Wednesday, December 27, 2006

Europe's biggest Dino discovered 220 km away from Expo Zaragoza 2008 venue

This 48 tons vegetarian “pet” whose 3.5-meter-long left forelimb is seen inset in the photo has been found south of Zaragoza, in Teruel.
The remains of the Turiasaurio (ie. dino from Teruel) were found by a team led by Rafael Royo-Torres of the Joint Paleontology Foundation Teruel-Dinopolis.
They also have a thematic park where you can see this and other dinos…it is called “Dinopolis” and you can reach it at discount price using the train. More info (and a funny animation) at http://www.renfe.net/dinopolis/index.html

Coming back to the creature: similar sauropods have been found in France, Portugal, and England, suggesting Turiasaurus or closely related species of giant sauropods roamed other parts of Europe during the Jurassic period.
"I don't think there was any problem getting from Spain to England in those days," said a specialist from the University of Portsmouth.
Isnt it great, either you get a (35 metres long & 18 meters height) sub-aquatic dino or England and Spain were together in the Jurassic period. Btw, at that time the area where this dino was found was the meander of a big river near the sea…however now the area is quite far from the sea plus doesnt have any big river around…neither similar pets ;)
The above shows that water (and in particular inland water) forms the basis of ecosystems and natural habitats. At the Expo Zaragoza 2008 some of the world's great rivers - the Nile, the Amazon, the Yangtze, the Ebro, etc and their ecosystems will be explained in detail. You can find more info on the river aquarium pavilion at http://www.expozaragoza2008.es/index.jsp?seccion=114&seccionRaiz=178&seccionDesplegar=110&idioma=en_GB

Friday, December 15, 2006

Ebro bridge-pavilion at the 2008 International Expo in Zaragoza gets world class content providers

This landmark 270 metres long pavilion will joint obliquely (yes, obliquely!) both sides of Ebro river in the particular stile of Zaha Hadid (see more information about her posted at http://expo-zaragoza-2008.blogspot.com/2006/09/welcome-to-expo-zaragoza-2008-blog.html). That’s for the shape of the receptacle. The thing to be put into the Pavilion will not doubt be as important as the pavilion itself and….

…well, we won’t have the USA as official participants to our Expo in Zaragoza, but we will enjoy American creativity from the hands of the Ralph Appelbaum Associates. They have won the € 928,000 contract to design the contents of the bridge pavilion at the 2008 International Expo in Zaragoza.


These guys have done wonderful things in the past. For instance, New York’s Museum of Natural History (see photo above of "Hall of Planet Earth") and –closer to Spaniards & Europeans- the contents of the science pavilion at the City of Arts and Sciences in Valencia http://www.cac.es/home?languageId=1

I wish all the best inspiration for their team!!

NB: BTW, they will probably work for the World Exposition Shanghai China 2010. For the time being, they are included in the list of the First Batch of Recommended Service Providers for the World China Expo under the heading of Exhibition Planning and Designing.
(http://www.expo2010china.com/expo/expoenglish/bulletin/userobject1ai38251.html)

Wednesday, December 13, 2006

4 African countries - 1 (disappearing) lake = 2 country participants to the Expo Zaragoza 2008 on Water

Chad, Niger, Nigeria and Cameroon still share the Lake Chad, but the poor lake (or rather the poor inhabitants around) has apparently shrank by 20 times in the last 35 years. This doesn’t look good. It seems that climate change and human demand for water are the forces behind. However, curiously enough, the most dramatic decrease in the size of the lake is shown in the fifteen years between January 1973 and January 1987. Might be because of the reduction of use of water for irrigation? Might be. Those attending the Expo will know more about it first hand. Out of the 4 mentioned countries Niger and Nigeria will be officially participating. You can see the whole list of participants at the Expo Zaragoza 2008 website (see at http://www.expozaragoza2008.es/index.jsp?seccion=119&seccionRaiz=106&seccionDesplegar=119&idioma=en_GB)

…and the other 2? I don’t know. It might be that were not selected, or simply couldn’t come. Fernández Castaño, the Commissioner of the Expo, has explained that due to the characteristics of the International Exhibition, "Expo 2008 cannot house all of the countries of the African region, or in other words, their presence is the result of a previous selection process depending on the different institutional relations and the willingness of each country".

For me, what it matters is that the (collective) African pavilion, with space for 14 different countries, is representative and self-explanatory of the entire African continent water & sustainable development issues.

See on the left the Nasa photo. Quite graphic: the small patch of blue that is now the lake stands in stark contrast to the wide swath of the -according to the study- old lake bed (shown in green, indicating vegetation). More photos at:
http://visibleearth.nasa.gov/view_rec.php?id=1647