The National Geographic World Championship is an international student competition held every two years and this year, the event, which was held at SeaWorld San Diego, has been won by Mexico who defeated defending champions USA. Canada took third place, finishing ahead of the other teams from Argentina, Australia, Bulgaria, Chinese Taipei, France, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, India, Poland, Romania, Russia, Singapore and United Kingdom.
The winning question was: "What historic site was carved from sandstone in about 1200 B.C.? This site includes two huge temples and statues of an ancient ruler." Mexico correctly answered, "Abu Simbel."
Here is a video clip of Mexico answering the winning question, courtesy of National Geographic, who organized the competition that was sponsored by SeaWorld and Busch Gardens Adventure Parks.
Following my last post, here is a nice video supplied by Bill Toone about his 2003 trip to Mexico visiting Monarch Butterflies. You might also want to check out the video from hooligantv.com which is a good documentary about the Monarch Butterflies hibernation reserve.
Two species of butterfly have been identified which take part in mass migration. Tens of thousands of Monarch butterflies travel about 5,000km from Canada and the US to over-winter in Mexico. From November to March, the hibernation point at Mariposa Monarca (Special Biosphere Reserve) encourages visitors to follow trails through the forests where the butterfly spends the winter months. In Taiwan, when the winter monsoon comes down from the Northeast, tens of thousands of Purple Milkweed Butterflies make a migration south to take shelter in the warm valleys at the foot of Dawu Mountain. Come the spring, they return to their breeding ground in the north which involves passing over some 600m of busy freeway and this year, the Taiwanese authorities are to close one lane of a major highway to protect them. The authorities are also installing special netting and ultra violet lights, in an effort to raise the flight path of the butterflies, and thereby avoid them being sucked into the down-draught created by the cars.
In Taiwan, when the winter monsoon comes down from the Northeast, tens of thousands of 
