Underground

Underground ChicagoIt's a dirty world at Chicago's Field Museum. The natural science museum's newest permanent exhibit, "Underground Adventure," delves beneath the surface to explore the many different critters that help make the ecosystem go 'round.The $10 million installation covers 15,000 square feet and consists of six sections. In Base Camp, visitors learn about the variety of things dependent on soil; in the Shrink Chamber and the Micro Soil Lab, guests are "reduced" to 1/100th of their normal size and transported underground to visit giant crawfish, earthworms, wolf spiders, microscopic mites, plants and fungi.

CAIRO -- It's known as "the national dream." And that might not be much of an exaggeration. Beneath Egypt's crowded and claustrophobic capital city lies what many feel is the last, best hope to make Cairo livable again.In a city rapidly collapsing under the weight of its own population, government officials and city planners have turned their hopes underground -- to the only subway system in Africa or the Middle East."It's an idea that has been long overdue. They should have started it in the '60s," says Sayed Ettouney, a Cairo University professor of architecture and urban planning.

Anita Hoffman, 56, who helped then-husband Abbie Hoffman plot the most memorable pranks of the Yippie movement and later helped him hide for years from the FBI, died of breast cancer Sunday in San Francisco.Ms. Hoffman helped Abbie Hoffman disrupt the New York Stock Exchange by throwing money on the trading floor, encircle the Pentagon in a protest against the Vietnam War and plan the demonstrations in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.Though they divorced, Ms. Hoffman supported Mr. Hoffman for years while he lived underground to escape drug charges.

A MEMORABLE PLACEInside mysterious BoliviaBolivia, once the source of massive wealth in silver and a home of the Inca empire, now hides, poor and quietly beautiful, in South America. The "cerro rico," or rich mountain, towering over the colonial city of Potosi is still mined by "indigenas." A friend and I hiked up the slope of this famous mountain, Cerro Potosi, to take a four-hour hike through one of its 5,000 mines.Leading us was Eduardo, a short, rough-looking former miner whom my companion and I met through the staff at our hotel.

Percy Williams Schall Jr., 79, insurance executivePercy Williams Schall Jr., an insurance executive and retired colonel in the Army Reserve, died Friday of a heart attack at home in Melrose Apartments in Homeland. He was 79.He was regional manager of Manufacturers Life Insurance Co. from 1954 until he retired in 1972. He was a former president of the Baltimore Life Underwriters' Association.Born and raised on East 33rd Street, he graduated from City College in 1937 and Loyola College in 1941.

Never in history have so many felt the pain of one man's aching back.Taiwan's quake was bigger than Turkey's in a more populous area, but only one-tenth as many people died because it builds stronger buildings.Baltimore has OK buildings but needs stronger trees, or else underground power lines, whichever's cheaper.The Guv will build highways as long as they don't connect.

GENEVA -- With tensions rising on the Korean peninsula, the United States and North Korea opened new talks here yesterday over whether North Korea would allow inspections of a suspected underground nuclear facility.The talks, which are to continue today, precede a new round of four-way meetings planned here next week aimed at reaching a formal peace treaty for the peninsula, where war ended 46 years ago.This would be the fourth such gathering in the past 13 months of North and South Korea and their chief allies, China and the United States.

It is perhaps the most attractive real estate on the Inner Harbor: a 27-acre finger of land with panoramic views of the downtown Baltimore skyline and sailboats breezing past.But 3 feet underground, the peninsula near the restaurants of Fells Point isn't so pretty.Cancer-causing hexavalent chromium from the former Allied chrome plant is buried under four layers of plastic in one of the most expensive pollution-containment systems in Maryland.Federal environmental officials plan to announce today that AlliedSignal Inc., a chemical and aerospace company based in Morristown, N.J., has successfully completed a 10-year effort to halt the flow of contaminated ground water into the harbor.

Anita Hoffman, 56, who helped then-husband Abbie Hoffman plot the most memorable pranks of the Yippie movement and later helped him hide for years from the FBI, died of breast cancer Sunday in San Francisco.Ms. Hoffman helped Abbie Hoffman disrupt the New York Stock Exchange by throwing money on the trading floor, encircle the Pentagon in a protest against the Vietnam War and plan the demonstrations in Chicago during the 1968 Democratic National Convention.Though they divorced, Ms. Hoffman supported Mr. Hoffman for years while he lived underground to escape drug charges.

WASHINGTON -- Easing an Asian security threat, North Korea agreed yesterday to allow repeated inspections of an underground construction site that U.S. intelligence agencies suspect is part of a nuclear weapons program.A senior U.S. official said the agreement grants inspectors the right to as many visits as necessary and lasting as long as required to satisfy them about North Korea's plans for the site.The inspectors will have enough freedom "to be sure of what we're seeing," and not have to guess any longer about what is taking place, the official said.

The body spotted Friday by a Verizon worker in an underground cable vault in North Baltimore's Mid-Govans neighborhood was that of a decomposed white female, and detectives are awaiting the results of an autopsy, according to police. The telephone cable splicer, Barry Schwaab, said he had been preparing to do routine maintenance on buried lines and was about to climb down into the vault through a manhole when he saw the body lying face-down in about 5 feet of water. The vault is on a wide alley off Benninghaus Road, just east of York Road.

Baltimore is a city built on tunnels. President-elect Barack Obama and his entourage were scheduled to pass through two of our longest railroad underground passages, one in East Baltimore along Hoffman Street, the other lengthy one in West Baltimore that runs under Wilson Street. I've found that Baltimoreans are fascinated by stories about our dank, underground byways and grow wide-eyed at tales about unused, sealed or hidden chambers. Some of these stories are false; others are merely confused - after all, a well-made tunnel is out of sight on purpose.

Charles T. Erdman Jr., a retired Bethlehem Steel Corp. manager and Navy veteran, died Nov. 17 of heart failure at his Arnold home. He was 80. Mr. Erdman, who was born and raised in East Baltimore, was a graduate of Patterson High School. He served in the Navy as a radio operator aboard the USS Caloosahatchee, a fleet oiler, from 1945 until 1948. In 1948, Mr. Erdman went to work for Bethlehem Steel's Buffalo Tank Division. During his 40-year career he held management positions at the company's plants at Sparrows Point, Buffalo, N.Y., Hallandale, Fla., and Dunellen, N.J. He was working in Baltimore when he retired in 1988.

Underground fire closes section of Greene Street 1 An underground conduit fire closed a section of Greene Street yesterday morning between Lombard and Baltimore streets, city officials said. Chief Kevin Cartwright, a city Fire Department spokesman, said the fire started about 9:30 at the southeast corner of Redwood and Greene streets, near the University of Maryland Medical Center. A contractor was working on asbestos abatement underground and struck a power line, sparking the fire, Cartwright said.

Blast, fire hit underground construction site Baltimore firefighters responded last night to an underground explosion and fire at a construction site near Maryland General Hospital. No one was injured. The underground fire broke out before 9 p.m. in the 400 block of W. Madison St. at Eutaw Street, said Chief Kevin Cartwright, a spokesman for the Fire Department. Crews from Baltimore Gas and Electric had completed repairs to a 110,000-volt feeder line on the site of a future switching station when they were attempting to restore electricity.

An explosion sent a metal manhole cover flying into the air yesterday evening, apparently caused by an electrical fire that burned for hours under North Charles Street downtown, causing power to be cut to a large swath of downtown, slightly injuring a pedestrian and emptying restaurants and bars of patrons. Traffic was diverted off one of the city's main thoroughfares starting shortly after 5 p.m., during the height of the evening rush hour, and the closures continued into this morning.

Hell must have frozen over. After 20 months of nagging from me, our IT folks have finally done it. The Sun's not-so-new-anymore Davis Vantage PRO 2 weather station at Calvert and Centre streets is feeding nearly real-time data to a Weather Underground Web site. You can check the downtown Baltimore temperature, humidity, wind, rain and barometric pressure - posted every 10 minutes around the clock - with the click of a mouse. The link is right below the five-day forecast at baltimoresun.

What's the point? -- For the true hip-hop head, this site features the latest news, reviews, videos and, most importantly, audio. Generally, the audio page features a handful of new songs every day from mainstream and underground artists. With an equal emphasis on mix tapes, hiphop game.com is always a step ahead. What to look for --Listen to new songs before they are released, and stay in tune with unknown acts that are climbing the rap ladder. (Keep in mind that language is often uncensored.

The sheriff was back in town, and his posse turned out to meet him. C. Miles sat at a table in the rear of the dining room at Duffy's Restaurant last Friday night, under a huge, rectangular banner that had his picture on it. "Welcome Back, We Miss You" the sign read. Just above the word "welcome' were words in smaller letters that were part of Miles' trademark slogans when he hosted a popular and controversial talk show on WOLB radio. "Black By Popular Demand" read one sentence, followed by "Banned By An All White Jury.

July 7 2005 Suicide terrorist bombings in three Underground stations and a double-decker bus killed 52 victims and four bombers in the worst attack on London since World War II.