2010.07.27 01:00 - sinkholes and the male vs female population

The Guardian for this meeting was Yakuzza Lethecus. The comments are by Yakuzza Lethecus.

Yakuzza Lethecus: good morning arch
Yakuzza Lethecus: how are you doing tonight
Archmage Atlantis: Good Morningg, UYaku
Archmage Atlantis: *Yaku
Archmage Atlantis: Morning, Cal
Calvino Rabeni: Hello Arch, Yaku
Archmage Atlantis: I am ok, ty
--BELL--
Archmage Atlantis: Just falling my usual practice.......if I wake up at meeting time, it is a sign to come here :)
Yakuzza Lethecus: i wonder where tarmel is, is she still in canada ?
Yakuzza Lethecus: or isn´t this her spot anymore
Archmage Atlantis: Let me check
Calvino Rabeni: Still marked as Wester
Archmage Atlantis: Website has this as Wester's spot
Archmage Atlantis: Yep, Cal
Archmage Atlantis: Today is Tuesday
Archmage Atlantis: Monday shows Tarmel at this time
Calvino Rabeni: Tarmel is not in the lineup anymore, unfortunately
Yakuzza Lethecus: ah, i wagely recalled that monday was hers
Archmage Atlantis: Oh, unfortunate, Cal
Yakuzza Lethecus: never rechecked since i am usually at work tha this time
Archmage Atlantis: Either of you affected by the storms, rains, etc. ? ....We've been lucky so far with hurricane season.....more rain than usual, but nothing that the surrounding landscape can't handle.
Calvino Rabeni: perfectly sunny here (during the day)
Calvino Rabeni: with people going to the lake in droves
Calvino Rabeni: Hmm, Florida came up in recent web surfing
Calvino Rabeni: I was reading about the underground geology
Calvino Rabeni: being full of caverns
Calvino Rabeni: all those hundreds of little round ponds and lakes
Calvino Rabeni: are caused by sink holes
Archmage Atlantis: Yes, we sit on top of old coral reefs, full of holes and fresh water
Calvino Rabeni: and even, some failrly large lakes - that suddenly got a hole in the bottom and drained completely dry
Archmage Atlantis: When the water level below ground is drawn down, sinkholes are more likely
Calvino Rabeni: disappearing rivers, you name it
Calvino Rabeni: right, that too, the table goes wotn
Archmage Atlantis: Yep
Calvino Rabeni: *down
Calvino Rabeni: Have you seen one of those sink holes that eat cars and houses?
Calvino Rabeni: they must open pretty fast to be able to catch a car
Archmage Atlantis: It's somewhat affected by human use, but it happens anyway
Archmage Atlantis: Yes, the water is drained away a while, then the crust suddenly gives way in an instant
--BELL--
Archmage Atlantis: Not prodictable at this time. The underground water network is complex and probably near impossible to monitor.
Calvino Rabeni: http://www.google.com/images?q=flori...iw=998&bih=511
Calvino Rabeni: Hmm, that should add to the diversity of the PaB topic list
Calvino Rabeni: Actually I think, it would be an interesting profession
Calvino Rabeni: I looked over the shoulder of a guy at Starbux, and he was evidently a geologist - lots of pictures of various formations
Calvino Rabeni: And here I was getting used to the idea of a predictable and stable surface
Calvino Rabeni: But apparently there are zones of almost arbitrary complexity
Archmage Atlantis: An interesting thought, Cal,......the monitoring, the mapping......or the science ? (All of which I assume would fall under the topic geology)
Calvino Rabeni: I was thinking monitoring and mapping
Calvino Rabeni: when it starts to happen, those guys get called to figure out what might happen and whether it can be remedied
Calvino Rabeni: it beats toxic waste studies
Archmage Atlantis: There is a sport called spelunking (let me check the spelling)....cave diving under water
Calvino Rabeni: but is nicely mundane
Calvino Rabeni: yes, highly dangerous
Calvino Rabeni: like in those mexican cenotes
Calvino Rabeni: go into the ground in yucatan, pop up in the atlantic
Archmage Atlantis: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Caving
Calvino Rabeni: but dangerous because, the water usually clear, but could be stirred up into cloudiness by silt unpredictably
Calvino Rabeni: then what do you do?
Archmage Atlantis: *chukles* at the yucatan reference
Calvino Rabeni: Those structures were caused by meteor crater fracture of the crust
Archmage Atlantis: The world is a dangerous place, outside our little cocoons of safety :)
Calvino Rabeni: Safe enough for survival of many species
Calvino Rabeni: I used to wonder where birds got enough to eat
Calvino Rabeni: but then I noticed, there are insects all over the place
Archmage Atlantis: Survival bought by large birth rates to assure some survive.
Calvino Rabeni: Of the insects,yes.
Calvino Rabeni: Are there any biologists in PaB?
Archmage Atlantis: A sea turtle nest can have 100s of eggs, only a small number will survive after they hatch and return to the ocean.
Archmage Atlantis: I don't know, Cal, not that I have heard speak of it.
Calvino Rabeni: I'm curious also, why species generally have similar numbers of males and females - or is that generally true?
Archmage Atlantis: Ususally a few more males than females, as the survival rate is lower for males......and males are less important in reproduction.....one male can fertilize many females....
Archmage Atlantis: Although that is not 100% true
Calvino Rabeni: If that is true, then, why not have far fewer males
Calvino Rabeni: I suppose they have a job to do other than fertilizing
Archmage Atlantis: One answer may be that the competition for breeding assures that the strongest, most adapted will breed
Calvino Rabeni: but, it still doesn't account for the balance
Calvino Rabeni: nor does the mechanics of cell mitosis, I think
Archmage Atlantis: One would have to look at each species survival strategy individually
Calvino Rabeni: One would expect great diversity
Archmage Atlantis: Like the "heir and the spare" strategy of some birds
--BELL--
Archmage Atlantis: 2 chicks are born, the second is ignored and allowed to starve, unless something happens to the first chick......then the spare chick becomes the focus of the parents feeding and protection.
Archmage Atlantis: Even primates have differing stratagies, like chimps and bonobos
Archmage Atlantis: For that matter, individuals within a species can differ
Archmage Atlantis: Human's do tend to be blissfully unaware of how dispassionate nature can be
--BELL--
Calvino Rabeni: Well I you'll excuse me, I'll head to bed before I propose any other questionable PaB topics :)
Archmage Atlantis: Smile
Archmage Atlantis: Night Cal
Calvino Rabeni: So long, have a good day :)
Archmage Atlantis: Night Yaku....I need to leave also