Random possibly useful fact

[odeon]

This is my 66666th post.

stop already.

66667

[Queen Victoria]

There is no rest for the weary Odeon.  Get cracking: 666,666 and beyond.

[sg1008]

You Can Hear When Trees Are Thirsty
Scientists identify a specific acoustic signature that drought-stressed trees make.

Imagine you're just polishing off a glass of soda. Whatever liquid left in the straw makes that gurgling sound indicative that there's just nothing left in the glass to drink. Turns out, trees under drought stress make the same sad sound, and a few researchers hope they can use that acoustic signature to identify and save otherwise-doomed trees.

That trees make noise (beyond the delicate rustle of leaves in the wind) is no secret. But teasing out the specific physical phenomena that cause the various arboreal noises has eluded researchers. At the recent meeting of the American Physical Society, scientists from Grenoble University in France presented research that not only were they able to determine that drought-stressed trees make noise, they were also able to show exactly which process created the sound.

To really grok the research, it's helpful to understand how trees transport water. Trees draw ground water up through specialized tubes called xylem, relying on intermolecular forces between water molecules and themselves, and water molecules and the sides of the tubes, to create a single column of unbroken water in each xylem tube. But as groundwater dries up, the trees must pull harder on the remaining water; if the pressure is greater than the strength of the intermolecular forces, the column of water breaks and an air bubble forms. This process is called cavitation. Too many air bubbles can mean death for the tree.

To ensure that these air bubbles were the culprits behind the acoustic signature of drought-parched trees, the researchers mocked up a tree in the lab. They placed a thin piece of pine wood, complete with its xylem intact, into a capsule filled with a gel. As the researchers evaporated the water out of the gel -- a test "drought" -- they simultaneously recorded video and sound of the cavitation in the xylem. The researchers discovered that about half of the sounds made by a tree are due to cavitation, and that the process has its own unique acoustical signature. In the future, the researchers say, forest managers could use a hand-held acoustic device to identify water-stressed trees before permanent damage sets in.

http://www.popsci.com/environment/article/2013-04/sound-thirst

[Jack]

If trees could scream, would we be so cavalier about cutting them down? We might, if they screamed all the time, for no good reason. ~Jack Handey.

[sg1008]

[odeon]

There is no rest for the weary Odeon.  Get cracking: 666,666 and beyond.

Working on it.

[TheoK]

The wovel length in Latin is often the opposite of what you instinctively feel when you yourself have a Germanic language as your native tounge. The first wovel in "super" is short, the first vowel in "villa" is long. The first vowel in "rosa" is short, the first wovel in "lilium"  is long. Fortunately the wovel length is usually marked in textbooks for students.

[McGiver]

The wovel length in Latin is often the opposite of what you instinctively feel when you yourself have a Germanic language as your native tounge. The first wovel in "super" is short, the first vowel in "villa" is long. The first vowel in "rosa" is short, the first wovel in "lilium"  is long. Fortunately the wovel length is usually marked in textbooks for students.

i was rock hard. Now I'm limp.

[sg1008]

The wovel length in Latin is often the opposite of what you instinctively feel when you yourself have a Germanic language as your native tounge. The first wovel in "super" is short, the first vowel in "villa" is long. The first vowel in "rosa" is short, the first wovel in "lilium"  is long. Fortunately the wovel length is usually marked in textbooks for students.

I was trying to figure out wtf a wovel was. Turns out its just a dyslexic vowel.

["couldbecousin"]

The wovel length in Latin is often the opposite of what you instinctively feel when you yourself have a Germanic language as your native tounge. The first wovel in "super" is short, the first vowel in "villa" is long. The first vowel in "rosa" is short, the first wovel in "lilium"  is long. Fortunately the wovel length is usually marked in textbooks for students.

I was trying to figure out wtf a wovel was. Turns out its just a dyslexic vowel.

 A wovel is also a Weeble kitchen utensil. Live and learn!

[sg1008]

The wovel length in Latin is often the opposite of what you instinctively feel when you yourself have a Germanic language as your native tounge. The first wovel in "super" is short, the first vowel in "villa" is long. The first vowel in "rosa" is short, the first wovel in "lilium"  is long. Fortunately the wovel length is usually marked in textbooks for students.

I was trying to figure out wtf a wovel was. Turns out its just a dyslexic vowel.

 A wovel is also a Weeble kitchen utensil. Live and learn!

[skyblue1]

“We come from nothing, we are going back to nothing-In the end what have we lost? Nothing!” ― Graham Chapman

[TheoK]

The wovel length in Latin is often the opposite of what you instinctively feel when you yourself have a Germanic language as your native tounge. The first wovel in "super" is short, the first vowel in "villa" is long. The first vowel in "rosa" is short, the first wovel in "lilium"  is long. Fortunately the wovel length is usually marked in textbooks for students.

I was trying to figure out wtf a wovel was. Turns out its just a dyslexic vowel.

 A wovel is also a Weeble kitchen utensil. Live and learn!

Oops! 

That TBE shot obviously influenced my brain. Or it might be the fact that v in classical Latin is pronounced like  English w. I actually happen to mix them if I first read Latin and then another foreign language. I checked in my brother's old Spanish textbook to compare Latin and Spanish, and it was hard not to use Latin pronunciation 

Yes, it should be vowel

[TheoK]

Take the word "villa" for instance. In classical Latin it is pronounced like "weela".

Classical Greek didn't have the "v" pronunciation either. Neither did Proto-Germanic. The consonant v didn't  exist in Proto-Indo-European at all.

[sg1008]

Take the word "villa" for instance. In classical Latin it is pronounced like "weela".

Classical Greek didn't have the "v" pronunciation either. Neither did Proto-Germanic. The consonant v didn't  exist in Proto-Indo-European at all.

Ah yes. the lovely "V". In latin it's a 'w' sound, in german its a 'f' sound.
Vater = [F]ater = father (german)

When you pronounce plural masculine nouns in latin which end in -ii do you double up the "i"i" sound, [filii = Fil-ee-ee], or do you combine the sound more smoothly "Filii = fil- eee]. My 7th grade teacher was explaining to us that there was debate as to how exactly it would have been pronounced.