Apple #635: Turkey Vultures

The other day, as I was driving away from a friend's house out in the country, I saw two gigantic black shapes up in a tree.  They were so big, I thought they couldn't be birds, they must be black trash bags caught in the tree or maybe someone had put statues of owls up in the tree to scare away the woodpeckers.  But when I looked again, I realized they were actually birds.  They were so enormous, I knew they had to be turkey vultures.

I stopped, turned around, pulled over to the side of the road, and took pictures using my handy built-in zoom lens. They didn't move, and they looked so bizarre that, even though I was looking at them through my camera, I doubted for a moment that they were real.  They looked like statues, or somebody's bizarre idea of what clown-birds from outer space might look like. Then they moved.  It kind of spooked me.



A pair of turkey vultures (a.k.a. clown-birds from outer space)
(Photo by the Apple Lady)

Basic Facts & Identification

• Turkey vultures can be anywhere from 25 to 32 inches long, or roughly 2-1/2 feet long.  That's just slightly smaller than a bald eagle.

• They have a wingspan of 6 feet.  That's right, their wingspan is as wide as a man is tall.

• For all their size, they only weigh about 6 pounds.  I guess that's part of being a bird and having those special bones that are hollow enough to allow for flight.

• You most often see turkey vultures flying up in the sky.  They look big enough to be a hawk or an eagle, but you can tell they're turkey vultures by a number of traits:

• They tend to wobble or teeter as they soar. They're either trying to catch thermals and get a better lift, or trying to catch scents.

• The undersides of their bodies are black but their tail feathers are white, so if you see a distinct dark vs. light coloring on the underside, it's probably a turkey vulture.

• Sometimes even though they're up in the sky, you can make out the red head.

 
The light vs. dark coloring on the underside of the turkey vulture might be the most obvious identifier.
(Photo from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology)

Don't They Eat Dead Things? And Isn't that Gross?

• Turkey vultures eat carrion -- the flesh of dead animals and birds.  A lot of people think they're scavengers that pick off the food that other animals have killed, but most of the time, they are the first to arrive on the scene where an animal has died, whether the animal was hit by a car, or succumbed to disease, or was injured and managed to get away but died later.

• Turkey vultures are so quick to arrive because they have an extraordinarily powerful sense of smell.  When they're up soaring above the canopy of the trees, they can detect the minutest scent of carrion coming up from the ground through the trees into the sky.

• Because they eat the flesh of dead animals, most people think vultures are ugly, or undesirable, or a bad omen.  But they are, as Hagrid would say, "dead useful."  Not only do they take care of dead animals -- something most of us wouldn't want to do -- but they have really remarkable immune systems.  Most of us avoid dead animals because the corpses are rife with bacteria and all sorts of other nasty things that would make us very sick.  Not turkey vultures.  They can eat all sorts of stuff and they are not affected by things like botulism, cholera, salmonella, or even anthrax.

• In fact, even their droppings are disease-free.  So they really help clean up the place. 

Sometimes you see turkey vultures hanging around with their wings open a little, like this.  They're probably letting their feathers dry after a heavy dewfall, or else regulating their body heat.
(Photo from Ask the Birds and They Will Tell You)

• Tibetan Buddhists regard the vulture in a positive light, as a creature that helps release the human soul from the dead body.  The Latin word for the turkey vulture reflects this view: Cathartes aura means "golden purifier" or "purifying breeze."

• One of the few things that harm turkey vultures is lead shot.  If a turkey vulture eats an animal that has been shot by a hunter, the vulture will also consume the ammunition, and then eventually it will contract lead poisoning.

• You don't want to be without vultures (turkey or otherwise).  In some parts of urban India where accidental poisoning killed off so many of the vultures, there aren't enough of the birds to clean up the dead animals.  So now details of people have to go around burying animals so that people don't get sick.

• So, yes, they eat dead things.  But they're really good at it, and they're doing everyone else a huge favor. 

• One little note: just because they're circling doesn't necessarily mean they're closing in on something dead down below.  They could just be traveling as a group on the same thermal. 

• A group of vultures circling is called a kettle.  If they're just hanging out, not flying, then they're called a venue. 

These turkey vultures may look like they're circling over some carrion, but actually, they're just migrating.
(Photo from Cornell Lab of Ornithology's Birdscope)

Turkey Vultures & Wild Turkeys

• The fact that they eat carrion is why they don't have feathers on their heads -- or at least, that's what we assume.  Vultures can eat and not be affected by all sorts of toxins, but it might be a different thing if they went around with that toxic stuff in their face-feathers.

• By the way, turkey vultures keep their leg feathers clean by urinating on themselves.  That may sound gross and terrible, but actually the uric acids kill any bacteria they may have picked up, and it's what helps keep themselves healthy.

• The turkey vulture's bald head is why they're named after turkeys.  Because they look kind of like a wild turkey.

The wild turkey has a bald head like a turkey vulture does, but it also has the wattle under its chin and that knob over the beak which is called a snood.
(Photo by the Apple Lady)

• But there are several differences between the two types of birds.  Besides the fact that wild turkeys can't fly much higher than low tree branches, as compared to turkey vultures which like to get up there and soar around on the thermals, and the fact that turkey vultures' feathers are more brown while wild turkeys' feathers are more blue-black, there's also a difference in that bald head.  

• The head of a turkey vulture is red and bald.  A wild turkey's head isn't entirely featherless, and the male's head may be blue, red, or white, depending on the time of year.  It is thought that the color changes are associated with trying to attract a mate, or trying to intimidate other male rivals.  The female wild turkey's head is gray-blue and does not change.

 

Vultures, Buzzards, and . . . What?

• A lot of Americans use the word "buzzard" to describe vultures, especially out West.  Actually, buzzards are types of hawks that live in Europe (they're related to the red-tailed hawk that we have in the States and look somewhat similar). The misuse probably came about when people from Europe saw vultures and thought they were the same thing as buzzards.  But they're not.

• Now here's a tidbit that will really tweak your vulture ideas: for a long time, scientists classified vultures with the big birds of prey like hawks and eagles.  But actually, DNA tests show that vultures are not related to raptors (who, for example, have almost zero sense of smell) but rather are more closely related to storks.  Yup, the ones that bring the babies.  Let that float around in your boat for a while.

Wood stork, more closely related to the turkey vulture than the turkey or the hawk.
(Photo from Birds and Gators)

Sources

Cornell Lab of Ornithology, Turkey Vulture (Cathartes aura)

Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources, Environmental Education for Kids, Turkey Vulture

Turkey Vulture Society, Turkey Vulture Facts, Maps, and Statistics
Adirondack Wildlife, Turkey Vultures

National Wild Turkey Federation, What Does a Wild Turkey Look Like?

Apple #634: Pre-Euro European Currency

Daily Apple reader Laxmi asked me a pretty difficult question, which actually turns out to be quite timely and intriguing:

Apple Lady, what happened to all the European currency from different countries after the Euro was adopted? Did the banks just start hoarding the Francs and Drachmas and burn them all up or something? Thought of this over the weekend when I found some coins in a box...

French franc from 1974
(Image from UCoin)


The reason this gets interesting is because a lot of people are talking about the possibility of one or two countries leaving the Euro, or going back to a national currency, or the whole EU dissolving altogether.  So could those old coins possibly become the currency of choice again?  And, I'm assuming the reason Laxmi is asking, could they maybe be worth a little more?

As is inherent in Laxmi's question, the answer to what might happen in the future lies in what happened in the past.

• On January 1, 1999, the Euro was introduced in participating countries.  People in those countries continued to use their national currencies, and they also used the Euro.  You could pay for your sandwich with either your Belgian franc or a Euro, no problem.

• On January 1, 2002, the Euro was introduced in still more countries, those in the "euro-area."  They too could pay for things with either their national currency or with the Euro.

• As people paid with their national currency, the European Commission says, "national cash . . . was progressively withdrawn from circulation, mainly collected by shops and banks." In other words, when people converted their original national currency into euros, the banks and stores hung onto that currency and then turned it in.

• By March 1, 2002, only the Euro currency was accepted in the euro area.

Member states of the EU.
(Map from Wikimedia Commons)

• So that's how they phased out national currencies.  To prevent people from stockpiling and making a profit from the changeover, before the EU introduced the Euro, they established fixed conversion rates for each of the national currencies.  Those fixed rates are the same today as they were in December 1998 when they were first established.

 Fixed euro conversion rates for the 17 member states

€	Currency
1	= BEF 40.3399 (Belgian francs)
1	= DEM 1.95583 (Deutsche Mark)
1	= EEK 15.6466 (Estonian kroon)
1	= IEP 0.787564 (Irish pound)
1	= GRD 340.750 (Greek drachmas)
1	= ESP 166.386 (Spanish pesetas)
1	= CYP 0.585274 (Cyprus pound)
1	= FRF 6.55957 (French francs)
1	= ITL 1936.27 (Italian lire)
1	= LUF 40.3399 (Luxembourg francs)
1	= MTL 0.429300 (Maltese lira)
1	= NLG 2.20371 (Dutch guilders)
1	= ATS 13.7603 (Austrian schillings)
1	= PTE 200.482 (Portuguese escudos)
1	= SIT 239.640 (Slovenian tolars)
1	= SKK 30.1260 (Slovak koruna)
1	= FIM 5.94573 (Finnish markkas)

In addition to the above 17 member states, 10 other countries are members of the EU, but they do not participate in using the Euro currency.  These 10 countries are Bulgaria, Czech Republic, Denmark, Latvia, Lithuania, Hungary, Poland, Romania, Sweden and the United Kingdom. Iceland, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, and Turkey are all acknowledged candidates.

• So, Laxmi, reading that above list, if your francs are French francs, you would need almost 7 of them to get 1 euro.  At the moment, 1 euro is worth about $1.30. (To get an updated rate, check here.)  So those French francs are not worth that much.

• OK, so those bills and coins were "withdrawn from circulation." What does that mean?

• Honestly, I'm not sure what it means in the EU, but I can tell you what it means in the US, and assume the process is roughly the same in the EU.

• In the US, the Bureau of Engraving & Printing creates & destroys bills, and the US Mint creates and destroys coins.  If a bill is so mangled it can't go into a vending machine, or if it's too full of graffiti, or it's worn too thin, or if there are any number of problems with it, it gets shredded.  (They do also repair damaged currency.)  The shredded bills are taken to a landfill or they are incinerated, or they are occasionally packaged and sold as a souvenir.  In the case of coins, they get melted down and turned into new coins.

This package of $150 worth of shredded bills can be yours for only $20.
(By the way, it is illegal to intentionally deface or destroy US currency. So don't try this at home.)
(Photo from DC Gift Shop)

• So, presumably, when the banks and shops in the EU countries collected that national currency, they turned it in to their country's central bank which then, presumably, destroyed it.

• But there are a couple wrinkles in this process which are specific to the nature of the EU, and which make the answer not so neat and tidy as "the old currency got destroyed."

• Right now, there isn't one central place that prints all the euros for every participating country.  Instead, some of the central banks of participating countries have been printing the euros on kind of a rotating basis, making sure there is equal and adequate supply of euros throughout the countries in the EU. 

• But, let's say a member country decided to leave the EU and stop using the euro.  Where would their currency come from?  

• Let's pretend, for the sake of this Daily Apple entry, Ireland decided to exit.  Here is where Laxmi's question gets interesting: Would people open their old sock drawers and dust off their old Irish pounds that they never exchanged, and would everybody pretty much go about business as usual, just using those old Irish pounds?  Or have all the old Irish pounds vanished, and would Ireland's central bank have to churn out a ton of Irish pounds and coins well in advance of an exit in order to be sufficiently prepared?

An Irish pound coin, or punt.  I won 20 Irish punt on my 20th birthday.  That was a good day.
(Photo from Wikipedia)

• In December 2011, when there was a lot of talk that any number of countries might get out of the euro, many country's central banks were wondering exactly the same thing.  Especially since many countries in the EU have been relying on the EU system to provide them with currency, not every country would even be capable of switching back to their own national currency.

• For those countries that have a central bank, some of them were simply asking when they would need to start printing money.  Others (like Ireland) have a central bank but they don't have enough equipment, supplies, and staff to print enough money by themselves, and quickly enough, so could they somehow find a central bank in another country to produce some of their currency for them?  Still others don't even have a central bank at all.  Montenegro, which adopted the euro in 2002, not only lacks a central bank, but it never even had its own national currency before the euro.  They used Germany's Deutsche mark as its currency.  So would they go back to that, or would they establish a new currency?  And who the heck would make their bills and coins?

In case you're wondering, Montenegro is pretty much between Bosnia & Serbia.

(Map from Eurail)

• So now Laxmi's question gets even more interesting.  Because if countries might be sweating to try to get their hands on a few francs, maybe those coins she's got socked away could turn out to be more valuable than we thought.

• Now I've got another little wrinkle to throw at you.  Because the truth is, nobody's really sure where all those pre-euro bills and coins went.  Many of them did get exchanged for euros and then shipped to the central banks where they were then destroyed or perhaps only stored in some secret vault.  But in Germany, at least, it's estimated that a whole lot of people never turned in their Deutsche marks to begin with.

• In January of 2012, the German Federal Bank estimated that some DM 6.41bn in notes and DM 6.9bn in coins (DM 13.31) were never converted to euros.  According to my calculations, in dollars, that's about $8.8 billion worth of German national currency.

The 20 Deutsche mark, no longer in circulation--but still out there, apparently.
(Image from Leftover Currency)

• The report further says that the majority of this currency was simply held onto by the German public. Many Germans associate the Deutsche mark with economic prosperity and so were very reluctant to let it go.  Another chunk of those Deutsche marks is assumed to have been hidden in what was Yugoslavia, where the DM was a popular currency during the Balkan wars.

• Germany probably isn't typical since its country is among the financially healthiest in the EU both when it joined and now, but the point is that there may be a lot of that original national currency still floating around out there.

• So now it seems that those old coins that the central banks could be sweating to produce might not be as scarce as we thought.  So does that in turn mean that the currency is not as valuable?

• Well, a currency's value depends more on the economic health of the country that's backing it, not on how many physical units of currency exist.  So I've kind of led you down the garden path for a while here.  But I did so because 1) I thought all that stuff about the currency supply was pretty interesting and 2) the answer about the value of the old currency is kind of boring and depressing.  And here it is.

• Two economists, Jens Nordvig and Nick Firoozye, at Nomura Securities, in a paper submitted for the Wolfson Economics Prize of 2012, made their best guess at how the national currencies of the EU countries would be valued if the EU were dissolved.  

• Now, please understand that this is a guess.  The real answer is dependent on so many variables--what will be the economic state of each country upon dissolution, will all countries exit at the same time, will any of them be at war at the time, what will be the cost of essentials like fuel and food at the time, etc., etc.--that this chart is very much a guess.  But I trust that these economists know a whole lot more about formulating this guess than I do.

• Basically, they say, as of December 2011, all the currencies except Germany's would be worth less than the euro.

(Graph from Nordvig and Firoozye, p 45)

• That line at 1.34 represents the value of the euro (1) to the US dollar (1.34, at the time this graph was made).  So according to these guys, if the EU were to break up, those French francs of Laxmi's would be worth even less than they are now.

• So, Laxmi, if you want to get something for your French francs, assuming they're so old they wouldn't even be accepted as legal tender anymore, you've got 3 options:

• 1. Sell them as collectible items. 

• 2. Turn them in to the central bank of the issuing country (though some countries like the Netherlands take out-of-circulation money only as a donation to charity, meaning you'd get bupkis for it).  

• 3. Find a currency exchange that accepts out-of-circulation currency, but you'll probably get about less than half of their face value.

Related topics: Dollar signs (includes a section on the Euro symbol)

Sources
European Commission, Scenarios for adopting the euro
Joe Weisenthal, If the Euro Breaks Up, This Is What Will Happen to Each National Currency, Business Insider, Apr 3, 2012
Jens Nordvig and Nick Firoozye, Planning for an orderly break-up of the European Monetary Union, Submission to the Wolfson Economics Prize, Jan 2012 (p 45)
David Enrich et al., Banks Prep for Life After Euro, The Wall Street Journal, Dec 8, 2011
European Central Bank, Use of the Euro
Tony Patterson, Mystery of Germany's 13bn Missing Deutsche Marks, The Independent, Jan 2, 2012
Daniel Indiviglio, The Destruction of Money: Who Does It, Why, When, and How? The Atlantic, Apr 8, 2011
Jill Insley, A fistful of francs: Forgotten foreign currencies still have value, The Guardian, Sept 9, 2010
ABCNews, What to Do With Old European Money? Jan 4, 2002

Apple #633: Weight of Airplane Paint

I just got back from a trip*, and it's very late and I'm beat, but I wanted to post at least some little tidbit tonight.  So here goes.

[*This was actually last week. It was about 3 in the morning when I finally admitted I was too tired to finish this entry.]

I traveled by airplane on this particular trip, and while taxiing to the runway, I watched the other planes we passed and thought again about how I heard once upon a time that painting airplanes adds a whole bunch of weight to the plane, which extra weight results in higher fuel costs.  But most airplanes have a bunch of colorful paint on them.  If it's true that more paint = more weight = more expensive, why do airlines keep painting their planes?



As you can see from all these airplanes grouped together, nearly all of them are painted in some color scheme or other. White counts as painted. (This photo was originally billed as a multiple exposure of planes taking off from one location, but actually it's just a fairly good Photoshop job of a lot of planes together.)
(Photo by Ho-Yeol Ryu, via Twisted Sifter)

• Short answer: although it's true that paint adds weight, the increased costs to maintain planes with less paint outweigh or equal the savings in fuel.

• The details behind this are pretty interesting.  First of all, there's no such thing as an unpainted plane.  

• Every airplane needs to be coated with something so that it can withstand corrosion, resist getting pinged with little rocks and other debris, survive adverse weather, and so on.  For this reason, all planes do have a certain amount of "protective" (light gray) paint on key parts of the plane such as all composites, wing fairings, tail cones, etc.

• From the protective coating, the next amount of paint that airlines could choose is considered "polished."  This still has the necessary protective paint, plus tiny bits of decorative paint that indicate the airline's name, registry number, logos, and a few small stripes.

American Airlines planes has used the polished approach for years.  Note the shiny metallic appearance on the majority of the body of the planes.
(Photo from NBC DFW.com)

• The next level of paintedness is usually referred to as "decorative."  Airlines may use anywhere from 3 to 15 colors, and the extra or decorative paint is usually applied on the upper half of the body of the plane (fuselage), on the vertical stabilizer, and on the rudder.  The decorative paint might show some kind of design, the airline logo, lettering, stripes, etc.

This Qantas special-liveried plane would definitely qualify as "decorative."
(Photo by SE9 on Skyscrapercity)

• So the amount of weight added by the paint depends on whether the airline has opted for polished or decorative, and how much decorative paint is added.  It also depends on the size and type of the plane.

• Below, Boeing has broken down the added weights in a handy table. The numbers across the top refer to types of airplanes.

Table 1: Decorative Paint Scheme Weights, Lb (Kg)

	717-200	MD-80/-90	MD-11	737-700	757-200	767-300	777-200	747-400
Upper and lower half of fuselage and tail painted plus customer markings	119 (54.0)	155 (70.3)	427 (193.7)	179 (81.2)	239 (108.4)	299 (135.6)	475 (215.5)	555 (251.7)
Upper half of fuselage and tail painted plus customer markings	94 (42.6)	120 (54.4)	312 (141.5)	130 (59.0)	157 (71.2)	202 (91.6)	330 (149.7)	368 (166.9)
Polished skin and customer markings	23 (10.4)	25 (11.3)	45 (20.4)	25 (11.3)	30 (13.6)	40 (91.6)	50 (22.7)	55 (24.9)

• The paint on polished planes is about 1/10 the weight of the paint on decorative planes.  So, clearly, more paint equals more weight.

• As you would expect, that extra weight translates into higher fuel costs because, as Boeing puts it, "Less paint reduces takeoff weight and fuel consumption considerably."

• I tried to find out exactly how much more fuel is burned for every, say, extra gallon of paint.  But I struck out here.  There are so many variables involved -- type of plane, number of passengers, weight of baggage, distance of flight -- I couldn't find a handy quick calculation.  If anybody knows of a quick formula, please tell me what it is in the comments.

• But it turns out that extra fuel costs are not the only concern when it comes to paint.  Operating costs are also affected.  Basically that means maintenance.

• Planes have to be washed regularly to protect against corrosion.  This is true for both painted and polished planes.

Washing an airplane isn't just some guy with a bucket and a sponge, it's a pretty complicated operation involving several people, machinery & equipment, and special solvents.
(Photo from British Airways, via Howstuffworks)

• Also, any paint has to be reapplied every four years to re-coat any areas that may have gotten chipped or thinned.  Because extra layers of paint add still more weight, Boeing has made it a policy that no plane can have more than 2 layers of paint. So after it's been repainted once, they have to strip off the old paint and apply new.  Sometimes they only scuff-sand the old paint and other times they completely strip the old.  

• Polished planes also need some extra attention.  Every time they're washed, they also need to be buffed.

• So polished planes require more maintenance.  Like painted planes, they get washed frequently. But unlike painted planes, they also have to be buffed with every washing.  Then since polished planes do have protective paint on them, they also have to go through the same cycle of repainting, stripping, & repainting.

• Boeing has a little table showing the difference in operating costs are for decorative vs. polished planes, but I confess I'm not sure how to interpret that table.  At the very least, I have a lot of questions about it that I can't answer satisfactorily.  So I will give you my best guess at the upshot.

• It looks like the operating costs for polished planes exceed those of decorative planes by $60,000 to $82,000 per year.

• As Boeing puts it, "the fuel-cost savings offered by polished surfaces is outweighed by the cost of maintaining the polished surfaces."

• In addition, there's also the question of whether people like or trust polished planes.  Some polished planes look a little unfinished, or kind of dinged up, or otherwise manky.  If people don't trust an airline to get you there safely, they're not going to buy a ticket.  So this is another reason airlines tend to go with more paint.  It looks cleaner and safer, and they can also really trumpet their name for all to see. 

Though Delta's planes are painted pretty much all over, the color is mostly on the tail.  This gives it a no-nonsense appearance. Which, I must admit, doesn't make me all that excited about getting on board.
(Photo from Aero News Network)

Conversely, I find Alitalia's livery really appealing. Makes me think that if I rode that flight, I would suddenly be very sleek and fashionable and speaking with an Italian accent.
(Photo posted by Boeing! at Skyscrapercity)


I like this one a lot, too, from Avianca.  It looks very aerodynamic and yet also soothing.
(Photo posted by Dreamliner at Skyscrapercity)


This one isn't over the top with the paint and the colors, but it still makes me want to fly to Thailand.
(Photo from Travel Daily Asia)

• Postscript: American Airlines has been one of the few airlines that has consistently gone with the polished option.  But soon this will no longer be the case.  Now that they are trying to emerge from bankruptcy, they want to project a new image.  So they plan to go with more paint.  Also, their newer planes are being constructed with composite and plastic parts which absolutely need to be coated.  

• Finally, coatings companies are developing paints that are lighter-weight and more resistant to corrosion, so American (and other airlines) can use these lighter-weight coatings without getting hit as hard with increased fuel costs.

• So we may see airplanes going with even more paint in the future.

I have to say, I hope airlines don't take their cue from Southwest. This is downright vomitocious.
(Photo by Nick Ut, from the Atlanta Journal-Constitution)


Sources
Boeing, Painting versus Polishing of Airplane Exterior Surfaces, undated
"Silver Bird" No More? American Planes Likely to Get New Paint Scheme, The Wall Street Journal, July 24, 2012
The Skinny on Airplane Painting, The Cranky Flier, February 24, 2011 
New Promise in Paint, Aviation Maintenance, March 29, 2012

Fuel Burn Rates by Aircraft Type, Aviation Information)

Apple #632: Noteworthy Thievings

I don't know if you've noticed, but there have been some pretty unusual thefts in the news lately.  I don't mean to condone or even praise theft because it royally stinks when someone steals from you.  But these are too oddball to resist passing along.

1. Cookie Monster Holds Giant Cookie for Ransom

• In January of this year, someone claiming to be Cookie Monster stole a giant 44-pound golden statue of a cookie in Hanover, Germany.

• The cookie in question is the Leibniz square butter cookie made by Bahlsen. They're a big favorite in Germany, kind of like the Oreo is in the United States.

• The company immortalized their tasty butter cookie in gold and hung the giant cookie over its corporate headquarters.  It's been hanging there since 1913.

A package of the Leibniz butter cookies, this variety coated in chocolate.
(Photo from i can't even's tumblr page)



Above, the figures in the statue holding the golden cookie between them. Below, the golden cookie is gone!
(Photo from Gawker)

• Police said witnesses saw two men dressed in dark overalls taking the cookie in broad daylight.  One of the climbed a ladder and took it down while the other stayed below to take the hand-off.

• The person who stole the golden cookie sent a ransom note saying "I have the biscuit!"  The ransom note is signed Krümel Monster (Cookie Monster in German).

• What were the Krümel Monster's demands?  That cookies should be given to all the children in a nearby hospital.  But only "those [cookies] with milk chocolate, not those with dark chocolate and not those without chocolate. And a golden biscuit for the child cancer ward."  The Krümel Monster knows that most children prefer milk over dark chocolate.

• Also, in response to Bahlsen's offer of €1,000 (~$1,400) for information about who was in that Krümel Monster suit, the Krümel Monster said Bahlsen should donate the reward money to the local animal shelter.

• The punishment if the demands weren't met?  The golden cookie would wind up with Oscar the Grouch in the dustbin.

• The ransom got enough notice that Sesame Street heard about it.  The real Cookie Monster tweeted that he wasn't the thief.  "Me no steal the golden cookie. But me willing to help find real cookie thief!"  Pretty good typing for having only 3 furry fingers per hand.

• The company said it wouldn't be blackmailed and told the thieves, "Give us our cookie back."

• Days later, Bahlsen received a second ransom note along with a photo of one of the thieves dressed in a (rather bad imitation) Cookie Monster suit and taking a bite out of the golden cookie. 

The Krümel Monster's photo and second ransom note
(Image from Gawker)

• This was more than Bahlsen's CEO could stand, apparently, because he then promised to give 52,000 packages of cookies to 52 different charities.  Why 52, I don't know.  Maybe for the number of weeks in a year?

• A week later the golden biscuit was found -- hanging around the neck of a statue of a horse in front of Leibniz University.  The cookie was a little bit bent and dinged, but otherwise intact.  In other words, there was not a bite out of it.

The golden cookie, wrapped with a nice red bow, hanging around the neck of a statue in front of Leibniz University in Hanover. 
(Photo posted by Tintin at David Icke.com)

• Not long after the cookie was recovered, the company received yet another note.  This was also made with cut-out letters, and it reminded the company it still had to make good on its promise to donate cookies to children, and to make sure the cookies are the kind with chocolate.  Accompanying the note was a photo of the Krümel Monster playing in the snow.

• A lot of people thought this all might be an elaborate publicity stunt put on by the cookie company, but a few days later, a German TV station posted on its website an interview with four people whose identities were concealed -- including the one was dressed in a Cookie Monster suit -- who said they were behind the theft. They held up what they said was proof -- the original ransom note.

• At last report, police said they were still investigating, and they released a photo of an investigator examining the giant golden cookie under a microscope.

• The company is in the process of making good on its promise.  It invited charities to apply to the company to be given free cookies -- 1,400 groups did so -- and Bahlsen has recently announced which 52 charities will receive the cookies.  The charities include groups that help kindergarteners, children's hospitals and hospices, to supporting physically disabled children, children in special education, children in need, YMCAs -- all sorts of groups.

• Not bad, Krümel Monster, not bad.

2. Five Tons of  Nutella Stolen

• This one happened in Germany, too.  Last week, thieves stole 7 palettes of Nutella jars.  That's about  €16,000 (~$21,000) worth of the yummy, gooey, chocolate-hazelnut spread.

Nutella is made by Ferrero in Italy, is a huge hit in Europe, and is becoming increasingly popular in the United States. Basically, you eat it like peanut butter. Except it's chocolate & hazelnut. Yum.
(Photo from Foodbeast)

• The thieves broke into a parked trailer where the jars were stored and took the palettes.  Apparently, the area where the theft occurred (Niederaula, northeast of Frankfort) is a common weekend stopover point for truck drivers.

• Other large-quantity thefts have occurred there recently, including 5 tons of coffee stolen in March, and 34,000 cans of Red Bull taken last August.

• Or, maybe the theft is related to the insatiable desire for Nutella at Columbia University.  Last month, it became such the fad for Columbia students to eat Nutella that the student body was were going through an estimated 100 pounds of it per day. (That estimate is highly speculative. Some say it's way too high, others say it's way too low.)

• Students were sneaking the jars out of the dining hall all sorts of ways -- under their shirts, in soup containers, in their bookbags.  They stole enough jars of Nutella that it cost the dining hall $5,000 to restock its Nutella jars the first week.

• It became news when a freshman posted a message on a facebook page for Columbia freshman asking people "don't take more than you need at one meal."  I'm not sure if he meant "don't steal" or if he was really saying, "don't steal too much."

• He did mean to say that if people keep stealing the good stuff, the dining services might stop selling any good stuff, which apparently made people panic that they the dining halls would cut out the Nutella, and the thefts only increased. 

One reviewer on Amazon said, "Words cannot express how much I love this spread. It is highly addicting so eating an entire jar in one sitting is easy."
(Photo from Your Internet Life Base)

• Well, it's doubtful that the theft in Germany and the rash of thefts at Columbia are related, except that people love Nutella.  

• By the way, a pack of 5 jars is selling for $25 on Amazon. Assuming Columbia pays less than that per jar, that's over 1,000 jars of Nutella stolen from the dining hall in one week.

3. Thief Stole an Excavator to Steal an ATM

• This one is not food-related, but it's pretty unusual.  In Winston-Salem, NC, at 1:00 in the morning, someone stole an excavator from a construction site, drove it about 200 yards, and used the excavator to literally knock over an ATM kiosk.

A pretty typical excavator -- a Case CX470C, to be exact.  The specs say it has operating weights ranging from 105,300 to 108,600 pounds. That sounds about strong enough to lift an ATM.  I'd like to learn how to operate one of those things.
(Photo from Aggregates Manager)


This is the literally knocked-over ATM kiosk, now without its ATM.
(Photo by Aaron Glancy/WGHP)

• Using the excavator's claw, the thief picked up the 2,000-pound ATM and dropped it into "a waiting vehicle" and then drove off with the ATM.  I'm thinking that vehicle must have been a pick-up, but the reports don't get more specific than that.

• The still photos from a surveillance camera do show a white male who had to stretch to reach for the excavator's steering wheel, so they think he might have been short. The camera also captured a black Crown Victoria with tinted windows parked nearby.

Surveillance photo of the nearby Crown Victoria.
(Photo from WGHP)  

• I don't know if this was once a police car, but Crown Vics have been tailor-made for police cars for decades.

• So what do you think, is the suspect an ex-cop?  Or a cop-wanna-be?  And could a Crown Vic carry an ATM?  

• Police do want anyone with information to call Crime Stoppers at 336-727-2800.

4. Supposedly Stolen Tortoise Hidden in an Elevator

• This one has a happy ending.  In early April, the National Mississippi River Museum & Aquarium (which is not in Mississippi but rather in Dubuque, Iowa) put out a notice that its African leopard tortoise named Cashew had been stolen.

Cashew weighs 18 pounds, and her exhibit is surrounded by a four-foot clear plastic wall.
(Photo by Katlyn R. Gerken, National Mississippi River Museum)

• Two days later, a visitor discovered Cashew riding an elevator in the museum building.

• At first the aquarium speculated that whoever stole Cashew later repented and put her in an elevator and left.

• But it was later revealed that a staff member found the tortoise wedged behind a museum wall. Embarrassed at having told everyone the tortoise was stolen when in fact they'd just lost track of her, the staff member put Cashew into an elevator to make it appear that she'd been taken and returned by a thief.

• Fortunately, the aquarium says, Cashew does not appear to be especially stressed by the incident.  Heck, she was probably happy to get out and ride the elevator for a change.

Sources
German 'Cookie Monster' Holds Giant Golden Biscuit Ransom, Time, February 4, 2013 
Thief Who Stole Iconic Golden Cookie Releases Amazing Ransom Note Demanding Cookies for All the Sick Kids in Town, Gawker, undated
Relief after Hanover Find: Police Retrieve Missing Cookie, Der Spiegel, February 5, 2013
A Giant Gold Cookie Goes Missing, Sets Off Monster Investigation, The Wall Street Journal, February 14, 2013
Thieves steal five tons of Nutella, The Telegraph, April 8, 2013
On Campus, Costly Target of Brazen Thefts: Nutella, The New York Times, March 6, 2013
Man used stolen construction equipment to steal from ATM, MyFOX8.com (WGHP), April 8, 2013
Excavator Stolen, used to Steal 2,000-Pound ATM in North Carolina, Huffington Post, April 8, 2013
NC Police: ATM Picked up by Excavator, Stolen, ABCNews, April 9, 2013
Cashew the Stolen Tortoise Discovered Chilling in Elevator, RYOT, April 5, 2013
Cashew the Tortoise is Found, KCRG, April 4, 2013
African Leopard Tortoise Cashew Was Never Stolen, NPR, April 8, 2013

Apple #631: April Fool's Day Pranks

For your April 1 pleasure, I thought I'd collect a few especially choice April Fool's Day pranks.

Left-handed Whopper

(Photo from Magique)


In 1998, Burger King published a full-page ad in USA Today, saying they were offering a new sandwich: the Left-Handed Whopper.  All condiments had been rotated 180 degrees for the ease of Burger King's 1.4 million left-handed customers.

Lefties all over the country lined up for the new Whoppers, many of them failing to realize that rotating the condiments 180 degrees meant there was actually no difference.

Instant color television

Black & white TV, magically transformed to color
(Photo from Ugo) 


In 1962, when televisions were still only black and white, the Swedish television station Sveriges had a "technical expert" tell people on the air that if you stretched a pair of nylon stockings over your television, the nylon would bend the TV's light wavelengths in such a way that you could see the black & white picture in color.  You also had to "angle yourself" so your eye could catch the wavelength from the right position.

An estimated "thousands" of people who tried it discovered that it did not work at all, only stretched out a perfectly good pair of nylons.

Internet shut down for spring cleaning

This prank first sprang into existence in 1997, but it's been updated and resurrected periodically ever since.

DO NOT CONNECT TO THE INTERNET FROM 12:01 AM GMT ON APR. 1 TO 12:01 AM GMT, APR. 2 !!
*** Attention *** It's that time again!
As many of you know, each year the Internet must be shut down for 24 hours in order to allow us to clean it. The cleaning process, which eliminates dead email, inactive ftp and www sites, and empty USENET groups, allows for a better working and faster Internet.
This year, the cleaning process will take place from 12:01 a.m. GMT on April 1 until 12:01 a.m. GMT on April 2 (the time least likely to interfere with ongoing work). During that 24-hour period, five powerful Internet search engines situated around the world will search the Internet and delete any data that they find.
In order to protect your valuable data from deletion we ask that you do the following:
1. Disconnect all terminals and local area networks from their Internet connections.
2. Shut down all Internet servers, or disconnect them from the Internet.
3. Disconnect all disks and hard drives from any connections to the Internet.
4. Refrain from connecting any computer to the Internet in any way.
We understand the inconvenience that this may cause some Internet users, and we apologize. However, we are certain that any inconveniences will be more than made up for by the increased speed and efficiency of the Internet, once it has been cleared of electronic flotsam and jetsam.
We thank you for your cooperation.
Kim Dereksen
Interconnected Network Maintenance staff,
Main branch,
Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Sysops and others: Since the last Internet cleaning, the number of Internet users has grown dramatically. Please assist us in alerting the public of the upcoming Internet cleaning by posting this message where your users will be able to read it. Please pass this message on to other sysops and Internet users as well.
Thank you.

BBC Suspends gravity

In 1976, an astronomer for the BBC's Radio 2 told listeners that later that morning, Pluto and Jupiter would align in a way that would cause a temporary reduction in gravity on Earth.  He said that at 9:47, people should jump in the air so they could experience a brief sensation of floating.

One minute later, the phone lines into the BBC were jammed with calls from people saying they had jumped at precisely 9:47, and they had experienced the sensation of floating.


This is apropos of nothing. I was looking for a photo of people jumping in an elevator and came across this. Since it's April Fool's, I thought I'd show it to you anyway.
(Photo from Elevator World)

BBC Flying penguins

In 2008, the BBC released a video showing an amazing discovery -- a group of penguins can fly.



It was such a hit, they still have a link on their Nature Wildlife page that suggests that the penguins are real: "Flying penguins are a very recent addition to the penguin family in evolutionary terms."

Here's how they did it:

Towing an iceberg

In 1978, Australian electronics entrepreneur Dick Smith often wondered why you couldn't tow an iceberg from Antarctica to places that needed fresh water.  He'd said these musings aloud to the media, and they were forever asking him when he was going to do this.  Finally, he announced that an iceberg would be arriving in Australia the following week, and the media passed on his announcement to the public.

That April 1, his employees started phoning radio stations and newspapers, saying, "What's that thing out in Sydney Harbor?  It looks like an iceberg." 

There was in fact something large and white in the harbor, but it wasn't an iceberg.  It was a barge, covered with a big sheet of plastic, shaving cream, and fire-fighting foam.

Enough people believed it was an iceberg that even the Australian Navy called to offer them a place to moor.  Within hours, driving rain had melted much of the foamy "ice," and the jig was up.



Entrepreneur Dick Smith and his "iceberg."
(Photo from smh.com.au)

Fake volcano eruption

In 1974, residents of Sitka, Alaska, woke up to black smoke pouring out of the top of Mount Edgecumbe, which was a giant volcano.  They called the police, ran out of their homes, and otherwise feared imminent eruption.

Actually, a man named Porky Bickar had dropped a hundred tires, oily rags, Sterno, diesel oil, and smoke bombs inside the mouth of the volcano and set them on fire, creating the black smoke.


Mount Edgecumbe, with Porky's faux eruption.
(Photo from Sitka, Alaska)


He also wrote "April Fool" in giant letters in the snow nearby.  Since he used a helicopter to fly all his incendiaries up there, he told the FAA what he was up to.  And as a member of the police commission, he also told the police what he'd done. Now that's preparation.

The FAA controller reportedly said, as the helicopter was coming back to ground, "The son of a gun looks fantastic!"

Sitka residents also say that when Mount St. Helens erupted six years later, one of their townsfolk wrote to Bickar saying, "Now you've gone too far."

I say, let's have more pranks like people used to pull in the 1970s.


Sources
Huffington Post, The 10 Best April Fools' Pranks Ever, March 29, 2012
Squidoo, Top 10 Biggest Pranks Ever
Dan Fletcher, The Left-Handed Whopper - 1998, Time, April 1, 2011
Mark Hill, The 7 Ballsiest Pranks You Won't Believe Actually Worked, Cracked.com, April 1, 2010
Sitka, Alaska, Porky's April Fool's Day Adventure
snopes.com, Internet Spring Cleaning
UK Mirror, Football's greatest April Fool pranks
smh.com.au, Just tip of the iceberg, March 29, 2003

Apple #630: New National Monuments

Maybe you saw the news articles this week: tomorrow, President Obama is going to declare 5 locations as new national monuments.

A lot of these places are vast tracts of land, and their primary interest is the natural beauty and wildlife.  So it seems like they ought to be national parks rather than national monuments.  But only Congress can designate National Parks.  The President can only designate National Monuments.

Lots of the news articles about this list the new monuments, but they don't say much about them.  So let's find out some more details.

First State National Monument - Delaware & Pennyslvania

A portion of the Woodlawn property, all of which will become the First State National Monument
(Photo by Jim Graham, from the Conservation Fund)


Roughly the area included in the newly named First State National Monument in the Brandywine Valley
(Map from Woodall's Campground Management)

• The lands in this new national park are mainly in Delaware, whose motto is the "first state." Hence the name of the monument.

• The park encompasses 1,100 acres called "the Woodlawn property" in the Brandywine River Valley, extending north into Pennsylvania.

• It includes a wildlife preserve, plus trails for hiking, walking, and horseback riding. Farms that were in operation hundreds of years ago have been preserved, and some open fields are leased to local farmers.

• This is some seriously old property, "originally acquired by William Penn from the Duke of York in 1692."

• One of the things in this 1,100 acres is a place called New Castle Green.  This is one of those open green spaces that people used to establish in the middle of towns, as sort of a central park, where you could graze your livestock, go hang out under the trees, or take someone to court (!). It was around the green that basic village services would be located.

• So this particular green includes some pretty old stuff, such as:

• The Court House (1732)
• New Castle Academy (1799) originally a private school
• Arsenal (1809) became a public school 1852-1930, now a restaurant
• Old Sheriff's House (relatively new, 1857)

A section of New Castle Green
(Photo by Mr. T in DC on Flickr)


This American Elm is the only remaining elm on the New Castle Green. They don't say how old it is, but it lived through the ravages of Dutch Elm Disease, which struck in the 1930s.
(Photo from New Castle Green)

• New Castle was actually the capital of Delaware until 1777.

• While Delaware was the first state in the union, it's the last to have a national monument. Congratulations, Delaware!

Rio Grande del Norte National Monument - New Mexico

Rio Grande with Ute Mountain © Adriel Heisey

(Photo by Adriel Heisey, from the Rio Grande del Norte site)

• Located in New Mexico just south of the border with Colorado, these 240,000 acres run along the northern branch of the Rio Grande. 

• Within these acres is the 10,093-ft Ute Mountain, which is an inactive shield volcano.

• The Rio Grande, meanwhile, has carved a gorge into the landscape some 200 feet deep.  This gorge is seriously old -- somewhere between 1.5 and 5 million years old.

• Peoples have lived in this area for at least 11,000 years. Among the cultures that have been identified here are Paleoindian, Anasazi, Historic Pueblo, Ute, Navajo, Apache, Comanche, Kiowa, and other Plains groups.

• This river was already designated as one of the original 8 rivers named as a Wild and Scenic River in 1968. So people have been looking after this property in a preservation sense for quite a while.

• The Gorge has been a fairly popular spot for hiking, climbing, fishing, star-gazing, and more. Pronghorn, deer, and elk calve and forage in this area, so hunting is also popular here.

• One part of the river called the Razorblades is considered one of the most challenging kayak runs in New Mexico. Another section called The Box, and 18-mile stretch of water between 900-foot cliffs, is a favorite among white-water rafters.

• The Rio Grande is also an important stop for birds on the Migratory Flyway. Eagles, falcons, and hawks nest along the gorge.  Ospreys, hummingbirds, herons, avocets, and merlins pass through here. Sandhill cranes stop here in October.

San Juan Islands National Monument - Washington

San Juan Islands, popular whale-watching spot

(Photo from Clipper Vacations)

Proposed area to be included in the San Juan Islands National Monument (Full-size version here)

(Map from the San Juan Islands)

• This monument encompasses about 1,000 acres that spread across dozens of small islands and reefs off the coast of Washington, in the Bellingham Bay.

• The San Juan Islands are very popular destinations for tourists. As tourist activity has gone up, private developers have expressed interest in purchasing some areas, and some of these areas have also been affected by heavy tourist activity. Designating these area as a national monument will give the islands the ability to protect their resources from unwanted development or undesirable degradation.

• Visitors can take whale-watching boat tours to sea pods of orcas, sea lions, seals, and humpback, gray, and minke whales.  

• One resident says Turn Point is where his family had their "best-ever orca sighting" when a huge pod of orcas swam into the kelp within 10 feet of shore. There were enough of them, and they took enough time to eat, it was 45 minutes before the pod swam on out of sight.

• The Islands are also a popular spot for kayakers and scuba divers (Jacques Cousteau said this was his second-favorite place to live).  Bird watchers can see cormorants, eagles, Trumpeter swans, Hutton's Vireos, Pacific-slope Flycatchers, Rufous Hummingbirds, plus all sorts of sea birds.

• Many species native to this area are threatened or near-threatened.  Some trees on Iceberg Point and at Point Colville are estimated to be 500 and 600 years old.

• The Turn Point Lighthouse has been restored and preserved, as has the Patos Light.  Reads Bay Island is home to a kelp mill.  Stuart's Island has a one-room schoolhouse with 2 students.

Boating, whale-watching, and even just sunset-watching are popular activities in the San Juan Islands
(Photo from Vacation Doorways)

Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument - Ohio

Charles Young, as a captain in the 9th Cavalry
(Photo from the National Afro-American Museum and Cultural Center, Wilberforce, Ohio) 

Colonel Charles Young, in uniform

(Photo pinned and re-pinned so many times, I don't know the original source)

• Col. Charles Young, born to former slaves, was the third African American to graduate from West Point, and the first to be promoted to colonel. 

• He led African American Army troops on a variety of assignments in the late 1800s and early 1900s in Nebraska, Utah, San Francisco.  He and his troops also served as rangers in Sequoia National Park in California. 

• Since African-American troops were primarily sent to serve in the Plains and the West, they were often called "Buffalo Soldiers."

• He also served internationally, in the Philippines, Haiti, Liberia, and Mexico.  

• After serving with distinction in the US Army, he became a professor of military science, French, and mathematics at Wilberforce University in Ohio.  

• He also directed the college band and composed and played music for the piano, violin, and guitar.

• He and W.E.B. DuBois were co-faculty members and close friends.

• His home in Wilberforce was maintained by his fraternity, Omega Psi Phi, and they have donated the site to be named as a monument in his honor.

Charles Young pictured in front of his home in Wilberforce, Ohio

(Photo from Omega Psi Phi Fraternity)

Harriet Tubman and Underground Railroad National Monument - Maryland & New York

Harriet Tubman, Conductor of the Underground Railroad

(Photo from the Library of Congress, from AFRO)

• Harriet Tubman escaped from slavery and returned to the south to lead more than 70 slaves north to freedom through the network of safe houses known as the Underground Railroad.

• This monument commemorating her life has yet to be built. The Conservation Fund, based in Arlington, MD, donated lands surrounding her birthplace in Dorchester County, MD to the National Park Service to be used for this purpose.

• The monument, in honor of the 100th anniversary of Tubman's death in March 2013, is to commemorate her early life and her work on the Underground Railroad.

• The monument's planned location is near the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad Scenic Byway and the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge. So several conservancy experts think that the landscape will appropriately resemble what the area would have looked like when Tubman lived there. (Lots of great photos of bald eagles and other birds at the Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge here)

• The park where the monument will be built includes Stewart’s Canal, dug by hand by slaves and free laborers between 1810 and the 1830s and where Tubman learned important outdoor skills when she worked in the nearby timbering operations with her father.

• Also included will be the home site of Jacob Jackson, a free African American who used coded letters to help Tubman communicate with her family and others in her work.

• The monument is expected to be complete in 2015.

• Plans also call for a second monument to be built in Auburn, NY, where she settled in her later years and became active in women's rights and in support of elderly former slaves.

Stewart's Canal in Dorchester County will be part of the lands that will house the Harriet Tubman National Monument. This canal was dug by hand by slaves and laborers.
(Photo from America's Byways)


Nearby Blackwater Wildlife Refuge is a favorite spot for bird-watchers.
(Photo by David Trozzo, from the Washingtonian)


These all seem to me to be pretty good places to preserve and commemorate.  I'm glad they'll be a lasting part of our country's landscape.


Sources
John M. Broder, Obama to Name New National Monuments, The New York Times, March 22, 2013
Russell McLendon, Mother Nature Network, U.S. to Create 5 new national monuments, March 22, 2013
The Conservation Fund, The Conservation Fund Applauds President Obama For His Intent To Establish First National Monument In Delaware and Delaware's "First State National Monument"
Woodlawn Trustees, Preserving Parkland for Public Enjoyment
Rio Grande del Norte
New Mexico Wilderness Alliance, BLM Citizens' Wilderness Inventory - Ute Mountain Unit Summary
Taos wilderness group brings attention to Ute Mountain, The Taos News, June 14, 2012

Proposed San Juan Islands National Monument, BLM Lands in the San Juans
San Juan Islands Official Travel Guide, Whales & Wildlife
Brian J. Cantwell, National Monument will protect Cattle Point, Turn Point, other San Juan Islands treasures, The Seattle Times, March 22, 2013
Wilberforce’s Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers to become national monument, Dayton Daily News, March 21, 2013

National Park Service, Charles Young - Buffalo Soldier
BET, A Tour of Black History Monuments Around the U.S.
Chesapeake Conservancy, Harriet Tubman National Monument
Black Youth Project, President Obama to Designate Harriet Tubman Park a National Monument, March 22, 2013)