Pacific Vortex: World expositions and more

pg 216

It looked like one of those futuristic displays at world expositions.

World's fairs originated in the French tradition of national exhibitions, a tradition that culminated with the French Industrial Exposition of 1844 held in Paris. This fair was soon followed by other national exhibitions in continental Europe, and eventually the United Kingdom.
The best-known 'first World Expo' was held in The Crystal Palace in Hyde Park, London, United Kingdom, in 1851, under the title "Great Exhibition of the Works of Industry of All Nations". The Great Exhibition, as it is often called, was an idea of Prince Albert, Queen Victoria's husband, and is usually considered as the first international exhibition of manufactured products. It influenced the development of several aspects of society, including art-and-design education, international trade and relations, and tourism.^[2] These events have resulted in a remarkable form of Prince Albert's life history, one that continues to be reflected in London architecture in a number of ways, including in the Albert Memorial later erected to the Prince. This expo was the most obvious precedent for the many international exhibitions, later called world's fairs, that have continued to be held to the present time.
Since their inception in 1851, the character of world expositions has evolved. Three eras can be distinguished: the era of industrialization, the era of cultural exchange, and the era of nation branding.

An eight-foot moray eel slithered along the lower edge of the portal

Moray eels are cosmopolitan eels of the family Muraenidae. The approximately 200 species in 15 genera are almost exclusively marine, but several species are regularly seen in brackish water and a few, for example the freshwater moray (Gymnothorax polyuranodon) can sometimes be found in freshwater.^[2] With a maximum length of 11.5 centimetres (4.5 in), the smallest moray is likely the Snyder's moray (Anarchias leucurus),^[3] while the longest species, the slender giant moray (Strophidon sathete) reaches up to 4 metres (13 ft).^[4] The largest in terms of total mass is the giant moray (Gymnothorax javanicus), which reaches almost 3 metres (9.8 ft) and can weigh over 36 kilograms (79 lb).

The deck of the control room was coated with it [blood], while several places along the electrical panels were splattered wildly in the manner of a Jackson Pollock painting.

Paul Jackson Pollock (January 28, 1912 – August 11, 1956), known as Jackson Pollock, was an influential American painter and a major figure in the abstract expressionist movement. He was well known for his uniquely defined style of drip painting.
During his lifetime, Pollock enjoyed considerable fame and notoriety. He was regarded as a mostly reclusive artist. He had a volatile personality, and struggled with alcoholism for most of his life. In 1945, he married the artist Lee Krasner, who became an important influence on his career and on his legacy.^[4]
Pollock died at the age of 44 in an alcohol-related car accident. In December 1956, the year of his death, he was given a memorial retrospective exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City, and a larger more comprehensive exhibition there in 1967. More recently, in 1998 and 1999, his work was honored with large-scale retrospective exhibitions at MoMA and at The Tate in London.^[5][6]
In 2000, Pollock was the subject of an Academy Award–winning film Pollock directed by and starring Ed Harris.

 Painting NO 5 completed in 1948

Pacific Vortex: DC-10 and more

pg 203

"DG-10," Denver said briefly. "One of the deadliest poisons around."

A poison gas made up by Cussler.

"It's Aloha Willie, the late night disc jockey on radio station POPO."

A phony radio station. This dialog is from a radio transmission in which Pitt's men are trying to contact the Navy surreptitiously.

"Big Daddy calling Our Gang."

Many men throughout history have probably been known by the nickname "Big Daddy," but the most famous is from the 1955 Tennessee Williams play, A Streetcar Named Desire.

Cat on a Hot Tin Roof is a play by Tennessee Williams. One of Williams's best-known works and his personal favorite, the play won the Pulitzer Prize for Drama in 1955. Set in "the bed-sitting room of a plantation home in the Mississippi Delta"of Big Daddy Pollitt, a wealthy cotton tycoon, the play examines the relationships among members of Big Daddy's family, primarily between his son Brick and Brick's wife Maggie the "Cat".
Cat on a Hot Tin Roof features several recurring motifs, such as social mores, greed, superficiality, mendacity, decay, sexual desire, repression, and death. Dialogue throughout is often rendered phonetically to represent accents of the Southern United States.
The play was adapted as a motion picture of the same name in 1958, starring Elizabeth Taylor and Paul Newman as Maggie and Brick, respectively. Williams made substantial excisions and alterations to the play for a revival in 1974. This has been the version used for most subsequent revivals, which have been numerous.

Our Gang, also known as The Little Rascals or Hal Roach's Rascals, was a series of American comedy short films about a group of poor neighborhood children and the adventures they had together. Created by comedy producer Hal Roach, the series is noted for showing children behaving in a relatively natural way, as Roach and original director Robert F. McGowan worked to film the unaffected, raw nuances apparent in regular children rather than have them imitate adult acting styles.
In addition, Our Gang notably put boys, girls, whites and blacks together in a group as equals, something that "broke new ground," according to film historian Leonard Maltin.Such a thing had never been done before in cinema but has since been repeated after the success of Our Gang.
The first production at the Roach studio was in 1922 was a series of silent short subjects. When Roach changed distributors from Pathé to Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM) in 1927, and converted the series to sound in 1929 the series took off even further. Production continued at the Roach studio until 1938, when the series was sold to MGM, who then continued producing the comedies for another six years. A total of 220 shorts were produced as well as one feature film, General Spanky, featuring over forty-one child actors. As MGM owned the rights to the Our Gang trademark, beginning in the mid-1950s, 80 of the original Roach-produced "talkies" were syndicated for television under the title The Little Rascals. The series has since remained in syndication, with periodic new productions based on the shorts surfacing over the years, including a 1994 Little Rascals feature film released by Universal Pictures.

Pacific Vortex: Squid and more

194

A nervous squid, the first sign of sea life, dashed across his narrow angle of sight and vanished.

Squid are cephalopods of the order Teuthida, which comprises around 300 species. Like all other cephalopods, squid have a distinct head, bilateral symmetry, a mantle, and arms. Squid, like cuttlefish, have eight arms arranged in pairs and two, usually longer, tentacles. Squid are strong swimmers and certain species can 'fly' for short distances out of the water.

Squid are often confused with octopus. A squid has a different shaped head - torpedo shaped, while an octopus has a bag shaped head. Octopus also walk along the ocean's surface, while squids jet along.

...he went through the flooded forward torpedo department

Modern submarines use either swim out systems or a pulse of water to discharge the torpedo from the tube, both of which have the advantage of being significantly quieter than previous systems, helping avoid detection of the firing from passive sonar. Earlier designs used a pulse of compressed air or a hydraulic ram.

Originally, torpedo tubes were fitted to both the bow and stern of submarines. Modern submarine bows are usually occupied by a large sonar array, necessitating torpedoes launched from midships tubes angled outward, while stern tubes have largely disappeared. The first French and Russian submarines carried their torpedoes externally in Drzewiecki drop collars. These were cheaper than tubes, but less reliable. Both Britain and America experimented with external tubes in World War II. External tubes offered a cheap and easy way of increasing torpedo capacity without radical redesign, something neither had time or resources to do prior to, or early in, the war. America's use was mainly limited to earlier Porpoise-, Salmon-, and Sargo-class boats. Until the widespread introduction of the Gato class, common American submarines only carried 4 forward and either 2 or 4 Stern tubes, something many American submarine officers felt provided them with inadequate firepower. This problem was compounded by the notorious unreliability of the Mark 14 torpedo.

Late in World War II, the U.S. adopted a 16 in (41 cm) homing torpedo (known as "Cutie") for use against escorts. It was basically a modified Mark 24 Mine with wooden rails to allow firing from a 21 in (53 cm) torpedo tube

He deciphered the ship's name: ANDREI VYBORG

This is a made up name. Andrei is a Russian first name, but Vyborg is the name of a town.

Two figures sat astride the sleek mini-sub, the man in the front saddle steering.
I've looked this up on the internet, and I have no idea what "saddle steering" means. Presumably because the two men are straddling a seat that goes all the way back (instead of having two individual captain's chairs), so they're sitting in the sub as on the saddle of a horse... but no one else on the internet has ever used the term!)

Pacific Vortex: Navy SEALs and more

pg 176

I presented my case for going back with a crack team of Navy SEALS and recapturing the sub"

The United States Navy's Sea, Air, and Land Teams, commonly known as Navy SEALs, are the U.S. Navy's principal special operations force and a part of the Naval Special Warfare Command (NSWC) as well as the maritime component of the United States Special Operations Command.

The acronym is derived from their capacity to operate at sea, in the air, and on land. In the War on Terror, SEALs have been utilized almost exclusively for land-based operations, including Direct Action, Hostage Rescue, Counter Terrorism, Special Reconnaissance, unconventional warfare and foreign internal defense operations. Without exception, all SEALs are male members of the United States Navy. An exchange program with the Coast Guard, which graduated three Coast Guardsmen as SEALs, was suspended in 2011.

The CIA's highly secretive Special Activities Division (SAD) and more specifically its elite Special Operations Group (SOG) recruits operators from the SEAL Teams. Joint Navy SEALs and CIA operations go back to the famed MACV-SOG during the Vietnam War. This cooperation still exists today and is seen in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and in the finding and killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan.

The ancient Douglas C-54 aircraft sat poised on the runway

The Douglas C-54 Skymaster was a four-engined transport aircraft used by the United States Army Air Forces and British forces in World War II and the Korean War. Besides transport of cargo, it also carried presidents, British heads of government, and military staff. Dozens of variants of the C-54 were employed in a wide variety of non-combat roles such as air-sea rescue, scientific and military research and missile tracking and recovery. During the Berlin Airlift it hauled coal and food supplies to West Berlin.

After the Korean War it continued to be used for military and civilian uses by more than thirty countries. This was one of the first aircraft to carry the President of the United States and to assume the call sign Air Force One.

"I'd like an antique Flying Fortress with a king-sized bed and a wetbar stocked with booze."

The Boeing B-17 Flying Fortress is a four-engine heavy bomber aircraft developed in the 1930s for the then United States Army Air Corps (USAAC). Competing against Douglas and Martin for a contract to build 200 bombers, the Boeing entry outperformed both competitors and more than met the Air Corps' expectations. Although Boeing lost the contract because the prototype crashed, the Air Corps was so impressed with Boeing's design that they ordered 13 more B-17s for further evaluation. From its introduction in 1938, the B-17 Flying Fortress evolved through numerous design advances.

The B-17 was primarily employed by the United States Army Air Forces (USAAF) in the daylight precision strategic bombing campaign of World War II against German industrial and military targets. The United States Eighth Air Force based at Thorpe Abbotts airfield in England and the Fifteenth Air Force based in Italy complemented the RAF Bomber Command's nighttime area bombing in Operation Pointblank to help secure air superiority over the cities, factories and battlefields of Western Europe in preparation for Operation Overlord.

The B-17 also participated to a lesser extent in the War in the Pacific where it conducted raids against Japanese shipping and airfields.

From its pre-war inception, the USAAC (later USAAF) touted the aircraft as a strategic weapon; it was a potent, high-flying, long-range bomber that was able to defend itself, and to return home despite extensive battle damage. It quickly took on mythic proportions, and widely circulated stories and photos of B-17s surviving battle damage increased its iconic status. With a service ceiling greater than any of its Allied contemporaries, the B-17 established itself as an effective weapons system, dropping more bombs than any other U.S. aircraft in World War II. Of the 1.5 million metric tons of bombs dropped on Germany by U.S. aircraft, 640,000 tons were dropped from B-17s.

As of September 2011, 13 airframes remain airworthy, with dozens more in storage or on static display.

Spartan Gold: snub-nose revolver and more

.38 caliber Bodtguard

.38 caliber Cobra

pg 117

Lying on a bench amid shoes in various states of disrepair was a snub-nosed .38 caliber revolver.

A revolver is a gun in which the bullets are in a revolving cylinder, and only one bullet will fire at a time.

An automatic pistol is one where bullets come in a clip, which is located in the stock of the pistol.

A snubnosed revolver has a barrel length of less than three (3) inches. It was a popular type of firearm with undercover police officers due to its compact size and ease of handling. Its popularity was temporarily overshadowed with the wide-scale availability of compact semi-automatic pistols in the 1980s and their gradual adoption by police in the 1990s

History and use
The first snubnosed revolver were the various "Sheriff's Model", "Shopkeeper Special", and "Banker Special" versions of the Colt Single Action Army revolver made by Colt, in the 19th Century.

Two developments resulted in a resurgence in popularity of these revolvers in the United States starting in the mid-1990s. First, the passage of Right to Carry laws in various states created new markets for reliable, concealed carry firearms. Second, the passage of the Federal Assault Weapons Ban limited the availability of pistol magazines holding more than 10 rounds, thus reducing the advantages of the "Wonder Nine" pistols normally capable of holding 15 or more rounds. These are in addition to the advantages of simplicity and reliability common to revolvers.

The increased demand for snubnosed revolvers has been met with the introduction of numerous new models from Smith & Wesson, Taurus and others. While some were made of traditional carbon steel, stainless steel, and lightweight aluminum alloys that had been in use for decades, many of the new models used high-strength, lightweight metal alloys such as titanium and scandium.

"No serial number on the gun."

In 1968 serial numbering became mandatory in the US on guns; prior to that date they were just used by some manufacturers for internal controls. They were phased in over a three year period beginning in 1968; so, you can even find firearms made as late as 1971 that bear no number.

"I've got you in a Bonanza G36."

A G36 is a plane with a "glass cockpit." (The G is the identifier.)

A glass cockpit is an aircraft cockpit that features electronic (digital) instrument displays, typically large LCD screens, rather than the traditional style of analog dials and gauges. While a traditional cockpit relies on numerous mechanical gauges to display information, a glass cockpit uses several displays driven by flight management systems, that can be adjusted to display flight information as needed. This simplifies aircraft operation and navigation and allows pilots to focus only on the most pertinent information. They are also popular with airline companies as they usually eliminate the need for a flight engineer. In recent years the technology has become widely available in small aircraft.

As aircraft displays have modernized, the sensors that feed them have modernized as well. Traditional gyroscopic flight instruments have been replaced by electronic Attitude and Heading Reference Systems (AHRS) and Air Data Computers (ADCs), improving reliability and reducing cost and maintenance. GPS receivers are usually integrated into glass cockpits.

Early glass cockpits, found in the McDonnell Douglas MD-80/90, Boeing 737 Classic, 757 and 767-200/-300, and in the Airbus A300-600 and A310, used Electronic Flight Instrument Systems (EFIS) to display attitude and navigational information only, with traditional mechanical gauges retained for airspeed, altitude and vertical speed. Later glass cockpits, found in the Boeing 737NG, 747-400, 767-400, 777, A320 and later Airbuses, Ilyushin Il-96 and Tupolev Tu-204 have completely replaced the mechanical gauges and warning lights in previous generations of aircraft.

Spartan Gold: the Sierra Nevada and more

pg 114

...meeting once a year in the fall for a 3-day hiking trip through the Sierra Nevada.

The Sierra Nevada, Spanish: "snowy mountain range") is a mountain range in the U.S. states of California and Nevada, between the California Central Valley and the Basin and Range Province. The Sierra runs 400 miles (640 km) north-to-south, and is approximately 70 miles (110 km) across east-to-west. Notable Sierra features include Lake Tahoe, the largest alpine lake in North America; Mount Whitney at 14,505 ft (4,421 m), the highest point in the contiguous United States; and Yosemite Valley sculpted by glaciers out of 100-million-year-old granite. The Sierra is home to three national parks, 20 wilderness areas, and two national monuments. These areas include Yosemite, Sequoia and Kings Canyon National Parks.

The character of the range is shaped by its geology and ecology. More than 100 Ma (million years ago), granite formed deep underground. The range started to uplift 4 Ma, and erosion by glaciers exposed the granite and formed the light-colored mountains and cliffs that make up the range. The uplift caused a wide range of elevations and climates in the Sierra, which are reflected by the presence of five life zones.

The Sierra Nevada was home to several Native American tribes. The first European to sight the range was Pedro Fages in 1772. The range was explored between 1844 and 1912.

...the toast of Sevastopol society

Sevastopol, previously Sebastopol; is one of two cities with special status in Ukraine (the other being the capital, Kiev), located on the Black Sea coast of the Crimean peninsula. It has a population of 342,451 (2001). Sevastopol is the second largest port in Ukraine, after the Port of Odessa.

The unique geographic location and navigation conditions of the city's harbours make Sevastopol a strategically important naval point. It is also a popular seaside resort and tourist destination, mainly for visitors from the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS) countries. The city, formerly the home of the Russian then Soviet Black Sea Fleet, is now home to a Ukrainian naval base and a Russian naval base in facilities leased by the Russian Navy. The headquarters of both the Ukrainian Naval Forces and Russia's Black Sea Fleet are located in the city. In 1993, the city was the subject of a territorial dispute between the Russian Federation and Ukraine.

The trade and shipbuilding importance of Sevastopol's port has been growing since the fall of the Soviet Union,[citation needed] despite the difficulties that arise from the joint military control over its harbours and piers. Sevastopol is also an important centre of marine biology research. In particular, studying and training of dolphins has been conducted in the city since the end of World War II. It was first conducted as a secret naval programme to use the animals for special undersea operations. Sevastopol enjoys one of the warmest climates in Ukraine, with mild winters and moderate warm summers.

"A real Samaritan."

The parable of the Good Samaritan is a parable told by Jesus and is mentioned in only one of the Canonical gospels of the New Testament. According to the Gospel of Luke (10:30-37) a traveller (who may or may not be Jewish) is beaten, robbed, and left half dead along the road. First a priest and then a Levite come by, but both avoid the man. Finally, a Samaritan comes by. Samaritans and Jews generally despised each other, but the Samaritan helps the injured man. Jesus is described as telling the parable in response to a question regarding the identity of the "neighbour" which Leviticus 19:18 says should be loved.

Portraying a Samaritan in positive light would have come as a shock to Jesus' audience. It is typical of his provocative speech in which conventional expectations are inverted.

Some Christians, such as Augustine, have interpreted the parable allegorically, with the Samaritan representing Jesus Christ, who saves the sinful soul. Others, however, discount this allegory as unrelated to the parable's original meaning, and see the parable as exemplifying the ethics of Jesus, which have won nearly universal praise, even from those outside the Church.

The parable has inspired painting, sculpture, poetry, and film. The colloquial phrase "good Samaritan," meaning someone who helps a stranger, derives from this parable, and many hospitals and charitable organizations are named after the Good Samaritan.

Spartan Gold: red eye and more

pg 112

Selma...reserved them a pair of first-class seats on the last red-eye out of San Diego.

A red-eye flight is any flight departing late at night and arriving early the next morning. The term red-eye derives from the fatigue symptom of having red eyes, which can be caused or aggravated by late-night travel.

A red-eye flight typically moves east during the night hours. It departs late at night, lasts only about three to five hours, an insufficient period to get fully rested in flight, and due to forward time zone changes the aircraft lands around dawn. As a result, many travelers are unable to get sufficiently rested before a new day of activity. From a marketing standpoint, the flights allow business travelers an opportunity to migrate eastward without having an impact on a full business day.

Most eastward transatlantic crossings from North America to Europe are operated overnight, but are generally not viewed as red-eye flights since they depart early in the evening and last at least seven hours. A full night's rest is theoretically possible as this is close to the seven to nine hours of nightly sleep recommended by the US National Sleep Foundation.

...bright red Volkswagen Beetle convertible

The Volkswagen Beetle, officially called the Volkswagen Type 1 (or informally the Volkswagen Bug), is an economy car produced by the German auto maker Volkswagen (VW) from 1938 until 2003. With over 21 million manufactured[6] in an air-cooled, rear-engined, rear-wheel drive configuration, the Beetle is the longest-running and most-manufactured car of a single design platform anywhere in the world.
"Volkswagen" means "people wagon", in other words, "car for the people" in German.

A Beetle convertible is actually called a Cabriolet.

The Beetle Cabriolet began production in 1949 by Karmann in Osnabrück. It was in 1948 when Wilhelm Karmann bought a VW Beetle sedan and converted it into a four-seated convertible. After successfully presenting it at VW in Wolfsburg, production started in 1949. After a number of stylistic and technical alterations made to the Karmann cabriolet, (corresponding to the many changes VW made to the Beetle throughout its history), the last of 331,847 cabriolets came off the conveyor belt on 10 January 1980.

they were passed by a Corvette bearing an Avis sticker

Avis Rent a Car System, LLC is a American car rental company headquartered in Parsippany-Troy Hills Township, New Jersey, United States.[1] Avis, Budget Rent a Car and Budget Truck Rental are all units of Avis Budget Group.

Avis Budget Group operates the Avis brand in North America, Latin America, the Caribbean, India, Australia and, New Zealand. Recently Avis has acquired Avis Europe plc which once was a separate corporation licensing the Avis brand. Avis is the second largest car rental agency in the world preceded by Hertz Corporation.

Since the late 1970s, Avis has featured mainly General Motors (GM) vehicles such as Chevrolet and Cadillac, but today also rents popular non-GM brands including Ford and Toyota.

Avis is a leading rental car provider to the commercial segment serving business travellers at major airports around the world, and to leisure travellers at off-airport locations. Many of the off-airport locations are franchised operations rather than company-owned and -operated, as is the case with most airport locations. Avis was the first car rental business to be located at an airport.

The company was founded in 1946 with three cars at Willow Run Airport, Ypsilanti by Warren Avis (August 4, 1915 – April 24, 2007[2]). It established branch operations across the United States over the next few years, becoming the second largest car rental company in the country by 1953. By its tenth anniversary in 1956 it had opened its first international offices in Europe, Canada and Mexico.

Their corporate motto is "We Try Harder" It was adopted in 1962 (during the tenure of Robert Townsend as its CEO) to make a more positive reference of Avis' status as the second largest car rental company in the US, at the expense of its larger competitor The Hertz Corporation. In 1972, Avis introduced Wizard, the first computer-based information and reservations system to be used in a US car rental business; to this day, almost all frequent Avis customers are identified by their unique "Wizard number". In 1981, the company instituted its system of vehicle tracking, that was not coincidentally named Advanced Vehicle Identification System (AVIS).

Note that no rental cars have such stickers anymore, but rather are allowed to blend in with other cars. This is because thieves used to target rental cars, believing the drivers would leave luggage - including cameras - in the trunks of the cars, break in and steal them.

Pacific Vortex: peak mountains and more

Pg 169

"It's not unusual," said York, "when you consider that mountain peaks on land were being discovered right up until the 1940s."

http://news.google.com/newspapers?nid=888&dat=19480419&id=5y9PAAAAIBAJ&sjid=DE8DAAAAIBAJ&pg=5429,6371246

In 1948, a pilot named Moon Chin discovered a mountain peak in China that was 20,400 feet high. "The dome shaped peak stands alone...towering above the mountains beside it."

It was adjacent to the Amne Machine mountain range, and observers, on land, thought it was part of that range, rather than a separate mountain of its own.

"Coral will not thrive in water temperatures of less than seventy degrees."

Corals are marine animals in class Anthozoa of phylum Cnidaria typically living in compact colonies of many identical individual "polyps". The group includes the important reef builders that inhabit tropical oceans and secrete calcium carbonate to form a hard skeleton.

A coral "head" is a colony of myriad genetically identical polyps. Each polyp is a spineless animal typically only a few millimeters in diameter and a few centimeters in length. A set of tentacles surround a central mouth opening. An exoskeleton is excreted near the base. Over many generations, the colony thus creates a large skeleton that is characteristic of the species. Individual heads grow by asexual reproduction of polyps. Corals also breed sexually by spawning: polyps of the same species release gametes simultaneously over a period of one to several nights around a full moon.

Although corals can catch small fish and plankton, using stinging cells on their tentacles, most corals obtain the majority of their energy and nutrients from photosynthetic unicellular algae called zooxanthellae that live within the coral's tissue. Such corals require sunlight and grow in clear, shallow water, typically at depths shallower than 60 metres (200 ft). Corals can be major contributors to the physical structure of the coral reefs that develop in tropical and subtropical waters, such as the enormous Great Barrier Reef off the coast of Queensland, Australia. Other corals do not have associated algae and can live in much deeper water, with the cold-water genus Lophelia surviving as deep as 3,000 metres (9,800 ft).

Examples live on the Darwin Mounds located north-west of Cape Wrath, Scotland. Corals have also been found off the coast of the U.S. in Washington State and the Aleutian Islands in Alaska.

"Eucalyptus oil has been used for a number of years in Australia for purifying the air in mines."

Eucalyptus is a diverse genus of flowering trees and shrubs (including a distinct group with a multiple-stem mallee growth habit) in the myrtle family, Myrtaceae.

Members of the genus dominate the tree flora of Australia. There are more than 700 species of Eucalyptus, mostly native to Australia, and a very small number are found in adjacent areas of New Guinea and Indonesia and one, Eucalyptus deglupta, ranges north to the Philippines.

Only 15 species occur outside Australia, and only 9 do not occur in Australia. Species of Eucalyptus are cultivated throughout the tropics and subtropics including the Americas, Europe, Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East, China and the Indian Subcontinent.

Eucalyptus is one of three similar genera that are commonly referred to as "eucalypts," the others being Corymbia and Angophora. Many, but far from all, are known as gum trees because many species exude copious sap from any break in the bark (e.g. Scribbly Gum). The generic name is derived from the Greek words ευ (eu) "well" and καλυπτος (kalyptos) "covered," referring to the operculum on the calyx that initially conceals the flower.

Some Eucalyptus species have attracted attention from global development researchers and environmentalists. Such species have desirable traits such as being fast-growing sources of wood, producing oil that can be used for cleaning and functions as a natural insecticide, or an ability to be used to drain swamps and thereby reduce the risk of malaria. Outside their natural ranges, eucalypts are both lauded for their beneficial economic impact on poor populations and criticised for being "invasive water-suckers", leading to controversy over their total impact.

Pacific Vortex: Eton School of GEography

pg 165

"And Dr. Raymond York, Head of the Marine Geology Department for the Eton School of Oceanography."

Eton College, usually referred to as Eton, is a British independent school for boys aged 13 to 18. It was founded in 1440 by King Henry VI as "The King's College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor".

It is located in Eton, near Windsor in England, and is one of the nine English public schools regulated by the Public Schools Act 1868.

Eton has a long list of distinguished former pupils. David Cameron is the nineteenth British Prime Minister to have attended Eton.

Eton has traditionally been referred to as "the chief nurse of England's statesmen", and has been described as the most famous public school in the world. Early in the 20th century, a historian of Eton wrote, "No other school can claim to have sent forth such a cohort of distinguished figures to make their mark on the world."

The Good Schools Guide called the school "the number one boys' public school," adding, "The teaching and facilities are second to none." The school is a member of the G20 Schools Group.

"Sounds like a Hawaiin Shangri-La."

Shangri-La is a fictional place described in the 1933 novel Lost Horizon by British author James Hilton. Hilton describes Shangri-La as a mystical, harmonious valley, gently guided from a lamasery, enclosed in the western end of the Kunlun Mountains.

Shangri-La has become synonymous with any earthly paradise but particularly a mythical Himalayan utopia — a permanently happy land, isolated from the outside world. In the novel Lost Horizon, the people who live at Shangri-La are almost immortal, living years beyond the normal lifespan and only very slowly aging in appearance. The word also evokes the imagery of exoticism of the Orient. In the ancient Tibetan scriptures, existence of seven such places is mentioned as Nghe-Beyul Khimpalung.

Khembalung is one of several beyuls ("hidden lands" similar to Shangri-La) believed to have been created by Padmasambhava in the 8th century as idylic, sacred places of refuge for Buddhists during times of strife (Reinhard 1978).

The use of the term Shangri-La is frequently cited[by whom?] as a modern reference to Shambhala, a mythical kingdom in Tibetan Buddhist tradition, which was sought by Eastern and Western explorers; Hilton was also inspired by then-current National Geographic articles on Tibet, which referenced the legend.

"Lavella was a physicist who specialized in hydrology."

Hydrology is the study of the movement, distribution, and quality of water on Earth and other planets, including the hydrologic cycle, water resources and environmental watershed sustainability. A practitioner of hydrology is a hydrologist, working within the fields of earth or environmental science, physical geography, geology or civil and environmental engineering.

Domains of hydrology include hydrometeorology, surface hydrology, hydrogeology, drainage basin management and water quality, where water plays the central role. Oceanography and meteorology are not included because water is only one of many important aspects within those fields.

Hydrological research can inform environmental engineering, policy and planning.

Spartan Gold: Wisconsin POW camp and more

pg 110

"Those who did [German naval crew) spent the remainder of the war in a Wisconsin POW camp called Camp Lodi."

In the United States, at the end of World War II there were 175 Branch Camps serving 511 Area Camps containing over 425,000 prisoners of war (mostly German). The camps were located all over the US but were mostly in the South because of the expense of heating the barracks. Eventually, every state with the exception of Nevada, North Dakota, and Vermont had POW camps.

Wisconsin had about ten POW camps. (The list of camps at Wikipedia is incomplete.

"...the Lothringen spent about a month undergoing a refit at a secret base in the Bahamas...called Rum Cay."

Rum Cay is an island and district of the Bahamas. Lat.: N23 42' 30" - Long.: W 74 50' 00" - Size: 30 Sq. mls

Rum Cay is 20 miles (32 km) southwest of San Salvador Island, has many rolling hills that rises to about 120 feet (37 m). Christopher Columbus called it Santa Maria de la Concepción. The island is believed to have acquired its modern name from a shipwrecked cargo of rum. The main settlement is Port Nelson.

First known as Mamana by the Lucayan Indians, the cay was later renamed Santa María de la Concepción by Columbus. Spanish explorers once found a lone rum keg washed up on a shore and changed the name again to Rum Cay (pop: 53 1990 census). In the north there is a cave containing Lucayan drawings and carvings. Various artifacts from the Arawak period have been found by farmers in the fertile soil, which the Indians enriched with bat guano.

In common with other islands, Rum Cay has gone through a series of industry specific economic peaks. Pineapple, salt and sisal have all been important industries, but competition and natural disasters, such as the 1926 hurricane, have all taken their toll and today tourism is the main source of employment. Plantation boundaries known as ‘margins’ can be seen all over the island, which date from the beginning of the 19th century when Loyalists settled here. Nearly everybody lives in Port Nelson where cottages can be rented. Settlements such as Port Boyd, Black Rock and Gin Hill are now deserted and overgrown.

Deep reefs and drop-offs surround this former pirates’ haven. There is staghorn coral at Summer Point Reef and diving at Pinder’s Point. At the Grand Canyon, 60-foot coral walls almost reach the surface. Sumner Point Marina has dockage, fuel, moorings, WiFi, bar and restaurant. There is a small guesthouse available from former Constable Ted Bain. The Last Chance Yacht Supply has groceries. Batelco office for phone calls closes at lunchtime. Yachts wait here before sailing to Mayaguana or the Turks and Caicos Islands, or before returning to Georgetown and points north.

Adventuresome divers can still find the shaft, anchor chains and hawser holes of HMS Conqueror. It sank in 1861 and can still be found in 30 feet of water in a staghorn gully near the breaking reef.

"Get us on the next flight to Nassau."

Nassau is the capital, largest city, and commercial centre of the Commonwealth of the Bahamas. The city has a population of 248,948 (2010 census), 70 percent of the entire population of The Bahamas (353,658). Lynden Pindling International Airport, the major airport for The Bahamas, is located about 16 kilometres (9.9 mi) west of Nassau city centre, and has daily flights to major cities in the United States, the Caribbean, Canada, and the United Kingdom.

The city is located on the island of New Providence, which functions much like a business district. Nassau is the site of the House of Assembly and various judicial departments and was considered historically to be a stronghold of pirates.

Nassau's modern growth began in the late eighteenth century, with the influx of thousands of American Loyalists and enslaved Africans to the Bahamas following the American War of Independence. Many of them settled in Nassau (the then and still commerce capital of the Bahamas) and eventually came to outnumber the original inhabitants.

As the population of Nassau grew, so did the built-up areas. Today the city dominates the entire island and its satellite, Paradise Island. However, until the post-Second World War era, the outer suburbs scarcely existed. Most of New Providence was uncultivated bush until the loyalists came in the 1780s and established several plantations such as Clifton and Tusculum. When the British abolished the international slave Trade in 1807, thousands of liberated Africans freed from slave ships by the Royal Navy were settled on New Providence (at Adelaide Village and Gambier Village) along with other islands such as, Grand Bahama, Exuma, Abaco and Inagua. The largest concentration of Africans lived in the "Over-the-Hill" suburbs of Grants Town and Bain Town to the south of the city of Nassau, while most of the European descent inhabitants lived on the island's northern coastal ridges.

Cussler News: Best Selling Books

From Wisconsin State Journal: Bestselling books

HARDCOVER FICTION

1. "Lone Wolf," by Jodi Picoult. (Emily Bestler/Atria, $28) The children of a man who studies wolves must make difficult decisions when he is seriously injured in an accident. (Weeks on list: 3)

2. "Fate of the Jedi: Apocalypse," by Troy Denning. (LucasBooks, $27) Jedi and Sith reach the endgame in the finale of the Fate of the Jedi series; a "Star Wars" novel. (1)

3. "The Thief," by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott. (Putnam, $27.95) Isaac Bell tries to save scientists from German spies. (2)

4. "Kill Shot," by Vince Flynn. (Emily Bestler/Atria, $27.99) A CIA superagent hunting down perpetrators of the Pan Am Lockerbie bombing finds himself caught in a dangerous trap. (6)

5. "Private Games," by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan. (Little, Brown, $27.99) Peter Knight pursues a murderer who is trying to destroy the London Olympics. (5)

6. "Defending Jacob," by William Landay. (Delacorte, $26) An assistant district attorney's life is shaken when his 14-year-old son is accused of murder. (7)

7. "Victims," by Jonathan Kellerman. (Ballantine, $28) Los Angeles psychologist-detective Alex Delaware and detective Milo Sturgis track down a homicidal maniac. (3)

8. "A Dance with Dragons," by George R.R. Martin. (Bantam, $35) After a colossal battle, the Seven Kingdoms face new threats; Book 5 of "A Song of Ice and Fire." (33)

9. "The Expats," by Chris Pavone. (Crown, $26) A burned-out CIA operative encounters personal challenges and political espionage when she moves with her husband to Luxembourg. (2)

10. "The Wolf Gift," by Anne Rice. (Knopf, $25.95) The making of a modern werewolf. (5)

HARDCOVER NONFICTION

1. "American Sniper," by Chris Kyle with Scott McEwen and Jim DeFelice. (Morrow/HarperCollins, $26.99) A member of the Navy SEALs who has the most career sniper kills in U.S. military history discusses his childhood, his marriage and his battlefield experiences during the Iraq war. (11)

2. "Killing Lincoln," by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard. (Holt, $28) The anchor of "The O'Reilly Factor" looks at the events surrounding the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. (25)

3. "The Power of Habit," by Charles Duhigg. (Random House, $28) A Times reporter's account of the science behind how we form, and break, habits. (3)

4. "Steve Jobs," by Walter Isaacson. (Simon & Schuster, $35) A biography of the entrepreneur. (21)

5. "Better Than Normal," by Dale Archer. (Crown Archetype, $25) A psychiatrist redefines what constitutes mental health. (1)

6. "The Righteous Mind," by Jonathan Haidt. (Pantheon, $28.95) A psychologist argues that people make decisions based on moral intuitions, which makes them attack opponents self-righteously. (1)

7. "Unbroken," by Laura Hillenbrand. (Random House, $27) An Olympic runner's story of survival as a prisoner of the Japanese in World War II after his bomber went down over the Pacific. (70)

8. "Quiet," by Susan Cain. (Crown, $26) Introverts — one-third of the population — are undervalued in American society. (8)

9. "Bringing Up Bebe," by Pamela Druckerman. (Penguin Press, $25.95) An American mother discovers the principles of French parenting. (6)

10. "Thinking, Fast and Slow," by Daniel Kahneman. (Farrar, Straus & Giroux, $30) The winner of the Nobel in economic science discusses how we make choices in business and personal life and when we can and cannot trust our intuitions. (21)

— The New York Times