Geo answer

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For our Geo Quiz today --- we're looking for an inlet of the Norwegian Sea. In fact it's the largest fjord in the country. It juts into Norway's western coast. Not far from this fjord, there's a social experiment under way. It involves something called a telemegaphone. Some artists came up with the design. It's a 20-foot tall loudspeaker sculpture perched atop a mountain. You can dial the telemegaphone's phone number and your voice will be projected out across the fjord, the valley and the nearby town. One of the artists says callers are dialing in from around the world: "Many of them sing or play music, some send messages of love and affection, politicians send messages to their rivals, and tell you what! I haven't heard one rude message! Not yet. More about the telemegaphone, but "not yet." The large fjord in Norway that we asked you about in today's Geo Quiz is called the Sogne Fjord. It's in western Norway. Now look closely at the map (north of Sogne Fjord) to find a town called Dale. Now just suppose for a moment that you wanted to share a song, say good morning, or shout out the answer to the geo quiz to all of the residents of this town nestled in the fjords in this part of Norway? This is where a telemegaphone comes in handy. Picture three trumpet shaped loudspeakers perched atop a mountain overlooking the village. The contraption is electronically linked to a cell phone. It's an open, uncensored system ... When a call comes in, the sound goes out in all directions. "Across the valley, across the town, across the fjord." Elizabeth Gunnasdottir is one of the artists who came up with the idea for the telemegaphone. "It's like background noise in the soundscape of Dale, because the sound is like from the distance its very mystical you know." Mystical maybe. Possibly annoying too. But what do the 1000 residents of Dale make of all the noise? "They find the idea quite sublime, they love the idea, but of course we've had some people complaining especially when the nights are very quiet sometimes it can disturb people's night sleep." Local politicians have called in as have some late night drunken revellers. Another caller sang lullabies....and one local farmer says he's considering using the tele-megaphone to call-in the cows. Telemegaphone Designer Eric Sunderlein hopes the idea will catch on. "Yeah, we're thinking about a lot of different locations , Times Square in New York could be interesting, maybe one the moon? But for now, the world's only telemegaphone is in Dale, Norway. It's open for calls day and night.
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