, California...

<--805 NTN Buzztime sites visited as of 11/13/2018...

F CUBS!!!!! FBOSOX!!!!!

FPDRES!!!!! FCHGRS!!!!!

According to the US Climate Prediction Center, there have been five El Nino events, of various strength and duration, in the last eighteen years. There were ten in the thirty year period 1985-2015. There have been at least thirty since the term was first coined in 1892. As a Climate Change Ignoramus I'm curious to learn, on what impartial scientific principle this common phenomenon should be excluded from the calculation of an "average" temperature?

Thanks to LILJOL for nailing all six of the Altergories. Splendid! The Tailgate went with Buster's on all six, but our results weren't quite as handsome.

To GONE D: Thanks for the update on the number of El Ninos; I counted only the 3 most obvious ones. I didn't write that they were not included in the averages, but that when they return to the baseline, the baseline has not increased very much in the last 18 years. Al Gore's original "hockey stick" graph flattened out the Medieval Warm Period & the following Little Ice Age so it looks like the recent warming is anomalous, and extrapolated the rise in the c. 1997-98 El Nino event so it looks like a catastrophic exponential growth curve. In fact, temperatures drop after the El Nino peaks, although the very highest temperature reached is quoted as a record (even if it is only by 0.01 degree, well smaller than the errors in measurement).


Here are a few of the many graphs you could look up:
Global temperature from 1880-2013 at http://www.earth-policy.org/indicators/C51 which shows an increase overall of 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit = 0.8 degrees Celsius (+/- 0.1 degree).
Note the drop from 1880-1920, and the "hiatus" from 1940-1980, both during the Industrial Revolution (including two World Wars production) spewing increasing amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere. For accurate CO2 measurements from 1958-2018, see https://www.co2.earth/ which shows a monotonic increase from about 318 to 410 ppmv (parts per million by volume). The hiatus from 1958-1980 includes 22 years during which CO2 increased monotonically.

The last 18 years have shown a similar hiatus, even as the CO2 emission graph has curved upward. You can't appeal to a "lag" or "time constant" that is decades- or centuries-long, because temperatures would then continue upward even if CO2 had flattened out (instead of curving upward).

For one analysis claiming "No global warming for 18 years 7 months", see http://www.climatedepot.com/2015/08/06/ ... 33-months/ .

For a graph showing 2,000 years of Global Temperatures, see http://www.drroyspencer.com/global-warm ... emperature . Note the 1.2 degree Celsius drop from the peak Medieval Warm Period temperature (850 AD) to the bottom of the Little Ice Age (1600 AD, Shakespeare's era). This is bigger a difference than the rise since 1880.

As for catastrophic levels of CO2, during the Cambrian period 500 million years ago, CO2 was at 4,000 ppmv (compared to 410 ppmv today), and the Earth was lush. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carbon_di ... atmosphere .

If any of the links don't work, Google the titles to get a link that works.

Beg pardon? Are you accusing Mercury, the element, of fudging its chemical properties? There are 20K weather stations which report specific temperatures. To endorse the 7 billion hairless apex predators who wander this globe, in search of warmth, cooked meat, and antibiotics, are no greater a factor than the 3 billion who were wandering about in your youth, is to arrive at yet another insupportable position.

Run those numbers again, REACH, excluding the La Nina, far more numerous than the El Nino, but much weaker.

To GONE D: I agree that there is some doubt about many of the weather stations measuring temperatures at airports; with all the concrete & blacktop runways & jet engine exhaust of taxiing airplanes & buildings that act as heat islands, the temperature measurements are biased increasingly on the high side, especially as some are located near the exhaust of air conditioning units! Hence the importance of measuring air temperatures by satellites looking down on the entire surface of the Earth and averaging; for example, at http://drroyspencer.com/latest-global-temperatures/ .

The three obvious El Nino spikes in the average temperature of the Earth (not just surface waters off the coast of Peru) are at 1997/99 (which gave rise to Al Gore's scary graph when the rise of 1997/98 is extrapolated upward), 2008/10, and 2015/17 .

As for the human influence of 7 billion+ naked apes v 3 billion in my youth, I agree. IMO more important that breathing out 3% CO2 (75 times the 400 ppmv average in air) or driving a gasoline engine car is wiping out the tropical rain forest in Indonesia & Malaysia, etc. and all the critters and plants that lived in the ecosystem to plant a monoculture of oil palms to produce palm oil (glycerol esters of palmitic acid) used in "green" fuel substitutes for fossil fuels, etc.

All of this debate would come as cold comfort to the Siberian elk herders who have suffered decimating losses, owing to the release of anthrax from thawing permafrost. And to what extent is the desertification of Africa and the Middle East owing to the closure of the Panama Strait?

Regarding human interference, the short position on such a Pascalian Wager is always open to book.

What constitutes sufficient evidence is a question left to dangle.

Damn glad that REACH didn't stick to his principles when pressed to choose between the Occluded Front v. the Coriolis Effect.

The Socratic method as inculcated at Hillcrest High.

Mom is now 92-93 years old. Wouldn't you say so, SHAKES? But who's counting? She claims to be 97, but there is solid statistical evidence to suggest that she might be exaggerating. She used to be about 5'6". Now she's about 5'1". And every year she sends us off, SHAKES and GONE D, to take the Stanford-Binet IQ Test.

"You little fuckers," Mom says, raising her cane into our chests, "I need to see some improvement. GONE D, you're an embarrassment. SHAKES, your not much better. I need to see some serious improvement. If you end up like me, I'm going to be seriously pissed."