Friday, April 7, 2017

Stephanie Wildlife Sanctuary and the Hominin Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP) in Southwestern Ethiopia

      The Stephanie Wildlife Sanctuary (SWS) in southwestern Ethiopia, on the border with Kenya, caught my attention on a Google Maps adventure.



      The SWS is one of six Ethiopian wildlife preserves; there are also eight national parks in Ethiopia. Unfortunately, there's not much information available about its name (which, as someone named Stephanie, is of particular interest.)



        The large lake in Stephanie Wildlife Sanctuary is Chew Bahir ("Ocean of Salt" in Amharic) and is the subject of numerous research papers on hominin sites via extensive fluvio-lacustrine coring. One of the Harvard researchers is shown here near Chew Bahir.




       The Hominin (not Hominid--see link) Sites and Paleolakes Drilling Project (HSPDP) cored five fluvio-lacustrine sites of climate change in Ethiopia and Kenya, including Chew Bahir. The sediment cores are expected to provide valuable insights into east African environmental variability during the last 3.5 million years.



      The sanctuary attracts a variety of exotic and not-so- exotic wildlife, 


including these lions 


and several primates.




      Asking this imaginative group:


     What exotic story might there be for the naming of the Stephanie Wildlife Sanctuary?

Steph  




12 comments:

  1. Thanks, Lego. Sanctuary cities are certainly more and more important.

    After driving to Memphis, TN, I am finding less and less value in having something named after you. A mile stretch for one guy, a bridge for another, meh.

    I did have some reflections on Graceland today. The mansion is covered in mirrors and garrish fabrics, tvs are everywhere. (15 soda types were stored at all times.) The overstimulation/mirroring/crazy fabrics of the mansion led to one young lady having a grand mal seizure during our tour. It made me wonder how Elvis could ever rest.

    After leaving the parking lot of at least 200 cars (at, conservatively, $100-$150 per car plus $10 parking) we went to a beautiful local park to decompress. Not a soul there.

    I asked half a dozen workers at Graceland how to get to the Civil Rights Museum honoring Martin Luther King, Jr. No one knew about it. . .

    In striking contrast, Arkansas was filled with blooming, spectacular dogwoods, deep maroon Indian paint brush, all kinds of natural beauty. We are headed back the northern route through Jonesboro and Mountain Home. Diamonds anyone?

    All this leads to my question, what happened to I-50 and I-60? All the other east-west routes from 10 to 90 are taken. Why did they skip the 50 and 60? Something to do with Route 66?

    No, my real question: Why can't Memphis shake its sadness, its littering, its ignorance?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Memphis, Egypt: ancient ruins.
      Memphis,Tennessee: modern decadence.

      LegoHunkeringDownInHisJungleRoomWhileMunchingDeepFriedPB&Js

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    2. Thanks, Lego. That's a spot-on description of his mansion, replete with peacocks, green shag carpeting on the walls, mirrors on ceilings.

      Poor Elvis. His final resting place in the "Meditation Garden" is anything but restful. . .





      Delete
  2. When grammarians take matters into their own hands: Beware the apostrophiser!

    (BTW, I think "Stephanie Wildlife" is at least as good a moniker as "Word Woman". For your next career, maybe...)

    ReplyDelete
  3. Now I have seen it all with the apostrophiser. Thanks for sharing the video, jan.

    "Stephanie Wildlife"--ha, it does have a fun ring to it.

    ReplyDelete
  4. Global warming isn't the only threat.

    I once put a snowball into the spare freezer in the basement, hoping to surprise someone the next summer, with similarly disappointing results.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I hate it when that happens. It melts my heart. . .

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  5. A lizard's scales as cellular automata. The name I associate with cellular automata, beside von Neumann and Ulam, the fathers of game theory, is John Horton Conway, whose Game of Life was introduced to millions by Martin Gardner's Scientific American column.

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  6. New post on "Blue-Gray Limestone, Crinoids, and Large Quartz Crystals in Western Arkansas" is now up.

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