Tsunami wave arriving

we had a negative wave in the eastern areas of nouvelle zelande, water took 10 minutes to recede, came back slower. The chilean earthquake of 8.8 on the richter scale certainly arrived here. Auckland city is evacuating big ships form the waitemata harbour, including a cruise ship, leaving passengers marooned. waves in hivaoa have been 4 meters, rfo radio says. Civil defense says that geonet sea level recorder on chatham islands shows erratic oscillations. This will continue, for many hours, maybe days. This is because the quake is so far away. It is not safe to be on the beach for the time being. next update in ten minutes. *great barrier island, new zealand, over*

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Tsunami update photo 10:25nzdt

There was a drop in water level, here, too. The beach was wet, the sealevel was maybe a metre lower. Next update in 5 minutes.

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Tsunami water seen receding

In gisborne water level are dropping by one metre. Nothing to see here, yet.

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Tsunami wave arrival picture 8:39

Predicted 3 waves - first one oredicted to hit in 55 minutes here on great barrier island. The east coast of new zealand on high alert. Marqesas tahiti has had 1 meter wave. Tsunami alert civil defense radio broadcast on rnz. Update here in 20 minutes

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Tsunami 9 am new zealand time - nothing to see yet

first wave is expected here in about 40 minutes ..

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Tsumnami alert here in New Zealand's east coast.

I'll be taking pictures and posting them here, setting up now.

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Daily divination - orakel online

Hallo!!
Der astronomische taschenkalender ONLINE AUSGABE ist fertig!!!
Jeder kann sich taeglich die astrodaten runterladen, und esgit sogar eine kleine animation, wie beim daumenkino!
hier http://y23.com/apdoe/ ist sind die heutigen ereignisse der planeten und trivia.
Eine kleine premiere, web erstausgabe, taeglich neu.

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Regenwolken am meer

War grad schwimmen, jetzt versuche ich am strand zu faulenzen...

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Sunset 13febr2010

Nice xunset, huebsches abendrot, kitsch farben, laue luft, ruhe und einsamkeit, kein telefon, kein autolaerm. In dtl ist schneechaos seid wochen, weisser winter wie noch nie. Auch nicht schlecht, nur schaal und handschuhe braucht der mensch. Hier braucht man nur augen.

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The Graviton is a Phlogiston

For a bit of meditatino I can recommend the second half of the talk about Einstein from Radio New Zealand's The E=mc2 lectures A series of lectures from the Royal Society in association with Radio New Zealand to mark the centenary of Albert Einstein's Special Theory of Relativity.

6. Einstein: Who Was He, and What Were His Ideas About the Universe?
In this joint presentation Richard and Lesley Hall will bring their own theoretical perspectives to a discussion of this complex man.
Richard will explain the development of Einstein's revolutionary thinking about the nature of the universe, including relativity for beginners and Lesley Hall will discuss some of the other facets of this iconic figure: the student, the academic and the pacifist. Richard Hall, Phoenix Astronomical Society and Dr Lesley Hall, Victoria University. (duration: 54′49″)
Download: Ogg Vorbis   MP3

So Gravity *is* space!   Well, then -- it seems to me -- that this chap here has written a perceptive article:

Phlogiston Theory was an attempt, in the 17th century to rectify a problem in the practice of alchemy. You see, the Greeks believed that there were four elements in nature: earth, air, fire, and water. But when all you have is these four elements and everything in nature is comprised of only these four substances, then how to you explain wood burning and metal rusting? What process is taking place?

Phlogiston Theory throws out air and fire and then states that everything that is combustible contains another element called phlogiston that is liberated during combustion or oxidation. At the time it made perfect sense. When wood burns, it grows smaller and the flames might look like something released from within the wood, and when iron rusts, it crumbles into dust, possibly after having lost whatever held it together in the first place.

Phlogsiton is a massless, colorless, odorless, (etc.) substance. It is a substance completely without identifying qualities. And we know how scientists love things without qualities. It’s a lovely theory because at its outset, it is very tricky to disprove. It took over a hundred years to dethrone it as the dominant theory of combustion. Today we know, of course, that combustion is rapid oxidation of a flammable material and that rust or corrosion is a slower version of the same natural process. In Phlogiston Theory, the fact that iron oxide is heavier than pure iron was reconciled by positing that phlogiston has negative mass!

Hilarious, I know. But is it really so unreasonable?

In the most recent (double!) issue of Analog Magazine, Dr. Don Lincoln speaks out about the ludicrous controversy surrounding the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). His purpose is largely to allay fears that it’s going to destroy the world and generate some interest in the new, tasty bits of knowledge that it might allow us to discover. Throughout the article, he goes into some pretty serious depth about theoretical particle physics and what we know, what we don’t know, what we think we know, and what we want to know about it. In particular, he focuses on two things: the Higgs Boson and gravitons.

I’ll be getting back to phlogiston in a moment, so bear with me.

As you are possibly, there are four forces acting in the universe: the strong, the weak, electromagnetism, and gravity. Since we know that there is a particle associated with the first three (and the strongest) forces, it is theorized that there is a fourth particle called a graviton that is associated with the gravitational force. Now, since gravity is the problem child of the four forces, with very little resemblance to any of its associates, we are bound by the principles of science to test the royal crap out of the theory in an attempt to prove it wrong.

But it’s not so easy.

What I’m saying is, we have to entertain the possibility that the graviton is a phlogiston, which we might, for the moment, define as “something that we make up in order to fill a gap in our current understanding of some subject.”

So how does a phlogiston differ from a hypothesis?

Even more “phlogistic” than the graviton is the Higgs Boson. If it exists, we can pat ourselves on the back for unifying the weak force and electromagnetism (electroweak). In fact, the current Standard Model of particle physics depends on its existence. It’s entirely possible that we are, in essence, making it up to explain the way the world works. Granted, these hypotheses and theories are based on tremendous mountains of verified evidence and extrapolated outward from them, there is still a lot that we don’t know about the world and it’s very possible that whole other models could be constructed that would fit our current data.

Who knows? When the LHC is activated later this year, it might generate data that would topple the Standard Model completely. It seems unlikely, but it’s entirely possible. The point is, the Higgs Boson might not be a phlogiston much longer now that we can actually test it.

Perhaps the most phlogistic of all theories (aside from Phlogiston Theory) is String Theory, and it has to be one of my all time favorites. I ate Brian Green’e book like a hobo eats pork’n'beans! It’s a marvelous theory. “Elegant” is perhaps the best word for it and if the world has any sense of artfulness (think Oscar Wilde, here), then String Theory has to be correct. But is it?

As a side note, it’s interesting how the Higgs Boson theory, the newer theories of gravity, and String Theory all seem to predict extra dimensions.

Anyway, I don’t necessarily mean to say that all theories are phlogistic until they have evidence to support them. Some are definitely going to be more phlogistic than others. Some, like String Theory, are likely to remain phlogistons until we can find some way of observing something tinier than the tiniest thing the human mind can conceive.

In the end, what we must understand about Phlogiston Theory, as a bit of science history, is that it was actually quite reasonable at the time. We must remember that European scientific inquiry for much of the Middle Ages was based on the assumption that the Greeks had got it right. Suddenly, the four elements idea wasn’t holding up, which meant that they were being questioned for the first time since Aristotle. Johann Becher, the scientist who first posited Phlogiston Theory, was engaging in a profoundly scientific act: he posed a hypothesis. Granted, he lacked follow-through, like attempting to test the hypothesis through experimentation, but he revised the Standard Model of the day and, since most philosophers were rationalists (he was, after all, a contemporary of Descartes), experimentation wasn’t necessarily required for a theory to become accepted. In point of fact, while it was technically possible at the time to test the theory, the techniques simply hadn’t been devised yet to test it.

The thing to take home: phlogiston was disproved a lot quicker than the Greeks’ four elements.

So let’s re-define a phlogiston thusly: a theory composed to fill a gap in understanding that is not yet possible to test thoroughly.

And let’s not judge Phlogiston Theory too harshly, because honestly, it was an improvement, but also because we might be assuming a hefty handful of phlogistic nonsense ourselves. Stay skeptical, but continue to indulge the occasional case of whimsy, because you never know just where the solution to some problem might appear. At least phlogiston got people thinking again.

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HOWTO instructions 083210 call minder answerphone answaphone answafone answer phone manual

Enter your PIN
Press 1 to listen to your messages.

How to check your messages from another landline
Dial 083210 (then press * if that phone also has Call Minder)
Enter your mailbox number (your area code, without the zero, followed by
your
phone number, e.g. 9 123 4567)
Enter your PIN
Press 1 to listen to your messages.

How to check your messages from a mobile
Dial #00 SND
Enter your PIN (if prompted)
Press 1 to listen to your messages

While listening to your messages you can:

1. Press 0 to get help.
2. Press 1 to repeat the message.
3. Press 2 to save the message.
4. Press 3 to delete the message.
5. Press 6 to scan your messages.
6. Press 7 to rewind the message back 10 seconds.
7. Press 8 to pause the message (press 8 again to restart).
8. Press 9 to forward the message 10 seconds or skip the date and
time before a message.
9. Press 11 to find out when the message was received. Your
message will continue to play from where it was interrupted.
10. Press # to skip to the next message.
11. Press * to go back to the main menu.
12. Press *** or END to exit your mailbox.

Deleting by mistake
If you delete a message by mistake - don't hang up. Press the * key to go
back to the main menu and press 1 to listen to your messages again. The
message you deleted will be played last. You can then choose to listen
to it
again, save or delete it.

Please Note: Once you've hung up, you won't be able to retrieve any
messages
you've deleted.

Saving messages
Messages can be saved for 99 days each time you open and resave them. Your
mailbox can hold up to 20 three-minute messages (both new and saved). It
would be helpful to clear your messages regularly, so callers don't find
your
mailbox is full.
Call Minder User Guide
Call Minder will take messages for you as soon as it is connected. If
you don't
answer the phone, your caller will hear the following greeting: "You have
reached the mailbox of (your phone number). Please leave a detailed message
after the tone".

An interrupted dial tone (a series of fast beeps) when you pick up the
phone
means you have a new message. You can't retrieve any messages until you
have set up your Call Minder.

General points about Call Minder
Your messages are kept in your mailbox. Each mailbox can take messages for
up to five phone numbers, e.g. two business phones, a home phone, a holiday
home phone and a mobile phone.
Your mailbox number is your area code and phone number less the leading
zero in your area code. For example if your phone number is (09) 123 4567,
your mailbox number would be 9 123 4567.
Your PIN is your personal identification number.
Voice prompts guide you when using your mailbox. Listen to the prompts and
follow the instructions. You can press 0 for help at any time.

How to open your mailbox for the first time
Dial 083210
Enter your area code without the zero and your telephone number i.e. 9 123
4567 (this is your temporary PIN).
Enter a new PIN.
Press # - you are now at the main menu.
Now simply follow the voice prompts to set up your mailbox.

How to set up your mailbox
From the main menu press 3 for personal options.
Follow the voice prompts to:

• Choose the standard greeting or to record your own.
• Change your PIN to make your mailbox more secure (a PIN must be
between four and ten digits and can't start with 0).
• Record your mailbox name which is played when you access your
mailbox.
• Set the number of rings (between 0 and 9) before Call Minder answers -
if you don't change the setting it will answer after four rings.

How to listen to your messages
If there is a new message in your mailbox, you'll hear an interrupted
dial tone
(a series of fast beeps) when you pick up the phone. You can check your
messages from any phone.

How to check your messages from your telephone
Dial 083210 How to access your Call Minder from overseas
Dial the International access code of the country you are calling from
(e.g.
0011 for Australia).
Dial 64 (New Zealand access code).
Dial 83 083210 and wait for the greeting.
Enter your mailbox number.
Press #.
Enter your PIN.
Press # - you are now at the main menu.

How to turn Call Minder off or on
To turn Call Minder off
From the main menu:
Press 3 for personal options.
Press 3 again for ringing options.
Press # to turn Call Minder off.

To Turn Call Minder on
From the main menu:
Press 3 for personal options.
Press 3 again for ringing options.
Choose the number of rings (between 0 and 9)

How to leave a message in your own mailbox
Dial 083210 0000 from your phone.
Leave a message.

-----

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Olympia Vancouver - hordes of dirty homeless beggars

Have you ever visited Vancouver?

discreet photo of homeless abode on doorway

Here are the photos:
http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20091105-ac-can-haw/
http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20091104-can-hawaii/
http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20091101-galiano/
http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20091031-van-gal/
http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20091029-ac-yvr/

The first thing you notice is the many dirty homeless people begging for money.

One doesn't see that in Sweden, Netherlands, France Germany Belgium Spain, Italy, Poland Denmark Finland etc.

Only in USA, Great Britain and Canada.

Heartless capitalist society - rather spends big on weapons of mass destruction and on elites...
The Creed of Capital: Teach people that they are not a society, but a bunch of brutal egoists. its good for business. Cooperatives? NO!! Lone people are much more exploitable. UNIONS?  Fight labor unions! Smear them! Corrupt them!! Memebership in USA, Canada, UK, Australia and New Zealand is waaaaay down. Right now in Germany there are strikes of public workers.  Every day the word union is mentioned in the news. When was the last time your heard it in an angloamerican broadcast?  Corporate media! Perception Management!

On February 3, 2008, the first annual Poverty Olympics were held at the Carnegie  Library in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside

Many of the already-overstretched public programs for people in poverty in Vancouver have been eliminated or had their budgets cut to pay for the Olympics

The United Nations survey on livability rates Vancouver in the top handful of cities on earth. And this year we're hosting the Winter Olympics --  But the homeless population is shocking. Canadas are as bad as US Americans when it comes to the victims of capitalism.

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20091031-van-gal/n20091031-n20060302_195025.html

About 600 people including many homeless have held the Poverty Olympics in Vancouver to protest!!

Long-time antipoverty activist Jean Swanson told the Straight she “never really had any confidence or faith” in the upcoming 2010 Winter Olympics.

So she is one of the organizers behind an Olympics-style event with a twist: the Poverty Olympics. Spectators can come to Carnegie Theatre (401 Main Street) and check out the poverty-line high jump, the welfare hurdles, and a "broad jump across a bedbug-infested mattress". Swanson is a coordinator with the Carnegie Community Action Project, a sponsor of the event next Sunday (February 3), from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., and she is also involved with the Raise the Rates Coalition.
"We want to be able to put some pressure on the government to do something about welfare, housing, and minimum wage," Swanson said by phone. It has been hard lately, not so much with housing, but there has not been much interest with the other things. So we thought we would do this. Swanson promised to e-mail international media to "show the world coming to the Olympics what the real poverty situation in Vancouver is". CCAP community organizer Wendy Pedersen handed out Poverty Olympics posters at the Coal Harbour Community Centre on January 13, where she told the Straight that other organizations behind the event include the Downtown Eastside Neighbourhood House, Streams of Justice, and the Vancouver Area Network of Drug Users.

Pedersen mentioned the Poverty Olympics when former Vancouver city planner Kris Olds lectured at SFU's Harbour Centre campus on January 21 on housing rights.

Swanson quipped: "The Olympics are going to have mascots, so we are going to have mascots. They are not going to be made in China, and they are not going to be contortions of aboriginal stuff. We have Itchy, and you'll have to come to find out the other two. Itchy is a bedbug."

Swanson also had three quick requests for Premier Gordon Campbell: “Build thousands of units of housing, raise welfare rates, and end barriers to getting on welfare


Protesters disrupt Vancouver Olympics celebration

Last Updated: Monday, February 12, 2007 | 10:10 PM ET   CBC Sports
Protesters hurling eggs, rocks and profanity-laced insults disrupted what was supposed to be a celebration of the opening ceremony of the 2010 Vancouver Olympics on Monday.

A crowd of about 60 anti-poverty activists descended on a celebration outside the Vancouver art gallery, where a crowd of several hundred people were watching dignitaries and political leaders unveil a countdown clock that is ticking down the seconds until the Games begin in exactly three years from now.

Protesters gather at the unveiling of the Olympic countdown clock Monday.(CBC)

Dozens of police, some on horseback and wearing riot gear, arrested seven people. One officer dragged a protester off the stage, another tackled a woman with a bandana across her face. Insp. Steve Schnitzer said police anticipated a protest, but nothing of this scale. He said police will keep the disruption in mind when planning for the next pre-Olympic event. "We have lots of interactions with this group and this is probably the most violent that we've seen it happen," he said, calling the demonstrators "hooligans". "They pushed by police officers, they pushed by citizens that were there to have a good time, they pushed over fencing, they jumped fencing and then they pushed the master of ceremonies to get to the podium." He said the protesters, who are believed to be with the group Anti-Poverty Committee, threw eggs, paint-filled balloons and rocks wrapped in papier mâché. They shouted obscenities and booed B.C. Premier Gordon Campbell as he addressed the crowd. City needs to focus on needy: protesters

Some members of the group unveiled their own doomsday-style clock at the event, which concludes that by 2010, 6,000 people will be homeless in Vancouver. The protesters said the city must focus on finding affordable housing for the poor.

"You can see that the numbers are starting to get bigger, and that's because we're losing the housing in the downtown eastside, to Olympic speculation and gentrification," said anti-poverty activist Wendy Peterson.

The Vancouver Olympic Committee (VANOC) did not acknowledge the protest as it unveiled its countdown clock, which is made of cedar, glass and stainless steel and stands six metres tall and three metres wide.

The timepiece will tick down to the opening ceremony on Feb. 12, 2010.

The clock was inspired by the shapes of the Ilanaaq - the emblem of the Games, and Vancouver's natural and urban landscape.
Two electronic clocks are on the face of the sculpture- one - clock marks the countdown to the start of the Winter Games and the other displays the countdown to the Paralympic Games

"With only 36 months to go until Games time, it serves as a compelling, constant reminder of how close we are to welcoming the world to Vancouver, Whistler and Canada in 2010," said John Furlong, the head of VANOC.

The premier attended the event, along with Vancouver Mayor Sam Sullivan and David Emerson, the federal minister in charge of the Olympics. Olympic silver medallist Jeff Pain and Paralympic champion Lauren Woolstencroft also took part.

"This clock that we unveiled today will not only remind us of the years and months and weeks until we actually light that torch but it will remind us of how intense the competition really is," the premier said.
The Olympics will last 17 days. Events will be held in Vancouver and about 120 kilometres north, in Whistler. The Paralympic Games begin on March 21, 2010.

The cost of the venue construction for the Games has been pegged at $580 million. Last year, VANOC needed a $110-million cash infusion from the B.C. and federal governments to make up funding shortfalls.

Originally, $470 million was budgeted for venue construction. The discrepancy, according to VANOC, came about because the estimate was based on 2003 dollars and didn't take into account soaring construction costs in B.C.

 With files from the Canadian Press

. A crowd on Sunday in Vancouver protested the spending of hundreds of millions of  dollars on the Olympic Winter Games while still being homeless..
http://www.google.com/search?q=wendy+petersen+olympix+vancouver

YouTube - Poverty Olympics 2008 Pictures and Wendy's statement.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ecei011NahM

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FW: Re: Gales in wellington

Not even close, so no cigar.
The real bastards and that includes Key don't live in Wellington.
Key for example in Auckland in a rather nice mansion...

On Fri, 12 Feb 2010 17:36:09 +1300, <weihrauch@quantentunnel.de> wrote:

> And its a nice day here again. wgtn politicians are so vulnerable to
> comfort-enhancing bribes by private profiteer business conspiracies
> there. Politics could benefit from our representatives living in more
> comfortable climes.

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Gales in wellington

And its a nice day here again. wgtn politicians are so vulnerable to comfort-enhancing bribes by private profiteer business conspiracies there. Politics could benefit from our representatives living in more comfortable climes.

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Gales in wellington

And its a nice day here again. wgtn politicians are so vulnerable to comfort-enhancing bribes by private profiteer business conspiracies there. Politics could benefit from our representatives living in more comfortable climes.

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Great barrier at 3pm wednesday 10 febr

Quick impression from here, using the free plodge accesspoint. i killed 4 rats in the last 5 days, using honey dipped pear as bait. Tonight dinner at the piano teacher. She'll cook something.

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FIRST FOSSIL in New Zealand's Te Papa

The VERY FIRST fossil that prooves that God DID NOT create the earth
5000 years ago (or he is a trickster god who buries fake fossils
in order to have fun with atheists!) -- is held in New Zealand

Listen to this talk, and hear the Authority brag about it!!

4. Age of The Earth: The Victorians

How is the age of a rock or a fossil determined? The answer has much to do with the amazing discoveries of Lord Rutherford and Albert Einstein. Thanks to the amazing intellect of these scientists and their Victorian colleagues, humanity discovered how to decipher Earth's history. No longer could rock be perceived as dusty, boring, hard grey matter and geologists as quaint nutters with hammers. Rocks, minerals and fossils are the memory banks of our planet.

Hamish Campbell will discuss a number of exciting earth science research projects: the age of New Zealand's oldest rocks, the origin of New Zealand's oldest sedimentary rocks, the age of the New Zealand land surface, the age of the Chatham Islands, the characterisation of New Zealand nephrite (pounamu) on the basis of age, and not least, the age of the Earth itself.

Dr Hamish Campbell, Geological and Nuclear Sciences/Te Papa.
(duration: 48.27.)
Download mp3:

http://podcast.radionz.co.nz/emc2/emc2-20080908-06
00-4._Age_of_The_Earth_The_Victorians-048.mp3

(join the two lines)

Gideon Algernon Mantell MRCS FRS (Lewes, 3 February 1790 . London, 10 November 1852) was an English obstetrician, geologist and palaeontologist. His attempts to reconstruct the structure and life of Iguanodon began the scientific study of dinosaurs: in 1822 he was responsible for the discovery (and the eventual identification) of the first fossil teeth, and later much of the skeleton, of Iguanodon. Mantell's work on the Cretaceous of southern England was also important.

Mantell was born in Lewes, Sussex as the fifth-born child of Thomas Mantell, a shoemaker,[1] and Sarah Austen.[2] He was raised in a small cottage in St. Mary's Lane with his two sisters and four brothers. As a youth, he showed a particular interest in the field of geology. He explored pits and quarries in the surrounding areas, discovering ammonites, shells of sea urchins, fish bones, coral, and worn-out remains of dead animals.[3] The Mantell children could not study at local grammar schools because the elder Mantell was a follower of the Methodist church and the 12 free schools were reserved for only those who had been brought up in the Anglican faith. As a result, Gideon was educated at a dame school in St. Mary's Lane, and learned basic reading and writing from an old woman. After the death of his teacher, Mantell was schooled by John Button, a philosophically radical Whig who shared similar political beliefs with Mantell's father.[4] Mantell spent two years with Button, before being sent to his uncle, a Baptist minister, in Swindon, for a period of private study.

Mantell returned to Lewes at age 15. With the help of a local Whig party leader, Mantell secured an apprenticeship with a local surgeon named James Moore.[5] He served as an apprentice to Moore in Lewes for a period of five years, in which he took care of Mantell's dining, lodging and medical issues. Mantell's early apprenticeship duties included cleaning vials, as well as separating and arranging drugs. Soon, he learned how to make pills and other pharmaceutical products. He delivered Moore's medicines, kept his accounts, wrote out bills and extracted teeth from his patients.[6] On July 11, 1807, Thomas Mantell died at the age of 57.[7] He willed his son with some money for his future studies.[8] As his time with the apprenticeship began to wind down, he began to anticipate his medical education. He began to teach himself human anatomy, and he ultimately detailed his new-found knowledge in a volume entitled The Anatomy of the Bones, and the Circulation of Blood, which contained dozens of detailed drawings of fetal and adult skeletal features.[6] Soon, Mantell began his formal medical education in London. He received his diploma as a Member of the Royal College of Surgeons in 1811.[9] Four days later, he received a certificate from the Lying-in Charity for Married Women at Their Own Habitations that allowed him to act in midwifery duties.

Inspired by Mary Anning's sensational discovery of a fossilised animal resembling a huge crocodile (later identified as an ichthyosaur) at Lyme Regis in Dorset, Mantell became passionately interested in the study of the fossilised animals and plants found in his area. The fossils he had collected from the region, known as The Weald in Sussex, were from the chalk downlands covering the county. The chalk is part of the Upper Cretaceous Period and the fossils it contains are marine in origin. But by 1819, Mantell had begun acquiring fossils from a quarry, at Whitemans Green, near Cuckfield. These included the remains of terrestrial and freshwater ecosystems, at a time when all the known fossil remains from Cretaceous England, hitherto, were marine in origin. He named the new strata the Strata of Tilgate Forest, after an historical wooded area and it was later shown to belong to the Lower Cretaceous.

By 1820, he had started to find very large bones at Cuckfield, even larger than those discovered by William Buckland, at Stonesfield in Oxfordshire. Then, in 1822, shortly before finishing his first book (The Fossils of South Downs), his wife found several large teeth (although some historians contend that they were in fact discovered by himself), the origin of which he could not identify. In 1821 Mantell planned his next book on the geology of Sussex. It was an immediate success with two hundred subscribers including a letter from king George IV at Carlton house palace which read "His majesty is pleased to command that his name should be placed at the head of the subscription list for four copies."

How the king heard of Mantell is unknown, but Mantell's response is. Galvanised and encouraged, Mantell showed the teeth to other scientists but they were dismissed as belonging to a fish or mammal and from a more recent rock layer than the other Tilgate Forest fossils. The eminent French anatomist, Georges Cuvier, identified the teeth as those of a rhinoceros.

Although according to Charles Lyell, Cuvier made this statement after a late party and apparently had some doubts when reconsidering the matter when he awoke, fresh in the morning. "The next morning he told me that he was confident that it was something quite different." Strangely, this change of opinion did not make it back to Britain where Mantell was mocked for his error. Mantell was still convinced that the teeth had come from the Mesozoic strata and finally recognized that they resembled those of the iguana, but were twenty times larger. He surmised that the owner of the remains must have been at least 60 feet (18 metres) in length.

He tried in vain to convince his peers that the fossils were from Mesozoic strata, by carefully studying rock layers. William Buckland famously disputed Mantell's assertion, by claiming that the teeth were of fish.

When it was proved Mantell was correct the only question was what to call his new reptile. His original name was "Iguana-saurus" but he then received a letter from William Daniel Conybeare, "Your discovery of the analogy between the Iguana and the fossil teeth is very interesting but the name you propose will hardly do, because it is equally applicable to the recent iguana. Iguanoides or Iguanodon would be better." Mantell took this advice to heart and called his creature Iguanodon.

Years later, Mantell had acquired enough fossil evidence to show that the dinosaur's forelimbs were much shorter than its hind legs, therefore proving they were not built like a mammal as claimed by Sir Richard Owen. Mantell went on to demonstrate that fossil vertebrae, which Owen had attributed to a variety of different species, all belonged to Iguanodon. He also named a new genus of dinosaur called Hylaeosaurus and as a result became an authority on prehistoric reptiles.

In 1833, Mantell relocated to Brighton but his medical practice suffered. He was almost rendered destitute, but for the town's council who promptly transformed his house into a museum. The museum in Brighton ultimately failed as a result of Mantell's habit of waiving the entrance fee. Finally destitute, Mantell offered to sell the entire collection to the British Museum, in 1838, for £5,000, accepting the counter-offer of £4,000. He moved to Clapham Common in South London, where he continued his work as a doctor.

Mary Mantell left her husband in 1839. That same year, Gideon's son Walter emigrated to New Zealand. Walter later sent his father some important fossils from New Zealand. Gideon's daughter, Hannah, died in 1840.

In 1852, Mantell took an overdose of opium and later lapsed into a coma. He died that afternoon. His post-mortem showed that he had been suffering from scoliosis. Richard Owen, his long-time nemesis, had a section of Mantell's spine removed, pickled and stored on a shelf at the Royal College of Surgeons of England. It remained there until 1969 when it was destroyed due to lack of space [15].

Mantell's surgery, on the south side of Clapham Common, is now a dental surgery.

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What have I been doing? Travelling!! PICTURE GALLERIES

Hello boys and girls!!

What have I been doing? Travelling!! Here is 2009:

Great Barrier Island, Northland, Wellington, Hawaii, Canada
Berlin, Shanghai, Luxembourg, Belgium, Karlsruhe

Newest to Oldest:

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20100206-gbi2/index.html

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20100128-gbi/index.html

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20100122-northland/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20100103-wgtn09last/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20091123-hon-akl/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20091116-waikiki/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20091113-waikiki/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20091109-waikiki/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20091105-ac-can-haw/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20091104-can-hawaii/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20091101-galiano/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20091031-van-gal/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20091030-vancouver/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20091029-ac-yvr/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20091015-berlin/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090810-ac-fahnen/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090717-fra-pvg/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090718b-china-TV/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090718a-china/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090719c-hifi/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090719b-art/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090719a-temple/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090720-china/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090721-china/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090722a-china-ecl/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090722b-china/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090726-china-nl/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090710-lux3c-city/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090716-ac-jam/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090710-lux3b-stahl/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090710-lux3a-steel/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090629-lux1c-reims/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090705-lux2a/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090629-lux1b-reims/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090629-lux1a-reims/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090705-lux2c/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090705-lux2b/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090617-verviers/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090613-GermBelg/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090613-doudou/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090611-ac-dj-t-shirt/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090603-karlsruhe2/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090603-ac-karlsruh/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090520-1st-germany/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090518-AKL-FRA-2/

http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/20090518-AKL-FRA/

more and older pictures: http://www-2.net/y23.stock.pictures/?C=M;O=D

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