Chocolate Hills and Chocolate Mountains 

Aside Markozen.com Geography

Chocolate topography exists on the planet.  It is the color of these high areas that lead to the names. There is one in the Philippines and one in California.

The Chocolate Hills

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The Chocolate Hills (Filipino: Tsokolateng Burol) are a geological formation in the Bohol province of the Philippines. There are at least 1,260 hills but there may be as many as 1,776 hills spread over an area of more than 50 square kilometres (20 sq mi). They are covered in green grass that turns brown (like chocolate) during the dry season, hence the name.

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The Chocolate Hills form a rolling terrain of haycock hills – mounds of a generally conical and almost symmetrical shape. Estimated to be from 1,268 to about 1,776 individual mounds, these cone-shaped or dome-shaped hills are actually made of grass-covered limestone. The domes vary in sizes from 30 to 50 metres (98 to 164 ft) high with the largest being 120 metres (390 ft) in height.

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The Chocolate Hills are conical karst hills similar to those seen in the limestone regions of Slovenia, Croatia, northern Puerto Rico, and Pinar del Río Province, Cuba. These hills consist of Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene, thin to medium bedded, sandy to rubbly marine limestones. These limestones contain the abundant fossils of shallow marine foraminifera, coral, mollusks, and algae. These conical hills are geomorphological features called cockpit karst, which were created by a combination of the dissolution of limestone by rainfall, surface water, and groundwater, and their subaerial erosion by rivers and streams after they had been uplifted above sea level and fractured by tectonic processes. 

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The Chocolate Mountains

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The Chocolate Mountains of California are located in Imperial and Riverside counties in the Colorado Desert of Southern California. The mountains stretch more than 60 miles (100 km) in a northwest to southeast direction, and are located east of the Salton Sea and south and west of the Chuckwalla Mountains and the Colorado River. To the northwest lie the Orocopia Mountains.

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The Chocolate Mountains form the northeast boundary of the Salton Trough extending as a narrow range some 80 miles (130 km) southeast from the Orocopia Mountains to the Colorado River valley. The mountains are located about 30 miles (48 km) west of the Chocolate Mountains of Arizona, but the two ranges are not connected. The range reaches an elevation of 2,475 feet (754 m) at Mount Barrow, and serves as a drainage divide for the Salton Watershed to the west.

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The mountain range is occupied by the Chocolate Mountain Aerial Gunnery Range, an aerial and gunnery practice area used by the US Navy and Marines. A large part of the Chocolate Mountains lies within the gunnery range, and is closed to the public.

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Computers and Soldiers

Aside Markozen.com Art


As desktop towers have given way to today’s sleek laptops and even sleeker mobile devices, all glued shut to preclude even the possibility of tinkering, we’ve lost something valuable: the art of the case mod. Thankfully, over in Japan, Hiroto Ikeuchi is keeping the craft alive in spectacular fashion.

Ikeuchi spent the better part of the last year building this incredible machine, a creation that isn’t so much a case mod as full-blown diorama. It’s a deliriously detailed little world that just happens to take place in and around a functioning computer. It also redefines the idea of what it means to have a cluttered desk.

Ikeuchi, a designer by trade, likes to call it his “secret base.” Inspired by mecha anime like Gundam and Macross, every surface is packed with something to discover. Soldiers tend to intricate, forbidding machinery. Mechs await repair. The work seamlessly blends plastic toys, gizmo components, and scraps of other materials with the computer itself. Atop the tower, the shell of a DSLR is repurposed as a laser cannon.

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Indonesia volcano: Residents flee as Mt Semeru spews huge ash cloud

Aside Markozen.com Nature

Residents on the Indonesian island of Java have been fleeing a vast plume of ash as an active volcano erupted for the second time in months.

Witnesses said a thick rain of volcanic ash from Mt Semeru was blotting out the Sun in two local districts.

No casualties have yet been reported and evacuations are under way, officials said.

Meanwhile a monitoring body issued a warning to airlines of an ash cloud rising up to 15,000m (50,000 ft).

The eruption took place at about 14:30 local time (07:30 GMT). Local authorities have set up a restricted zone of 5km (3 miles) from the crater after the eruption.

Thoriqul Haq, a local official, told Reuters that a road and bridge from the area to the nearby city of Malang had been severed.

“This has been a very pressing, rapid condition since it erupted,” he said.

The Volcanic Ash Advisory Center (VAAC) in Darwin, Australia said the ash appeared to have detached from the summit and was drifting south-west over the Indian Ocean.

The VAAC provides advice to the aviation industry about the location and movement of potentially hazardous volcanic ash.

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Campbell Biggs, a meteorologist at the VAAC, told the BBC that the 15,000m plume was higher than the cruising altitude for most aircraft and would cause most flights in the vicinity to divert their flight paths to avoid it.

Ash that solidifies on cooler parts of plane engines can disrupt airflow, which can lead to engines stalling or failing completely.

It also affects visibility for the pilots and can affect air quality in the cabin – making oxygen masks a necessity.

Mt Semeru was quite an active volcano that regularly spewed ash up to about 4,300m, so Saturday’s eruption was a “pretty significant increase in intensity”, Mr Biggs said.

The ash cloud should slowly dissipate, he said.

Mt Semeru rises 3,676m above sea level and previously erupted last December, forcing thousands of residents to seek shelter.

It is among Indonesia’s nearly 130 active volcanoes.

Indonesia is on the Pacific “Ring of Fire”, where continental plates meet causing frequent volcanic and seismic activity.

Footage on social media showed residents running away as a giant ash cloud rose behind them.

Home Alone house available to book on Airbnb

Aside Markozen.com Buildings, Movies
Home Alone house
Image caption,The famous home is located in the Chicago area

Home Alone fans can now live out their childhood dreams by spending the night in the film’s iconic house.

The house – home to the McCallister family in the 1990 Christmas classic – has been made available on Airbnb for one night only.

Located in the Chicago area, the home will be available to book from 7 December for $25 (£18).

The successful applicants will be able to stay overnight on 12 December. It is available for a maximum of four guests.

The blockbuster famously starred Macaulay Culkin as Kevin McCallister.

Guests will be greeted on arrival by Devin Ratray, who played his older brother Buzz.

“You may not remember me as particularly accommodating,” Buzz is quoted as saying in the press release.

“But I’ve grown up, and I’d be happy to share my family home – my pizza, even – with you this holiday season. Just try not to let my tarantula, Axl, loose this time.”

Other perks include booby traps, aftershave and a mirror to scream into, and 90s junk food.