This week i’ll be talking about Allerton park and retreat center. Allerton is located in southern Illinois near Monticello and it used to be the home of Mr. Robert Henry Allerton, Robert Allerton was a avid art collector, and major benefactor to the Art Institute of Chicago (donating over 6,600 pieces of art over the years) 

In 1946 the Allertons moved to Hawaii and started a new home, and had no use for his house + gardens in Illinois so he gave it to the University of Illinois to be used as a educational center, forest, plantlife + wildlife preserve.

Allerton park is named one of the seven wonders of Illinois, and rightfully. It consists of 100+ outdoor sculptures and garden ornaments, fourteen miles of hiking trails, parts of the Sagamon River, flood plains, lowland + upland forests, a huge meadow, and 30 acres of prairie, Because of all this land there are about 100,000 visitors each year. Best of all, it’s free to visit !

with the following pictures you can see how wonderful Allerton Park is, even in the late winter !

fu dogs | a hiking path | allerton mansion | one of the many gardens | sunken gardens

Moles are small, normally furry mammals that love to burrow but some also know how to swim. their bodies are pretty small and they have tons of fur all over them, the fur covers most parts of their body and often covers their eyes. Because of the fur the ears are not visible. Moles eat small invertabrae animals that they find in the dirt. Moles live in North America, Europe, and Asia but there are no moles in Ireland because of all the predators. 

Moles eat earthworms and other small invertebrate that they find in the dirt. They sometimes catch small mice that come up to their burrow entrance. Moles saliva contains a toxin that paralyzes earthworms so the Moles can have fresh food when they want it. There have been many burrows found with more than 1000 earthworms in them! They also squeeze the worms before they eat them so the dirt comes out of their guts.

Neopets premium is only $49.95 for a year, this is $20.00 off the normal price. There are many many reasons I would like neopets premium, but there are a few that I thing are important.

1) No Advertisements - when you sign up for neopets premium the coding will change so you will have no ads, anywhere on the site. There are a few popups without premium that block the page you are trying to view and it gets to be quite annoying. The second type of ad that annoys me the most are the ads that make noise, i’ll refresh and refresh the page that I want to still be on but the ad will still be there, making noise. I am not able to listen to my own music then. Theres another type of ad that I don’t like, these are the ads that are too big to fit the page and they run into the space that you want to read. 

2) Super Shop Wizard - With the super shop wizard (SSW for short) you can search for items in user shops only once and find the cheapest item. With the normal shop wizard you have to search three, maybe four times to find the cheapest shop. And usually by that time the item has already been bought. This is handy for finding expensive things very cheap and reselling them for a higher price.

3) Portal - With the neopets portal you can view your mail, a local clock, a neopian clock, neopian stocks, one click dailies, a calender, neopian weather, local weather and so much more all in one page! Also, you can choose to have a frame around each page that shows you some of this information plus a ticker that shows you how much money is in your shop till.

4) Items - When you subscribe to premium you get a special avatar to use on the neoboards, weekly scratch cards for free that always give you an item,  1000np every time you stick with premium, and up to 12,000 just for signing up! Throughout the time when you are a subscriber you also have more frequent random events that give you items!

5) Beta Testing - When you sign up for premium you also get to beta test new features and games on neopets before non-premium neopets members! This is probably my favorite premium perk because you can give your own opinion on games about two weeks before they come out and you can see if they take into account your suggestions! 

For each person on the planet there are approximately 60 billion gallons of ocean water and water is 60& of the Earth so obviously Oceans are a big part of that. There are four main oceans, those are the Pacific Ocean, Atlantic Ocean, Arctic Ocean, and Indian Ocean. 

The Pacific ocean borders China, Japan, and Russia to the west and the United States and Brazil to the east. Those five countries make up one third of the world population. And the United Nations human developmental index (a measure of statistics that takes into account a populations schooling, income, literacy, and life expectancy) most of the countries bordering the pacific ocean are highly developed population-wise. Some of the exceptions are Guatemala, Vietnam, Cambodia, and Papua New Guinea, which are not highly developed. Fisheries in the southern, northern, and eastern regions of the pacific ocean are most productive. Most of the pacific oceans catch is herring-like fish like Japanese sardine, south american sardine and the peruvian anchovy. These fish are often processed into fish oil or fish meal which among other things, serve as a food source in fish farming. 

Area of Pacific Ocean -  64 million square miles.

Mean depth of Pacific Ocean -  13,741 feet.

Maximum depth of the Pacific Ocean - 36,161 feet, the marina trench.

Volume of water -  167 million cubic miles.

The Atlantic Ocean borders Africa, the countries on the west coast of Africa are mainly poorly developed but the two developing hot spots are Ghana and Nigeria. But also three of the worlds largest cities border the south atlantic. Those cities are Buenos Aires, Rio de Janero and Sao Paulo are all located along the east coast and border the south atlantic. More than 26% of the worlds fish catch comes from the atlantic ocean and 2/3 of that catch from the northeast and east area of the atlantic. The north atlantic is the most heavily fished area. Sardine, anchovy and herring for the most part. Bordering the atlantic ocean are many of the worlds most economically developed regions. particularly ones in north america and northwest europe regions. Many countries have a lot of fishing and pollution pressure from the north atlantic.

Area of Atlantic Ocean -  32 million square miles.

Mean depth of Atlantic Ocean -  12,612 feet.

Maximum depth of the Atlantic - 30,248 feet.

Volume of water -  72 million cubic miles.

The Indian Ocean borders pakistan, india, and bangladesh on the north coast and these countries are among the ones with the highest population densities and are the poorest. The Indian ocean is also home to many coral and mangrove swamps which house many special creatures and precious ecosystems. 

Area of Indian Ocean -  28 million square miles.

Mean depth of Indian Ocean -  12,704 feet.

Maximum depth of the Indian Ocean - 23,812 feet. Java Trench.

Volume of water -  68 million cubic miles.

The Arctic ocean is the smallest ocean and it does not have a lot of fisheries due to it’s location and size. It borders Russia, Canada and Greenland and it is very very cold.

Area of Indian Ocean -  4.7 million square miles.

Mean depth of Indian Ocean -  3,665 feet.

Maximum depth of the Indian Ocean - 17,878 feet. Eurasian Basin.

Volume of water -  3.3 million cubic miles.

Oceanography is a type of science that covers a variety of things. Some of those things are marine organisms, marine ecosystems, ocean currents and waves, and last of all the geology of the ocean floor. Oceanography can also be called oceanology or marine science and divides itself into four branches. They are marine biology, marine chemistry,  marine geology and marine physics. 

Marine biology can also be called biological oceanography and it is the study of plants, animals, and microbes in the ocean and how they interact with each other. Marine chemistry is also sometimes called chemical oceanography and it is the study of chemistry in the ocean and how the ocean interacts with the atmosphere. Marine geology is the study of rocks and geology on the ocean floor, this branch also studies plate tectonics. Marine physics is sometimes also called physical oceanography. marine physics explores information about waves, sounds travel, light and radio waves in the ocean.

The first known of records of observations are by Aristotle and they were simple records about ocean tides. Back in the mid 1700’s oceanography was not very advances and it mostly recorded information that was easy to spot. Oceanographers did not put much into their work because of lack of engineering and transportation. For example, the only creatures that they knew were in the oceans were those caught in nets from fishermen and ones who were washed up onto the beach.

There were two explorers that recorded a lot of work. The first is Louis Antoine de Bougainville. He took a journey between 1766 and 1769 and calculated, explored, and recorded much ocean information in the time period. The second man who record a lot of information in oceanography was James Cook. James Cook traveled a very long eleven years between 1768 and 1779. both James Cook and Louis Antoine de Bougainville journeyed in the South Pacific.

But those explorers were just amateurs and one of the first bigger explorers turned scientists who published their work for the public was Charles Darwin. He wrote a paper about reefs after his seconds voyage on The Beagle from 1831 to 1836. Also James Rennell wrote the first scientific textbooks on the Indian and Atlantic Oceans. And lastly, James Clark Ross took the first sound recording of the deep sea in 1840.

The first text book of oceanography was written by Matthew Fontaine Maury in 1855 and this launched the study of oceans and brought up a whole new slew of explorers and scientists wanting to explore oceanography even deeper. Marine Ecology was even created when Edward Forbes started dredging in the Aegean Sea in the 19th century. And After the middle of the 19th century loads of botanical and zoological information was discovered. Even in 1871 the british government funded an expedition to explore the oceans and after that, Oceanography became a quantifiable science in 1872. After that the scots Charles Wyville Thompson and Sir John Murray launched the challenger expedition from 1872 to 1876. Once that expedition had ended a 50 volume set covering biological, physical, and geological information was published. There were also 4,417 new species that were discovered. 

The Challenger was one of the larger expeditions and it wasn’t the only expedition, there were a lot more smaller ones. Other European and American nations were sending out expeditions, and so were other public and private places. The first ship built for oceanography expeditions was the Albatross in 1882. The four month expedition on the Albatross was led by John Murray and John Hjort. It was the most ambitious trip of it’s time and it was made into a classic book, The Depths of the Ocean.

Finally, many oceanography institutes were founded in the United States. Two of the bigger ones are the Sripps institute in 1892 and Woodshole in 1930. There is also a major research institution in Britain called the national Oceanography center, it is the successor to the Institute of Oceanography. 

After realizing that oceanography can help the world a man named Fridtjof Nansen froze his ship called Fram in the Arctic Ocean Ice in 1893. By doing this he could gain a lot of information on oceanographic, meteorological, and astronomical data. After that, in about the 1950’s August Piccard invented something called the bathscope which was used to go deep into the oceans depths. Also, with increased technology oceanography has become a much advanced science!

A turkey is a large bird that is distinguished from many other birds with two characteristics. The first is their wattle, which is a small fleshy reddish-pink flap of skin right under their chin. The second is their ability to spread out their back feathers almost like a peacock. Europeans first encountered turkeys in the americas and thought they were guinea fowl. They were later given the group name raptors.

Large domestic turkeys are the ones that are eaten on Thanksgiving day and many other holidays. They are not able to fly. But small wild turkeys can fly very well. This is not an effective way of transport for them though and turkeys mostly hop and walk around. Also wild turkeys are not able to fly within the first two weeks of their life, but after that they can fly.

The wild turkey is native to North America and is the largest type of turkey. Males are also usually larger and you are able to tell them apart from the females because of the thick tufts of feathers on their chests. These clumps of feathers are called beards. Turkeys normally have about 5000 to 6000 feathers. 

Turkeys are omnivores which means they mostly eat vegetables, and meat as a last resort. They mostly eat nuts, seeds, and berries. And the coolest thing about turkeys in my opinion is that they could have been our national bird! Benjamin Franklin thought turkeys should have been our national bird because the turkey goes out and finds food, unlike the bald eagle who forages after other animals’ food. But if the turkey became the national bird, we wouldn’t be able to eat them on Thanksgiving!

 Have you ever looked up to the sky in the middle of nowhere… and seen  the beautiful shining stars? A lot of people have, and go into the middle of  nowhere (like a desert) to camp at night and go star gazing because where  they live they are not able to see stars. This is not usually because of dense  clouds and smog, or lots of air traffic. But those are other issues. A big  reason for having to leave cities to see stars is light pollution.

 Light pollution is a result of artificial lighting. Street lamps, lighted signs, and decorative lighting all shine up and outward into the night blending and blocking the view of the stars. But not just being able to see stars isn’t the only problem, birds have trouble migrating because of the light pollution. The birds get confused with the bright lights and fly into buildings.

Another issue is the leatherback sea turtle going to the wrong area to lay her eggs. Normally the turtles swim towards the sun, seeing the glow near the water but now they often mistake popular beach resorts lights for the sun. But, they will still lay their eggs on that beach, resulting in stray hatchlings getting eaten by predators or run over by cars. Even worse, leatherbacks are endangered!

Light pollution is easily exterminated and many places have cut off unnecessary lights or even controlled the light focus downward with new types of lamps. For example, in Florida, many street lamps are shaped like upside down bowls. They use light bulbs that give off a yellowish light, instead of bright white. These bulbs are made out of high pressure sodium. In St. Louis, the arch lights are shut off when there is heavy fog to multiply the light or when there are birds migrating.

There are many things that you can do to fight light pollution. You can make sure that your porch light is tucked into the ceiling, rather than sticking out and giving off light in ever direction. You can also turn off unnecessary lights outside. Porch lights don’t need to be on all night. You can also work with your local government to turn streetlights off time from 11 pm – 3 am in residential areas.

One of the best songs on this months paste C.D. is Id Engager by Of Montreal. This song is off Of Montreals 9th C.D. titled Skeletal Lamping. I’ve heard a few of Of Montreals songs in the past, But surprisingly all the songs have been sung in different ways. This isn’t because they have a different lead singer… But because Of Montreals lead singer gets bored of his life, and spices it up by making up new personas. For example this song is sung as his persona Georgie Fruit, which is a eccentric transvestite looking and acting person… when in reality he has a wife and a kid!

This song is very jumping and discoish because of the electronic sounds in it. I chose to review this song out of all the other songs on the paste C.D. because it stood out with the electronicness. This song also has very cool bell sounds which I think is really cool and different! 

Of Montreal has been around since 1997 and includes the following band members… Kevin Barnes, Bryan Poole, Dottie Alexander, Jamey Huggins, Davey Pierce, and Ahmed Gallab, and the lead singer, Kevin Barnes has had at least two different personas!

Visit their website here.

This year for the presidential elections I decided to follow them and make a map to help me track how many electoral votes each person had. I listened to the radio and CNN to get the information that I would need for Tuesday night. Whenever each state had finished counting, or was almost done counting their electoral votes, and they had announced who got the electoral votes for that state I would color in that state on the map. Red for McCain, and blue for Obama. 

There were a few surprises that occurred when I was tracking the states… the first was that Nevada, Colorado, New Mexico, Iowa, Indiana, Ohio, Virginia, and Florida all voted republican (Bush) last year, and this year they all their electoral votes went to the democrat (Obama)!

The other surprise is that Missouri and North carolina are still currently counting their votes, but even if both of their electoral voted went to McCain, Obama still would’ve won!

Congrats Barack Obama!

Have you ever wondered what different celebrations there are during halloween? And what kids do there? Well I have so I decided to do a little research on it!

Austria - In Austria families leave bread and water on a table with a lamp next to it. This is supposed to help greet and beckon dead souls back to Earth on such a spiritual night.

Spain - In Spain children go trick or treating and eat a pastry called Bones of the Holy. It is covered in an orange glaze and has anise seed in it. Afterwards families go to cemeteries to visit dead family members and they stay there throughout the night. The next day families clean the deceased burial plots. 

Japan - In Japan water and food is put in front of a photo of a deceased friend or family member, then lanterns are lit and set floating in water or next to a body of water to light the ghosts to Earth and to show them where their family & friends are. It is called the Obon Festival.

Germany - In Germany households put away knives and other harmful objects on Halloween night, so that the ghosts coming back to Earth will not accidentally hurt themselves during celebrations. Cemeteries are cleaned and wreaths and lanterns are placed at family grave sites.