National Geographic

GADGETS: Foreign phone calls The new National Geographic Talk Abroad Travel Phone lets users receive incoming phone calls without charge in 65 countries, including all of Europe. Rates begin at 90 cents a minute for outgoing calls in Europe, according to Cellular Abroad, the company that is distributing and servicing the phone. The phone, which has the National Geographic name and logo on it, works on a pre paid plan, so users do not have to sign a contract. It can be rented starting at $49 a week and purchased for $199.

Be a 4Kids DetectiveWhen you know the answers to these questions, go to http://www.4Kids.org/detectives/1. Name Rockwell's 1921 painting at the Whitney.2. When was "The First Circus" animated? ( Go to http://lcweb2.loc.gov/ ammem/oahtml/oahome.html to find out.)3. How many species of seabirds live at Monterey Bay?THE AMERICAN CENTURYGet the big picture of 20th-century America. The Whitney Art Museum and Intel created The American Century Web site at http://whitney.artmuseum.net This site throws an interactive curveball into American history by showing how big events, trends and art grew together throughout the century.

NEW YORK -- General Electric Co.'s NBC and Fox Entertainment Group Inc. said yesterday that they will team with National Geographic Ventures to expand the National Geographic Channel to the United States.Fox, the U.S. television, film and sports unit of News Corp., will own 50 percent of the cable TV channel's operations worldwide, except for areas covered by National Geographic U.K., and NBC and National Geographic each will own 25 percent.The fast-growing channel, which features programs on nature and other documentaries, is part of the National Geographic Society, the world's largest nonprofit scientific and educational organization.

MIAMI -- The explorers battled fat leeches and cliffs so steep and slippery, one false step could mean a plunge of thousands of feet.They navigated a raging, treacherous river. They even heard rumors of the Dugmas, a cult of females who load their fingernails with snake venom for attacks on outsiders.It sounds like an Indiana Jones-style adventure, but it was real.The expedition, sponsored by the National Geographic Society and conducted in November, took four Americans into the inner gorge of the Zangbo River, the world's deepest canyon, in a remote part of Tibet.

As a reporter and editor for National Geographic magazine, Thomas Y. Canby traveled the world, visiting six of the seven continents and scribbling his observations in narrow reporter's notebooks that he stored in his back pocket.When he retired from the Geographic eight years ago, Canby cut back his traveling -- but not his penchant for scribbling. Instead of wandering the globe to find stories, he turned his attention to Sandy Spring, a Quaker stronghold in Montgomery County, where he grew up.Recently, Canby finished a pictorial history of Sandy Spring, "Sandy Spring Legacy," published by the town's historical museum.

James Binko has spent his last 13 summers creating what he calls "geo-evangelists" -- teachers convinced of the importance of teaching geography who spread the word among their colleagues across the country.He has been so successful that his name is now a verb. "All across the country, teachers say, `Have you been Binkoed?' " says Joseph Ferguson, the assistant director of the National Geographic Society's geographic education division. He estimates that, directly or indirectly, about 18,000 teachers have been Binkoed.

A century ago, three words (none of them "Lewinsky") summed up the tense political situation of the day: Remember the Maine.The U.S. battleship Maine, moored off Cuba, had exploded into the night sky Feb. 15, 1898, tossing dead and wounded sailors into Havana Harbor. Its sinking tipped the United States and Spain, already locked in an intense dispute over Cuba's struggle for independence, toward war.XTC Ever since, the question has bobbed at the surface of military history: What really sank the USS Maine?

For the first time in its 110 years, National Geographic magazine is for sale in stores, single issue.In the spirit of the ever-adapting ecosystems it covers, the venerable magazine's November issue debuted this month on the same bookstore shelves as Good Housekeeping, Popular Mechanics and Vogue in about 80 cities in the United States and Canada.Consider it evidence of a trend toward consumer-warming."This is a way for us to attract a new, varied, younger group and to introduce ourselves to people who might have known about us but didn't know how to put their hands on the magazine," says Barbara Fallon, spokeswoman for National Geographic, before now obtainable by subscription only.

A bunch of computer geeks just made life easier for Broadneck Senior High School teacher Susan Gallo.At a pat-yourself-on-the-back event that featured the governor, Washington-based MCI announced yesterday the creation of a home page to supplement textbooks and give suggestions for student projects in economics, history, English and other subjects.A visit to the site shows that though MCI's advertising is plentiful, much of the information that the press material boasts about isn't -- at least not yet.The home page, which is called MarcoPolo, links users to Web sites put together by the National Endowment for the Humanities, the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the National Council on Economic Education and the National Geographic Society.

It was a trip that would have made Huck Finn and Tom Sawyer proud.Two friends, 56-year-old Robb Newman and 69-year-old Gerhard Heiche, landed at the Tidewater Grille in Havre de Grace yesterday after a 12-day canoe trip down the Susquehanna that began at the mouth of the river in Cooperstown, N.Y.With stubbly beards and dusty clothes, the pair pulled ashore with only thoughts of grabbing a cold beer and getting out of the hot sun."Any beer would have been fine," Heiche said after he and Newman settled in the shade of the restaurant with two glasses of Oxford Blond Ale. "For the past week and a half, it's been nothing but water."

The world is a big place and many of us have a bit of trouble finding our way around it. A 2006 Geographic Literacy Study found that two-thirds of Americans ages 18 to 24 couldn't locate Iraq on a map. I can't find my car in the garage at the end of the day; it's only because I read so many travel guides -- and keep the National Geographic Atlas handy at my desk -- that I have even an average knowledge of geography. But 14-year-old Peter Meehan, a North Harford Middle School student, has no such problems.

Sacred Places of a Lifetime: 500 of the World's Most Peaceful and Powerful Destinations National Geographic, $40 There are many definitions of the word sacred. For this book, the staff of National Geographic defines it as "those places that channel the wisdom of the ages, of far-flung cultures, and unique perspectives." The "Sacred Landscapes" chapter, for example, visits serene Crater Lake in Oregon and the mysterious Mount Ararat in Turkey, but also otherworldly Devils Tower in Wyoming and the basalt columns of the Giant's Causeway in Northern Ireland.

Rarely is the question asked (at least until a president of the United States asked it): "Is our children learning?" Well - is them? It's a question that nags at me, editor of an online magazine devoted to such things as the beauties and the befoulings of the Chesapeake Bay and the oceans - especially in times like these, when, as our president also says, "You're working hard to put food on your family." Really. What if, while I'm trying to make this project pay for the noodles with cream sauce and capers I'll heap on my loved ones this evening, what if the readers I want don't even know where the Atlantic and the Pacific is?

GEOGRAPHY QUIZ--Which Swiss city is home to the International Red Cross and a monument honoring leaders of the Protestant Reformation? (Answer below) Quiz answer (FROM ABOVE) Geneva. Questions from the National Geographic Bee, a program of the National Geographic Society.

GEOGRAPHY QUIZ--What berries are harvested from flooded bogs in some parts of the northern United States and Canada? (Answer below) Quiz answer (FROM ABOVE) Cranberries. Questions from the National Geographic Bee, a program of the National Geographic Society.

Of the estimated 7,000 languages spoken in the world today, linguists say, nearly half are in danger of extinction and likely to disappear in this century. Some endangered languages vanish in an instant, at the death of the sole surviving speaker. Others are lost gradually in bilingual cultures, as indigenous tongues are overwhelmed by the dominant language at school, in the marketplace and on television. New research, reported yesterday, has identified the five regions of the world where languages are disappearing most rapidly.

GADGETS: Foreign phone calls The new National Geographic Talk Abroad Travel Phone lets users receive incoming phone calls without charge in 65 countries, including all of Europe. Rates begin at 90 cents a minute for outgoing calls in Europe, according to Cellular Abroad, the company that is distributing and servicing the phone. The phone, which has the National Geographic name and logo on it, works on a pre paid plan, so users do not have to sign a contract. It can be rented starting at $49 a week and purchased for $199.

GEOGRAPHY QUIZ -- The Arkansas River begins in which state? (Answer below) Quiz answer (FROM ABOVE) Colorado. Questions from the National Geographic Bee, a program of the National Geographic Society.

Japanese gardens Say konnichiwa (hello) to the new Japanese exhibit at the National Geographic Museum at Explorers Hall in Washington. Featuring more than 50 images snapped by National Geographic photographers over the past century, the exhibit Spirit of Japanese Gardens, opening Thursday and running through April 29, offers a look into the artistry of the gardens. Works by photographers Eliza Scidmore, Sam Abell, Cary Wolinsky, Michael Yamashita and Bob Krist will be on display. Also on view will be a newly designed garden by Yotaro Ono, president of the Zen Garden Society of Kyoto, Japan.

National Geographic has news for Baltimore: You're Nowheresville. The magazine with the yellow borders and voice of earthly authority has just tucked a pullout world map inside its pages, and in it, Baltimore gets a big, fat cartographic snub. Idaho Falls, Idaho (pop. 51,000), rates a little black dot. Yuma, Ariz. (pop. 89,000), gets a shout out, too. But Baltimore, pop. 635,815? Good ol' Natty Geo never heard of the place. Sure, Charm City sits in a crowded corridor, where it's hard to squeeze in much more than state capitals.