Donald Trump, one of the world's most famous businessmen, has filed for bankruptcy FOUR TIMES.
It's true. The famous billionaire and possible future president has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy on four occasions, in 1992, 1994, 2004, and 2009. Is this a sign that the esteemed businessman, and star of The Apprentice, may not actually be a good businessman? Not according to Trump. He argues that the businesses he's had to file bankruptcy for all eventually able to turn around to become profitable. Bankruptcy is just something he had to resort to in order to manage debt. As it turns out, bankruptcy can actually be good business.
Now you know.
Source: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/133317/20110412/donald-trump-bankruptcy.htm
The White House wasn't called the "White House" until 1901. President Theodore Roosevelt gave the iconic building its name. That's over 100 years after it was completed and its first residents, John and Abigail Adams, moved in. Prior to that, the president's home was known as the "Executive Mansion", the "President's House" and the "President's Palace." We now just call it the White House, though it takes 570 gallons of paint to keep it that color.
Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/history
Who Created the New York Yankee's Logo?
The insignia was first created back in 1877 by Louis B. Tiffany of the famous jeweler, Tiffany & Co. The symbol was first struck on a medal that was awarded by the New York City Police Department to the first NYC policeman shot in the line of duty - Officer John McDowell. Thirty-two years later the design was repurposed by the Yankees, then known as the "New York Highlanders." The logo was adopted in order to compete with the orange NY symbol used by the rival New York Giants ballclub. The New York press soon began to use the "Yankees" nickname in coverage of the Highlanders' games and in 1913 the nickname became official. The logo has remained virtually unchanged to this day and is now one of the most recognizable symbols in all of sport.
Source: http://newyork.yankees.mlb.com/nyy/history/uniforms_logos.jsp
This is really cool, Warph...Thank you... :)
I'm glad you like it, Cat.
The Tallest Volcano in our Solar System is 69,649 feet High.
That volcano, Olympus Mons (or "Mount Olympus") on the planet Mars, is 15 miles high and 300 miles wide! That's more than twice as tall as Mount Everest, Earth's tallest peak! Or for another visual aid, Olympus Mons is taller than 80 Eiffel Towers! It's also the highest mountain in the solar system! However, despite it's size, it's not very steep. If you stood on it's slope, it wouldn't even seem like you were on a mountain at all.
Source: http://geology.com/articles/highest-point-on-mars.shtml
I also liked the Yankees information. Sent it to my husband, Jim, who's a diehard fan. Thanks.
What Is Anatidaephobia? Anatidaephobia is defined as a pervasive, irrational fear that one is being watched by a DUCK. The anatidaephobic individual fears that no matter where they are or what they are doing, a duck watches. Sometimes that fear can become so intense as to completely stop a person's ability to maintain daily functioning. Unchecked, Anatidaephobia can become a debilitating condition that interferes with the person's social life, their personal life and job responsibilities. Untreated, Anatidaephobia touches every aspect of a person's life. Anatidaephobia is derived from the Greek word "anatidae", meaning ducks, geese or swans and "phobos" meaning fear.
Source: http://hubpages.com/hub/Anatidaephobia-The-Fear-of-Being-Watched-by-a-Duck
If it walks like a duck, quacks like a duck, looks like a duck, it must be a duck!
Oh, Lord! I just spent 57 seconds waiting for the other one to move! I need some serous help. Oh wait, it's early yet.
Larryj
It was obviously Morse code...what did he say?
Quote from: Diane Amberg on June 14, 2011, 10:28:48 AM
It was obviously Morse code...what did he say?
He said, "I see you, Diane and you better open this door or we're going to poop all over your back porch.... that is, if I can get my better half to move her butt!"
A four-year-old has her own art exhibition in New York City! This will definitely reignite the debate about what art really is.... does the product of a kid playing with paint really constitute fine art? I don't think so.... but the parents of 4-year-old Aelita Andre definitely think so. The precocious Australian artist has reportedly been toddling around on canvases since she was 9 months old! Now that she's all grown up at the age of four... FOUR for %#%@*! sakes. Three of her paintings have sold for $27,000!
She also has her own art show, "The Prodigy of Color", at the Agora Gallery in NYC. The twenty-four works on display are priced anywhere from $4,400 to $10,000 a piece. The gallery's director, Angela Di Bello, actually chose her artwork before she knew the painter's age! She thought the pieces displayed "great colors, great movement, great composition, and were very playful," then she found out they had been produced by a child!
Lord, I think I have a headache!
Source: http://shine.yahoo.com/event/momentsofmotherhood/4-year-old-aelita-andre-gets-her-own-ny-art-show-sells-paintings-for-27k-2494801/
Me, too. I want my art to be recognizable as to what it represents. If it is a barn, it should look like a barn. If it looks like a toddler playing with paint, that is probably what it is.
Now that's funny!
A 92-year-old woman was pregnant for sixty years. In 2009, a 92-year-old Chinese woman named Huang Yijun delivered a child that she had been carrying for over half a century! The woman went to the hospital complaining of a stomachache, but doctors soon realized that she was carrying what is called a lithopedion, or stone pregnancy.
This phenomenon begins as an ectopic pregnancy, or one in which the fertilized egg gets stuck and begins developing somewhere before its intended place in the uterus! The unborn fetus eventually calcifies and remains in its mother's womb. Lithopedions typically remain in their mother's womb for an average of 22 years. Huang Yijun carried her child for almost triple that length of time!
Source: http://bodyodd.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2009/03/04/4380061-the-curious-case-of-the-stone-baby?pc=25&sp=175
A Japanese company has invented a portable toilet that is carried around in a briefcase. The "Gotta Go Briefcase," manufactured by Niban Too Corporation, contains stainless steel toilet bowl surrounded by mahogany leather. It contains everything you could possibly need while going about your 'business': a pop-out toilet paper roll, hand sanitizer dispenser, cup holder, and even a mirror! In today's competitive world, the "Gotta Go" may allow for increased efficiency, but I would recommend bringing along a spare briefcase for the sake of your customers.
Source: http://inventorspot.com/gotta_go
Excuse me now, but.... I gotta go!
The recently discovered "Goldilocks Planet" is so named because its conditions are "just right" for life to exist there. The Goldilocks Planet (scientific name: Gliese 581-g) is a planet 20 light-years away that scientists say has the right conditions for life. It's the perfect distance from its sun for liquid water to exist.
This is still purely speculative though, since there's no evidence that there actually is any water on the planet. They also don't know whether there is any oxygen on the planet. Interestingly enough, the planet's solar system appears to be a miniature version of our own, with the equivalent of Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, etc.
Source: http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=130215192
World's Oldest Light Bulb Still Burning After 110 Years :o :o :o
It may not glow brightly, but it sure glows consistently.
A light bulb hanging in the Livermore-Pleasanton Fire Department has been burning steadily for exactly 110 years, according the Centennial Bulb website. Since the "Centennial Bulb" was first turned on, the stock market crashed and was reborn, the nuclear age began, two World Wars were fought, cars and planes were developed ... and through it all the bulb kept burning.
How exactly it stays lit remains something of a mystery, Lynn Owens, who is in charge of the light bulb centennial committee, told Time magazine. "Nobody knows how it's possible. It's a 60-watt bulb and it's only turned on for about four watts, but nobody knows why it keeps burning ... We've had scientists from all over the country look at this light bulb," Owens said.
On June 18, the bulb celebrates its 110th year of illumination -- a fact documented extensively by Guinness World Records. But even beyond its staggering powers of endurance, it's hardly an ordinary bulb.
Source: http://www.centennialbulb.org/photos.htm
http://www.centennialbulb.org/
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/06/18/worlds-oldest-light-bulb-still-burning-after-110-years/#ixzz1PfPi9X3i
I have been enjoying this thread Warph, thanks! ;)
I have enjoyed it also. Waiting to see you next post.
There's also a bulb that has been burning since 1908, currently at the museum at the Ft. Worth Stockyards:
http://stockyardsmuseum.org/index_files/PalaceBulb.htm
Flint
People weren't meant to poop sitting down. Squatting instead of sitting on a toilet reduces your chances of getting hemorrhoids.
A 2003 study had participants defecate using a standard toilet seat (41-42 cm high), a lowered toilet seat (31-32 cm high), and while squatting. The results were that, regardless of toilet seat height, pooping while sitting took more time to completely empty the bowels, and required more effort to get it all out. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/12870773
Further studies have indicated that all this extra pressure that we put on our colons when using a toilet is actually hurting us. In fact, the use of toilets increases our chances of developing ailments like hemorrhoids and diverticulosis (the formation of holes in the colon). http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/2840558
In the grand scheme of things, flush toilets are a relatively recent addition to our lives (having been invented in 1591). Though they clearly have bettered people's livelihoods by improving overall sanitation, the fact of the matter is that the sitting position that toilets force us into result in anorectal angles (angle formed at the junction of the anus and rectum) that are less than ideal for efficient pooping. The angle is at 90 degrees while standing (keeping us from releasing at the wrong time) and only improves to 100 degrees when sitting on a toilet. While squatting the anorectal angle improves to 126 degrees, making everything flow much more easily.
Of course, as more people become obese, it becomes more of a strain to get into a squatting position and stand back up from a squatting position multiple times every day. Read more about Pooping:Source: http://www.slate.com/id/2264657/
There are 6,909 Known Languages Spoken in the World Today.
Source: http://www.ethnologue.com/language_index.asp?letter=A
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Talk About Your Pyramid Scheme!
The Great Pyramid was built as a tomb for the pharaoh Khufu. As of 2008, 138 pyramids have been discovered in Egypt..... and most were constructed to house the remains of ancient Egyptian royalty. The supreme example of this practice is Khufu's Great Pyramid, the largest of these structures ever to be built. It is made of about 2.3 million stone blocks, each weighing anywhere from 2.5 to 15 tons! With construction continuing for around 80 years, it is estimated that the workers would have had to set a block in place every two and a half minutes!
The ancient Greek historian Herodotus claimed that Khufu enslaved his people in order to erect his burial pyramid. However, modern archaeologists have shown that these workers were hired by the pharoah and lived in prosperous villages near the construction site. Many laborers have been shown to have even taken pride in their work, calling themselves "Friends of Khufu" and other titles of royal allegiance. http://guardians.net/egypt/khufu.htm
Sources:
http://www.nationalgeographic.com/pyramids/khufu.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/17/world/middleeast/17cairo.html?_r=1
When Gene Kelly filmed the famous dance sequence from Singin' in the Rain, he was actually singin' in the milk!
With the filming technology at the time, it was very difficult to capture small, clear droplets of rain on camera. To get around this, the filmmakers added milk to the mixture, making it more easily visible.
Some other interesting facts about Singin' in the Rain:
**About $160,000 was spent on costuming.
**Debbie Reynolds' singing ability was somewhat limited. In the scene where Debbie Reynolds' character Kathy is dubbing over the voice of Jean Hagen's character Lina Lamont, Hagen is actually dubbing over Reynolds!
**Gene Kelly had a fever of 103 degrees when filming the famous dance sequence. You'll never believe Gene Kelly was sick as a dog as he's getting wetter than a drowned rat here:
This is even more impressive when you consider that Kelly not only was required to dance, but also had to drench himself...all while looking HAPPY! Then again, perhaps his illness was helpful to him? People have been known to catch "dancing fever" after all. All joking aside though, there has never been a performer quite like Gene Kelly. He is an American film icon and I recommend that you check out one of the most popular song and dance scenes in any musical. [/b] [/font]
Source: http://www.suite101.com/content/classic-film-singin-in-the-rain-1952-a138083
In 1930, New York Yankee's star Babe Ruth made more money than the President of the United States!
After making $70,000 each of the previous three seasons, the Great Bambino's salary was upped another ten grand in 1930. Amidst the Great Depression, this made the Yankee slugger's pay even greater than that of President Herbert Hoover, who only made $75,000 a year! When asked about the situation, Ruth said, "What the hell has Hoover got to do with it? Besides, I had a better year than he did." The Sultan of Swat has a point... while he was rewriting the record books, Hoover's presidency was more like a series of swings and misses.
Note: in the modern era, this phenomenon is no longer quite so amazing. At $32 million each year, Alex Rodriguez makes EIGHTY TIMES President Obuma's annual salary!
Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/27651122/ns/business-sports_biz/t/long-term-deals-will-keep-sports-afloat/
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi's bodyguards are all virgin females. He claims that the 40-woman entourage symbolize his belief in female emancipation. However, each girl is required to swear an oath to Gaddafi saying that they will give their lives to him, never leaving his side and remaining virgins! The position is viewed as being very prestigious, so numerous women put themselves through a rigorous training program which teaches them martial arts and firearms training.
In 1998, their skills were put to the ultimate test when an assassination attempt was made on Gaddafi.... one woman was killed when she threw her body into the line of fire, and seven others were severely wounded.
Source: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-1192494/More-make-hair-dye-40-virgin-bodyguards-Gaddafi-murderous-menace.html
Warph,
At $32 million per year, I believe Alex Rodriguez makes 80 times more than President Obama's annual salary, rather than 8 times more.
Quote from: W. Gray on June 22, 2011, 10:17:24 AM
Warph,
At $32 million per year, I believe Alex Rodriguez makes 80 times more than President Obama's annual salary, rather than 8 times more.
Man.... you're right. Someone stole my "Y".... I think Teresa was over here last night, poking around like she does. You don't think it was her, do you, Waldo? It coulda been Larry J .... he hangs out over here most of the time.... him and R.A.M.B.O. You don't think Jarhead might of put him and his dog up to stealing my "Y," do you ??? Wouldn't put it past Jarhead. He's always been jealous of my Air Force.
WARPH, Ol Sarge and Patriot all Fly Boys ?? If Larry tells me that although he was in the Army but dated a WAC, I'm gonna surrender !!! I'm still holding out hope that Ross was at least a Swabbie. Nothing new though---my beloved Corps seems to always be outnumbered but we still "persevere" (Did y'all notice I said "persevere" in my Chief Dan George imitation ? ) Now I know that will be over ol Sarge's head but Larry is an old movie fan and knows what I'm talking about.
Speaking of Chief Dan George (1899 - 1981), the late Chief was a real Chief of the Tsleil-Waututh Nation, a Coast Salish band located on Burrard Inlet in North Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. He was an author, an Academy Award-nominated actor but, above all, he was a poet:
"May the stars carry your sadness away,
May the flowers fill your heart with beauty,
May hope forever wipe away your tears,
And, above all, may silence make you strong."
--Chief Dan George
His character, LONE WATIE was my favorite screen appearance by him in the 70's Clint Eastwood
film classic: THE OUTLAW JOSEY WALES. He also had an incredible sense of profound and
wise humor that was unforgettable:
From the film "Little Big Man" - Chief Dan George Goes up to the mountain to die.
"Sometimes the magic works, sometimes it doesn't."
"Proud Earth" by Chief Dan George
I loved anything Chief Dan George was in. Didn't he also do a commercial later in life that had to do with polution/or forest fires.
Now, I know Smokey Bear was forest spokesman............but if I remember right. Chief Dan George did one with an eagle flying over his country with all the improvement and all the chemical polution............and then he shed a tear................broke my heart.
Quote from: Judy Harder on June 23, 2011, 05:57:30 AM
I loved anything Chief Dan George was in. Didn't he also do a commercial later in life that had to do with polution/or forest fires.
Now, I know Smokey Bear was forest spokesman............but if I remember right. Chief Dan George did one with an eagle flying over his country with all the improvement and all the chemical polution............and then he shed a tear................broke my heart.
You are thinking of Iron Eyes Cody, Judy....
Iron Eyes Cody was, perhaps, the best Indian impersonator to come down the pike.
He was born in the USA of Sicilian parents.
Thanks Waldo.....knew you would find what I was talking about.
I grew up with cowboy and indians and almost always was an indian when we kids played.
My complection says there could be indian in us, but we can't find it anywhere.....maybe it
was one of those story's that didn't get talked about.
I love this commercial............it is so meaningful.
Warph, wasn't me............not guilty............
Jarhead, I did have a choice the first day of service, army or marines. However, I would have to serve an extra year (at that time) and that was a no-no. I could have been a warrant officer and fly helos, but that required an extra year of service.........same no-no. As far as dating a WAC.............nope, I once tried to date a doughnut dolly, but most doughnut dollies were only interested in the officers. There was one who dated a friend, one of the other medics in the clinic, and they evened dated after their service was over. i almost had a shot at dating a USO girl, but she rotated out before I could make my move.
Larryj
i almost had a shot at dating a USO girl, but she rotated out before I could make my move.
Larry,
I'm still trying to process that statement . ;D
Found my "Y".... some troll was sitting on it.
Snooki from "Jersey Shore" is technically a dwarf.
Standing at a height of 4'9", Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi just barely passes the standard definition of dwarfism, which is an adult height at or below 4'10".... the advocacy group "Little People of America" also marks this as the standard cutoff. Just don't call her a midget! "Dwarf" or "little person" are terms that are typically deemed to be acceptable; "midget" is widely regarded to be quite offensive.
Source: http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/growth/dwarfism.html
More on Snooki: http://www.usmagazine.com/moviestvmusic/news/snooki-weighed-just-80-pounds-while-battling-eating-disorder-2010191
Whoops! Sorry, Jarhead, I forgot you were a marine! Just kidding! Hey, did I ever tell you my marine joke? ;)
It was at a USO club one afternoon and one of the girls got on the microphone and announced it was 4:00 in the afternoon. She said, "that's 1600 hours for your Army and Air Force personnel, eight bells for you sailors and for you marines, Mickey's little hand is on the four.......................
Larryj (don't get mad, one of my best friends is a retired Marine. But then, I have never told him that joke!)
P.S. "rotated out" meant she left to go back to the states. Where was your mind going with that one?
P.S.S (Hey, Sarge, was that a good joke or what?")
There are some biological differences between true "Midgets" and Dwarfs. Midgets are perfectly proportioned but are just small. Dwarfs have normal sized heads and chests but have shorter than normal arms, stubby legs, hands and feet and may have internal organ placement problems because of genetic differences.
I had occasion to have a couple of each when I was teaching full time. I had one little girl whose whole family had genetic problems that went back for many generations. All were very short and not proportioned normally, but also had the misfortune of having no opposing thumbs, just 5 fingers. Arlene also had very oddly underdeveloped legs from the knee down. They were much too short. She expected to not be able to walk at all as an adult. I saw her recently and after several surgeries, she is walking with two canes for balance and has learned to manage pretty well without thumbs. She has "assisting devices" to help her out in public ,has electric can openers at home and has all the doors on their house set up with levers rather than knobs. Her little girl is normal ,but no thumbs. That genetic trait is still being passed along.
Diane, I want to thank you for sharing with us one of the triumphs that we don't hear about. Here in the middle of rural Kansas, we don't get to see much of the little people, so have no first hand experience with them. I can't help but think that they are related to the leprechauns, who in my book are cute and funny and sassy. And maybe, just maybe, among my ancestors.
The little people I have known all had normal sized parents,except for Alene who had that genetic defect even in cousins and aunts and uncles back through a great great great grandmother. All were just delightful people who did everything they wanted to do, they just might get at it a little differently.
Quote from: Warph on June 24, 2011, 01:36:58 AM
Snooki from "Jersey Shore" is technically a dwarf.
Standing at a height of 4'9", Nicole "Snooki" Polizzi just barely passes the standard definition of dwarfism, which is an adult height at or below 4'10".... the advocacy group "Little People of America" also marks this as the standard cutoff. Just don't call her a midget! "Dwarf" or "little person" are terms that are typically deemed to be acceptable; "midget" is widely regarded to be quite offensive.
Source: http://kidshealth.org/parent/growth/growth/dwarfism.html
More on Snooki: http://www.usmagazine.com/moviestvmusic/news/snooki-weighed-just-80-pounds-while-battling-eating-disorder-2010191
Yeah, but what about the size of her......brain! Did I say that outloud? :angel:
Lisa
After my greatgrandfather died my greatgrandmother married a man that was dwarf, all of his siblings and parents were normal size. My mother loved having him as a grandfather as he was a very nice man and was very nice looking. During World War I he was working in the theatre and circus and they were planning to send several of the group over to entertain the troops but they had to have all the required shots before leaving the states. Most of the midgets died from the shots while the dwarfs had little or no reaction to them and that is when they found how important it was to determine the dose by weight instead of age. Most of the midgets had smaller organs so they needed smaller doses while the dwarfs organs were larger and could take the adult dose.
That's a shame, but it sure would be true. I wonder why they didn't consider that at the time?
I've even had questions asked in EMT CPR classes too. Unless there is medical knowledge that would cause a change for some reason, a dwarf would get adult CPR and a midget would get child CPR, or enough chest compression depth to move the blood forward and create a pulse wave.
Quote from Larry:
i almost had a shot at dating a USO girl, but she rotated out before I could make my move.
Yes Larry, you have told me your Marine joke before-----twice now !!!. ;D
The way you said "I ALMOST had a shot at dating a USO girl' kinda reminded me of what ol Sarge told me once. We were sitting around talking about fishing and other boy talk and I made mention that I thought Barbara Eden from I Dream Of Jeannie , was a hottie. Sarge told me while he was I Nam he had a chance to "sleep" with Ms Eden. I was thinking she must have been on a USO tour but then ol Sarge went ahead and explained what he meant. He said, "yea, I was laying in my bunk at Cam Rahn Bay one night and I was "ready" but Ms. Eden was in Hollywood so she missed her chance"
I thought you were pulling the same prank on me. :)
Lisa, at $6,000.per episode, who is dumber? Snookie, smiling all the way to the bank or the people who fork out that kind of money? ;D ;D ;D Her personal appearances pay even more. Aren't we in the wrong business? :P ;D
We'd better get us some managers! Heck, I've done all sorts of stupid stuff. Too bad there were no cameras around! :laugh:
Lisa
President Lincoln dreamt about his assassination ten days before it occurred. Lincoln's recollection of the dream to a friend, a mere three days before the incident:
"About ten days ago, I retired very late. I had been up waiting for important dispatches from the front. I could not have been long in bed when I fell into a slumber, for I was weary. I soon began to dream. There seemed to be a death-like stillness about me."
"Then I heard subdued sobs, as if a number of people were weeping. I thought I left my bed and wandered downstairs. There the silence was broken by the same pitiful sobbing, but the mourners were invisible. I went from room to room; no living person was in sight, but the same mournful sounds of distress met me as I passed along. It was light in all the rooms; every object was familiar to me; but where were all the people who were grieving as if their hearts would break?"
"I was puzzled and alarmed. What could be the meaning of all this? Determined to find the cause of a state of things so mysterious and so shocking, I kept on until I arrived at the East Room, which I entered. There I met with a sickening surprise. Before me was a catafalque, on which rested a corpse wrapped in funeral vestments. Around it were stationed soldiers who were acting as guards; and there was a throng of people, some gazing mournfully upon the corpse, whose face was covered, others weeping pitifully. 'Who is dead in the White House?' I demanded of one of the soldiers 'The President' was his answer; 'he was killed by an assassin!' Then came a loud burst of grief from the crowd, which awoke me from my dream."
Source: http://ezinearticles.com/?President-Abraham-Lincolns-Prophetic-Dream-That-Foretold-His-Own-Death-In-The-White-House&id=346986
There is a species of mushroom named after Spongebob Squarepants. A new species of mushroom has the name Spongiforma squarepantsii. Strangely enough, this new species isn't the only mushroom in the Spongiforma genus.
Even though S. Squarepantsii is a fungus, not a sponge, the researchers were inspired to name it after Spongebob because it looks like a sea sponge.
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-13874049
===================================================================
Live animals are being sold as keyrings in China. Chinese sidewalk vendors have recently begun selling animals sealed inside airtight packaging as keyring accessories! Anyone heartless enough to purchase one of these trinkets has the option of abusing a tiny Brazil turtle or two small kingfish, each trapped inside a plastic pouch with some colored water. One salesman claimed that the creatures could live as long as several months because the water contains "nutrients" .... a claim that is unlikely at best.
Even if this were true, it doesn't excuse the fact that the creatures have no space to move around in, very little air, and are likely to be smashed in someone's pocket. The worst part is that this practice is completely legal! Chinese law prohibits the sale of wild animals, but apparently the legislation does not apply to selling turtles and fish in such inhumane fashion.
Source: http://www.treehugger.com/files/2011/03/live-animals-being-sold-as-keyrings-in-china.php
The Seven Billionth Baby Due This Fall
The United Nations Population Division predicts that the world's population (currently estimated at over 6.9 billion http://www.census.gov/main/www/popclock.html ) will reach the 7 billion mark on October 31 of this year. Statistically, the 7 billionth person will likely be born in Asia. However, it's impossible to know which child is truly the 7 billionth because there are thousands of babies born every hour. The UN recognized a child born in Sarajevo, Bosnia as the six billionth person. That was only 12 years ago.
Source: http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/billionth+person+expected+this+fall/4985345/story.html=================================================
Anatolian Shepherd versus Siamese Cat Boxing Match. Oh the joys of pet ownership.
There's no 13th Zodiac sign, and your Zodiac sign has not changed!
A quote falsely attributed to the Minnesota Planetarium Society suggests that there is a 13th Zodiac sign, "Ophiuchus" that appears between Scorpio and Sagittarius that would result in bumping everyone's Zodiac signs over by a month.
What actually happened is that the Minneapolis Star Tribune a interviewed member of the society's board, who merely pointed out that our Zodiac system is technically wrong. The Zodiac symbols are all named after constellations that can be seen from earth. However, over thousands of years, the Earth has shifted on its axis. This means that the year represented by a particular Zodiac sign is no longer the best time to see the corresponding constellation. Thus ""When [astrologers] say that the sun is in Pisces, it's really not in Pisces,""
This has actually been the case for a long time, but there's been no push to correct the Zodiac calendar to match up with astronomical reality. This is good news for me, since I never thought of myself as a Libra anyway (...not that I believe in that kind of stuff). :-\
(source) http://technolog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/01/14/5841166-the-twitter-snowball-effect-the-zodiac-and-npr
There is a 5-inch octopus that can kill a human!
The Blue-Ringed Octopus also has some pretty amazing colors. It appears grey or beige when resting, but when it gets agitated it pulsates with bright, flashy colors. This would include the blue rings on its body for which it is named. They stay hidden in shallow, sandy areas on the beaches of Australia during the day, and come out at night.
Blue-ringed octopuses eat shellfish mostly. They tear off the shells with their sharp beaks and inject them with toxin. This toxin can paralyze and kill a human being! Another fun fact: the third arm of a male blue-ringed octopus also doubles as a sex organ, which it uses to transfer sperm into a female octopus. It's the octopus equivalent of a penis.
Source: http://www.pbs.org/wnet/nature/interactives-extras/animal-guides/animal-guide-blue-ringed-octopus/2177/
The town of Winchester, Virginia changed hands over 70 times during the Civil War.
Winchester's proximity to the northern border of the Confederacy (between Virginia and Maryland) caused it to be captured a great number of times by the opposing forces. This averages out to once every 3 weeks for the four-year duration of the war! Another reason Winchester was so attractive from a military standpoint was its location relative to the Shenandoah Valley.
Whichever army controlled the valley also was able to control the supply of food, soldiers, and other goods to the South.
Source: http://www.shenandoahatwar.org/cluster_winchester.html
The United States spends more money on AIR CONDITIONING in Iraq and Afghanistan than on the entire budget of NASA!! $20,200,000,000. That's more money than BP has paid back for damage caused from the Gulf oil spill. That's as much cash as the G-8 (eight of the world's most prosperous industrialized democracies) have pledged to support democratic ideals in Egypt and Tunisia over the next two years! The thought of temperature control costing so much seems ridiculous, and it is. But when you think about the effort to safely transport fuel to some of the most remote and dangerous places in the world, it's understandable.
For example, to power an AC unit at an isolated Afghan outpost (where temperatures can reach 125ºF!), a gallon of fuel has to be shipped into Karachi, Pakistan and then driven on 800 miles of potentially shoddy roads over the next 18 days! And that's not to mention the fact that these sorts of motorcades are typically prime targets for insurgent attacks.
Source: http://www.npr.org/2011/06/25/137414737/among-the-costs-of-war-20b-in-air-conditioning
(Oh, btw... it is 120 degrees out on my patio today...Warph)
But it's a dry heat. ;D ;D ;D ;D. Is that air conditioning over there for the people or for the computers and electronics?
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is the irrational fear, or phobia, of long or improbable-sounding words.
Although there have been no documented cases involving this particular phobia, experts have identified it as a type of anxiety disorder. As a result, treatment is readily available for individuals who suffer from the affliction.
While hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia may be less common than other phobias, individuals who suffer from the disorder experience the same sense of panic as those who suffer from acrophobia (fear of heights), arachnophobia (fear of spiders), or any other well-known phobia. Rather than spiders or heights, however, the hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobic experiences an overall feeling of dread or fear whenever he or she comes in contact with a particularly long word. Despite the realization that they pose no damage to the individual, sufferers may experience symptoms like shortness of breath, rapid heartbeat, and nausea whenever this happens.
Hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia literally means the hippopotamus and monster-related fear of very long words. As a 15-syllable word, the term itself is likely to panic those who suffer from the disorder. As a result, many experts have challenged its use, arguing that the term mocks its sufferers. Therefore, the term sesquipedaliophobia, or the fear of many syllables, is often used instead.
Identifying hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia is relatively simple, as individuals who suffer from the disorder will experience a persistent and unwarranted fear when they come into contact with long words. Clammy hands, elevated heartbeat, and dry mouth are some of the most common physical symptoms of the disorder.
One of the most effective ways to relieve any type of phobia, including hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, is to replace the sufferer's negative associations with positive ones. To accomplish this, treatment may include anti-anxiety medication or therapy.
Regardless of how it is treated, however, it is important to determine the source of the fear before it can be successfully alleviated. Unfortunately, experts are unable to explain exactly why individuals suffer from hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia, but such fears are most often caused by family members or friends, past experiences, or even biological triggers.
While phobias themselves are relatively common — studies indicate approximately 5% of the world population currently suffers from one or more — since it was first defined in 2008, there have been no known cases involving hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia. Nevertheless, as a defined phobia, treatment is readily available for individuals who become panicked at the sight of long words. Individuals who suspect they may suffer from hippopotomonstrosesquippedaliophobia should discuss their symptoms with a physician or therapist to determine the best course of action for them.
National Nude Recreation Week is July 4 thru July 10 2011. :laugh:
National Nude Recreation Week kicks off with a metaphorical bang July 4, and nudists are inviting all of America to doff the duds, slap on the SPF 30 and join them for a skinny dip, a hike au naturel or an outdoor frolic in their birthday suits.
"We'd like everyone to know how much better off we'd all be if everyone knew the physical, spiritual and emotional benefits of nudism," says Dr. Gerry Goodenough, a Corona, Calif., nudist. "The constricting emotional doors all drop away, and pretty soon we're all playing like little kids .
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43550084/ns/travel-destination_travel/t/get-naked-american-nudists-celebrate-summer-au-naturel/
Time to head to the beach. Have a Good Day everyone and remember to use sunscreen and apply it often.
David
Quote from: sodbuster on July 05, 2011, 01:41:12 PM
National Nude Recreation Week is July 4 thru July 10 2011. :laugh:
National Nude Recreation Week kicks off with a metaphorical bang July 4, and nudists are inviting all of America to doff the duds, slap on the SPF 30 and join them for a skinny dip, a hike au naturel or an outdoor frolic in their birthday suits.
"We'd like everyone to know how much better off we'd all be if everyone knew the physical, spiritual and emotional benefits of nudism," says Dr. Gerry Goodenough, a Corona, Calif., nudist. "The constricting emotional doors all drop away, and pretty soon we're all playing like little kids .
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/43550084/ns/travel-destination_travel/t/get-naked-american-nudists-celebrate-summer-au-naturel/
Meet everyone at Howard Lake NOT!!! ;D heeheeheeheehee
Lisa-ain't nobody seein' me nekkid.....
Time to head to the beach. Have a Good Day everyone and remember to use sunscreen and apply it often.
David
An 84-year-old man survived 5 days in the Arizona desert by drinking windshield wiper fluid. Henry Morello of Anthem, AZ took a wrong turn and then accidentally drove into a ditch when he tried to correct his mistake with a U-turn! Both his cell phone and his car battery died, leaving Morello stranded in the desert. With no food or water, Morello stayed hydrated by drinking windshield wiper fluid until he was discovered by a group of hikers 5 days later. A real-life Macgyver, Morello kept himself warm by wrapping himself in car mats, cracked open the wiper fluid with a rock and used napkins to filter the fluid to make it safer to drink, used a shiny chrome piece from the car to signal passersby, and read the car manual to keep himself entertained for 5 days.
Source: http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/feb/15/man-84-survives-5-day-ordeal-in-ariz-desert/
(Lots more to this story than meets the eye ...Warph)
Let me guess. He also ate dates from the calendar and drank from the leaf springs. (sorry...couldn't resist ;) )
HA! Good ones. Could he have found dates on his palms too?
And, being in the desert he feasted on the...'sand-whiches' there!
Couldn't help it either ;D
ready
Quite franklly stupidity knows no bounds! First of all, travelling in the desert with NO food, No blanket but most importantly no water. Dumb as a rock and A prime candidate for Darwin award. Secondly he was within a short distance from a interstate apparantly. Why not go to the interstate and wait 2 -3 hours for someone to come by instead of 5 days. Even if he was having problems he could limp over there from what the article said. Third and most importantly, being in the desert doesn't mean there is no water. Simple, in most cars you have some form of soft platstic. Heck use a walmart sac, something to hold water, and dig a hole in the groud and put the cup at the bottom plastic over it a rock to weigh the center down and cover edges with sand. In about a hour you will get enough water to keep you alive.
Last of all, Drinking washerfluid which is Ammonia, and Antifreeze? I would settle for dying from dehydration and heat than the painful death that awaits you from antifreeze and ammonia poisoning! Sheesh. What a idiot.
QuoteAmmonia, and Antifreeze
darn near sounds like a meth made in heaven....
any cactus will give that refreshemnt, also.
Glad he wasn't found in ELK County....He wouldn have never lived that one down!
ready
Quote from: readyaimduck on July 10, 2011, 02:01:10 PM
darn near sounds like a meth made in heaven....
any cactus will give that refreshemnt, also.
Glad he wasn't found in ELK County....He wouldn have never lived that one down!
ready
yeah the cactus will do that, it even tastes better than the ammonia and antifreeze!
Thats not saying much
You won't find me without at least a half gallon of water. I carry it with me everywhere i go and even when i go to wichita, i'll buy a gallon of water, and drink from that. I drink 2 -3 gallons a day.
Best thing to put in a car is hard candy, few cans of pork n beans and maybe green beans and a canopener. Water, blanket, match's, and a bundle of wood if you have the room, i used to keep a second car battery in the trunk that was hooked up to the charging system. That way i could use it for whatever and then start the car with its main battery to recharge. Don't know why his battery died on the car. That was just plain stupid.
I agree Steve. "Stupid is as stupid does".
Thank you for the tips on the survival...
perhaps his battery went dead as he used his headlights, which drained the battery, and he never had any routine maintence done on his rig. (car/truck, etc)
The trick to survival is never place yourself into harm's way. However things do happen for a reason, and you just gave us tips to help!
ready
Quote from: readyaimduck on July 10, 2011, 02:33:18 PM
I agree Steve. "Stupid is as stupid does".
Thank you for the tips on the survival...
perhaps his battery went dead as he used his headlights, which drained the battery, and he never had any routine maintence done on his rig. (car/truck, etc)
The trick to survival is never place yourself into harm's way. However things do happen for a reason, and you just gave us tips to help!
ready
Another thing i thought of is this, the reason you keep a blanket especially in the desert is that in the day the temps can get super high, as much as 117 or so and a blanket can be used to provide shade. Second reason is that same desert at night can go below freezing even in the summer. A lot of people do not know that. Plus its awful hard to keep the local critters off ya if your out on the ground and nothing to cover up with.
Never put your boots on without shaking them out. Wouldn't do to have a scorpion in there or a rattler.
and lizard tail makes a good snack to eat too if you have enough energy to catch them
Those Mylar rescue blankets are amazing and take up no space. Cactus water tastes really nasty and can give you an upset stomach, but if you know how to correctly tap a barrel cactus it will keep you alive.There are many ways to find water if you just know how.The desert Indian tribes know where to find seeps, dig in "dry" river beds and along sand dunes too.Of course the smartest thing is to have your survival supplies with you in the first place.
Great survival info, Steve... I always travel with water, fake ice cubes and a bottle of Chivas... just in case I get stuck out in the desert. Hmmmmm... I'm thinking about heading out to the desert tomorrow. (gotta remember to leave the GPS at home)
No, seriously... good info, Steve. You need to be prepared if you live in the southwest. You can get most of this at Big 5 sports. A normal kit is:
1. A quality penknife or jack knife.
2. Condoms for water storage, unlubricated.
3. Water proof matches
4. Flint and steel or a metal match
5. Water purification tables
6. A long strip of aluminum foil folded up to cook with
7. Fishing kit, i.e., hooks, sinkers, and some line. Nothing fancy.
8. Commercial back packing first aid kit (with instructions). I carry a very small one.
9. One small pack of gum and one of hard candy (energy)
10. A small signal mirror
11. About 25 feet of cord
12. A space blanket
and of course, water
BTW... I heard the 84 year old has a bad case of dementia and looks like the state is going to pull his license and the wiper fluid was just water.
Quote from: Warph on July 12, 2011, 02:15:59 AM
Great survival info, Steve... I always travel with water, fake ice cubes and a bottle of Chivas... just in case I get stuck out in the desert. Hmmmmm... I'm thinking about heading out to the desert tomorrow. (gotta remember to leave the GPS at home)
No, seriously... good info, Steve. You need to be prepared if you live in the southwest. You can get most of this at Big 5 sports. A normal kit is:
1. A quality penknife or jack knife.
2. Condoms for water storage, unlubricated.
3. Water proof matches
4. Flint and steel or a metal match
5. Water purification tables
6. A long strip of aluminum foil folded up to cook with
7. Fishing kit, i.e., hooks, sinkers, and some line. Nothing fancy.
8. Commercial back packing first aid kit (with instructions). I carry a very small one.
9. One small pack of gum and one of hard candy (energy)
10. A small signal mirror
11. About 25 feet of cord
12. A space blanket
and of course, water
BTW... I heard the 84 year old has a bad case of dementia and looks like the state is going to pull his license and the wiper fluid was just water.
What too is sad. I would hate to be in that condition. That washer fluid being water may have saved his life. Ammonia is very toxic. Those items you listed can be carred in a small shotgun shell ammo box. or a miltary ammo container which i buy them suckers all the time when i find them. They are great storage. You can get a 5 gallon water container and just rotate it out every week. That keeps it fresh. IF your of a mind to spend the money, get yourself a 12pack of MRE's. that will last forever and will also give you some sustainance if your stranded for more than a day. I personally would carry a firearm. YOu can eat at least if you have one. .22 would be good enough, and a .357 mag would be good to handle up close critters like rattlers. I suggest a .357 cause you can use .38's in it and thats cheap ammo.
shrug. Just me as i have always been a outdoors type. Now you modify your kit whereever you live. The above kit is a basic kit. IFyoulive in snowy areas, add sand, shovel, chains, to the mix. Food is more important too as your body has to maintain heat and you need a fuel source.
There is a survival filter that they sell that you can filter your own urine if need be to use as drinking water. Developed by NASA. They recycle everything in space.
Al has those military ammo cases set up for us. We'll soon be setting up a little more formal bigger box that we have in case we have to evacuate for a hurricane.
Quote from: Diane Amberg on July 12, 2011, 10:25:05 AM
Al has those military ammo cases set up for us. We'll soon be setting up a little more formal bigger box that we have in case we have to evacuate for a hurricane.
plastic 55 gallon barrel will do wonders for that. just rollem out and into your truck. YOu can pack 6 weeks of food in one, and in a second one pack ammo, gun, things needed for cooking ect, chainsaw and tools. Those are what i call bugout supplies. I try to put 2 sets in place each set in a different location. Reason is lets say a tornado comes and hits the house. My bugout stuff is gone to Oz. so i go to location 2 and i have what i need.
Isn't that what is called a survival kit?
Quote from: Wilma on July 12, 2011, 11:18:45 AM
Isn't that what is called a survival kit?
Bugout survival whatever you wanna call it. ITs usually made for when the SHTF situations. It will feed a family of 4 for 6 weeks.
By feeding i mean, it will keep a family of 4 alive. Your not going to eat like a king on it. Min rations. For example you have a 50lb sack of wheat berries in it a hand grinder. YOu can crack the wheat, boil water and pour a couple cups of cracked wheat into a thermos and pour boiling water over it and close it off. next morning, you'll have hot cereal that is nutritious and will feed a couple people. Packed in vitamins and energy. Sugar is technically a luxury, but if you put a plastic bottle of honey inthere, you got more than luxury. YOu can use it for injuries. Honey is a antibacterial agent as well as a sweetner. Plus energy plus a host of other things. YOu just have to think what is compact, nd easily stored. even baggies of dried foods from your dehydrator last. dehydrate anything from potatos to tomatos!
Another thing is repair kits for clothes, and whatever. i have a sewing box that is about the size of a tackle box. Contains everything i will need for repairing clothes and can even be used to suture wounds if necessary.
I have a source to get powdered litocaine. Store it in your pack and use sterile water to liquify it before injecting it. Get your needles at the coop. find a bottle of antibiotics that does not require refridgeration. You can get packs of terramycin, and I think LA200 don't need refridgeration. Vetricyn for wounds is also a good thing. all these can be obtained from the coop or feedstore.
I hven't checked yet, but i suppose you could get tetnus vaccine from the feed store too Not sure if it is the same as the one we get from a doctor but it wouldn't be hard to find out!
One other thing that many people do not know. DO not throw away your pills. Most prescription pills you get are good for 10 years or more. They put a expiration date on them to sell more drugs. The Goverment did a MASSIVE Study on prescription drugs a couple years ago. They had warehouses of them stored up for the military. BUt they were about to expire and instead of paying for new drugs to replace them, they had them tested in batchs and found them to be good for up to 10 years past expiration. I think this idea started when 9/11 happened. NOT ALL drugs are like this, but most pill form are. I think all painkillers, are as well as things like metoprolol and blood pressure pills.
Personally i freeze mine to extend the life of the drug.
Another thing we were taught to do while living in the desert was that if you did get stuck or stranded stay with your vehicle but if you do try to walk out always walk back the way you came, not where you don't know how far it is to a road or house. Always let someone know where you are going and when you should be home.
We always carried small pieces of carpet to put under the back tires for traction if we got stuck in the sand.
Titled: "DID YOU KNOW" Fantastic video on the Progression of Information Technology.
Over 14 million have seen this video.
Did You Know.... the Universe is yours to discover"Everyone who is seriously involved in the pursuit of science becomes convinced
that a spirit is manifest in the laws of the Universe--a spirit vastly superior to that
of man, and one in the face of which we with our modest powers must feel humble."
---Albert Einstein
Union Soldiers are Buried in Confederate General Robert E. Lee's front yard.
This is currently what is now known as Arlington National Cemetery. General Lee and his family left their home in Arlington in 1861 after Virginia seceded from the Union during the Civil War. During the war, Union troops captured the estate and set up military installations there. The property was then used as a burial ground for Union casualties. Lee's descendants challenged the seizure of their family property in court after the war, and the property was returned to the Confederate general's son, Custis Lee.
Congress then purchased the property from the younger Lee for $150,000. The property has been owned by the federal government ever since, and is now the final resting place for American war casualties from as early as Civil War to as recent as the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. It's also the location of John F. Kennedy's grave
Source: http://www.arlingtoncemetery.mil/historical_information/arlington_house.html
Yup, it was seized to keep the Lee family from farming again in sight of Washington DC. Purely punitive and totally unnecessary in my mind. At least it was made right.The true story is always told on the tours to Arlington, no attempt to cover it up.
Longest Polar Bear Swim Recorded—426 Miles Straight
Study predicts more long-distance swims due to shrinking sea ice.
The data in this study was acquired between 2004 and 2009, when biologists collared 68 female polar bears to observe their movement patterns. The incredible mother bear traveled a length approximately equal to the distance between Boston and Washington, D.C.! The bear also lost 22 percent of its body weight during the nine-day aquatic journey, and tragically, her young cub alo passed away. These sorts of marathon swims are a new phenomenon for polar bears with the shrinking ice caps caused by global warming, and it appears that they will only be getting longer. The data was also compared to cub losses, and the researchers found that mothers who swim long distances are more likely to experience the death of their young.
Source: http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/07/110720-polar-bears-global-warming-sea-ice-science-environment/
You can fit all the planets in our solar system into Jupiter and there still would be room. Jupiter has a volume of 1.4313×10^15 km3 or equivalent 1321.3 Earths. The combined volume of all the other planets in our solar system, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune is only equivalent of 886.48 Earths. Adding in Pluto, which has only 0.0059 the volume of Earth, doesn't help much either. Not only that, but the mass of Jupiter is more than twice the combined mass of the rest of the solar system's planets.
Source:[/b] http://www.solarviews.com/eng/jupiter.htm
As we all know, fellow Kansan Clyde Tombaugh discovered the "planet" Pluto back in 1929.
I have now read that Pluto has four moons.
Let me intrude on your thread, Warph.
Did you know? Orvon Grover Autry (1909-1998) is, of course, better known as Gene Autry, "The Singing Cowboy." His signature song was "Back in the Saddle Again," but he might be better known for Christmas holiday songs, including "Here Comes Santa Claus," "Frosty the Snowman," and "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer." He was married to Ina May Spivey from 1932 until her death in 1980. The following year, Autry married Jacqueline Ellam, who had been his banker. He had no children by either marriage. Autry has five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame -- the only celebrity to hold that distinction. There is one for each of the five categories maintained by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.
Larryj
I would like to add that Gene Autry was the star of a 1937 movie in which he played a sheriff looking for the bad guys.
One of the bad guys got the drop on Autry, but Autry was able to knock the gun out of his hand and then engage in a fistfight knocking the bad guy down a hill and defeating him.
The bad guy he fought with was a bit part actor using the stage name Dick Weston.
One year later, the Dick Weston stage name was changed to Roy Rogers.
Guys, you can intrude anytime you want. The more, the merrier. If you have any stories of interest, by all means bring 'em on. The Orvon Grover Autry and Leonard Franklin Slye (Gene and Roy) info was great. When I was a kid growing up in Carpinteria, CA, I would spend my Saturday's mornings at the old Plaza Theatre watching Roy, Gene and Hopalong riding in on Trigger, Champion and... (forgot Hoppy's horse) ... taking out the bad guys. They always started out with a Phantom Empire episode with Gene and then a full length movie with one of the three of them. I must have saw Ph. Empire episodes (12 of them) 20 times back then. After the movie, I'd hustle down to the beach to my Dad's Snack Shack and clean the surfboards that he rented out. Oh yeah, those were the days. Not a care in the world.
To Boldly Go: What Made 400 People Volunteer for a One-Way Mission to Mars?
An edition of the Journal of Cosmology has prompted more than 400 people to volunteer for a trip to Mars as colonists, according to an article in Fox News.
"I've had a deep desire to explore the universe ever since I was a child and understood what a rocket was," Peter Greaves told FoxNews.com. Greaves is the father of three, and a jack-of-all-trades who started his own motorcycle dispatch company and fixes computers and engines on the side.
It would take a special breed to handle the difficulties of a trip to Mars with currently available technology, a typical minimum cost trajectory would take about 260 days. And then, you'd be stuck there.
"It's going to be a very long period of isolation and confinement," said Albert Harrison, who has studied astronaut psychology since the 1970s as a professor of psychology at UC Davis. He also warned that life on Mars wouldn't be as romantic as it sounded.
"After the excitement of blast-off, and after the initial landing on Mars, it will be very difficult to avoid depression. After all, one is breaking one's connections with family, friends, and all things familiar," he told FoxNews.com.
"Each day will be pretty much like the rest. The environment, once the novelty wears off, is likely to be deadly boring. Despite being well prepared and fully equipped there are certain to be unanticipated problems that cannot be remedied. One by one the crew will get old, sick, and die-off."
Source: http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/01/10/space-volunteer-way-mission-mars/
I looked it up, and his name was Topper.
I too grew up with Roy and Gene and Hopalong and Tom and Tim Mix and (his horse was Tarzan, I think) and then
there was Sky King and I even liked Jack Elam........and Slim Whitman and then when Disney came out with kids books
I liked Spin and Marty...........anything dealing or showcasing horses. Oh, don't forget Dale Evans and ButterMilk, Smiley Burnett, and Gabby Hayes............Oh, they don't bring us good ending story's anymore. I know the shoot-em-ups didn't kill anyone.
and today when I watch, I am just in awe how gullible I was when they showed them..
Oh, to go back to such innocence.
Quote from: Warph on August 12, 2011, 02:37:29 AM
Guys, you can intrude anytime you want. The more, the merrier. If you have any stories of interest, by all means bring 'em on. The Orvon Grover Autry and Leonard Franklin Slye (Gene and Roy) info was great. When I was a kid growing up in Carpinteria, CA, I would spend my Saturday's mornings at the old Plaza Theatre watching Roy, Gene and Hopalong riding in on Trigger, Champion and... (forgot Hoppy's horse) ... taking out the bad guys. They always started out with a Phantom Empire episode with Gene and then a full length movie with one of the three of them. I must have saw Ph. Empire episodes (12 of them) 20 times back then. After the movie, I'd hustle down to the beach to my Dad's Snack Shack and clean the surfboards that he rented out. Oh yeah, those were the days. Not a care in the world.
Hopalong's horse was Topper.
Warph, When I first went to Midland Texas there was a great old gentlemen, named Bob Denton that was the Magnolia/Mobil Crude oil Rep, retired. Bob and Gene Autry worked together on the Railroad as Telegraphers at Tioga Texas. They stayed in touch by mail and an occascional phone call. Bob would bring in the letters that he got from Gene, they were always signed Orvon. I thought it was interesting that they had stayed in touch all of those years eventhou Gene had made it big time in the Movies and Sports ownership. Bob told me that Gene would set on the bench at the Railroad Depot and play his guitar and that is where Will Rogers first heard him play and talked him into doing some recordings.
Roy Rogers – Trigger
Gene Autry – Champion
Hopalong Cassidy – Topper
Tex Ritter – White Flash
Rex Allen – KoKo
Jimmy Stewart – Pie
Ken Maynard – Tarzan
Tom Mix – Tony
Bob Steele – Pirate
Wild Bill Elliot – Sonny, Dice, Thunder
Johnny Mack Brown – Rebel
Don "Red" Barry – Thunder
Smiley Burnette – Nellie
Leo "Poncho" Carillo - Loco
Buster Crabbe – Falcon
Andy "Jingles" Devine – Joker
Allen Rocky Lane – Black Jack
Guy "Wild Bill Hickok" Madison – Buckshot
Cisco Kid – Diablo
Lone Ranger – Silver
Tonto – Scout
Durango Kid – Raider
John Wayne (early on) – Duke
Jimmy Wakely – Sunset
Robert Livingston (one of the three mesquiteers) - Shamrock
Buck Jones – Silver
Eddie Dean – White Cloud
Buttermilk? ;) ;D ;D ;D
That was the name of horse Dale Evans rode and was stuffed and placed in museum.
Placed in a museum in southern Missouri along with Trigger and Bullet (the dog), but originally from Roy Rogers original museum in Victorville, California.
The Missouri museum closed and Trigger was sold to RFD-TV in Omaha for $266,000.
Bullet sold for $35,000 but don't know his whereabouts.
Buttermilk was also sold but do not have any information on price or who sold to.
Don't know where Nellie Bell is either.
Quote from: Diane Amberg on August 12, 2011, 01:11:58 PM
Buttermilk? ;) ;D ;D ;D
Because he was a beautiful buckskin gelding (golden colored, kinda like buttermilk, with black socks, mane and tail. Plus buckskins have a black stripe down their backs.) When James Arness played Matt Dillon on Gunsmoke, he always rode a buckskin.
Lisa
And, the buckskin James Arness road was named Buck.
My heros while growing up were always the cowboys and or the WW2 movies and or John Wayne and Jimmy Stewart....Audie Murphy was my favorite pilot.........the memories are so good and I know the movies aren't the same as now....but, you can't beat a shoot-em-up and or a dog fight between war planes. I would cry when someone I liked in movies died. Always embarrassed the folks when we would go to the movies........boo hooed with the best of them......once watching "Little Women" when Amy got sick and died.......we were at a drive in parked next to my aunt and uncle and my noise!!! kept them from hearing the show. Teased me like heck. oh, that is another story. and one not so nice for me. Maybe another time. maybe.
Emmett Leo Kelly (1898-1979) was from Sedan, Kansas, and was famous for his clown figure "Weary Willie." Kelly began circus life as a trapeze performer. He created his clown routine early in his career, but circus management would have nothing to do with a "tramp" clown. Then came the Depression. Thinking audiences would better identify with the downtrodden clown, circus officials gave their OK. Kelly and his routine were, of course, a giant hit.
Larryj
They have a museum for Emmet Kelly in Sedan. I want to go back down there and check it out! I remember the routine he had, trying to sweep up the spotlight, but it kept moving! Poor old clown.....
Lisa
Emmett Kelly was probably the most famous of all Clowns.... well, with the exception of Barack Obama. And there are a lot of "Weary Willie" imitators in our Congress today... Charlie Rangal, Barry Sanders, John Kerry, Nancy Pelosi, John McCain, ex-Senator Joe "Chopsticks" Biden, Shirley Waters, U.S. Senator twins Collins and Snowe of Maine..... don't forget our Governors, Deval Patrick, Jerry Brown, Chris Gregoire and Gov. Dennis Miller of the State of Confusion.
Lets not forget Annie Oakley. ;D
She was a clown, too. :-\ I did not know that. I think you are referring to the time (behind the Buffalo Bill circus tent)
where she was "doing" a clown, Guns.
Abraham Lincoln created the Secret Service the day before he died!
On April 14, 1865, Abraham Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theater in Washington, D.C. He'd die the next morning. But also on April 14, 1865, Lincoln signed into law a piece of legislation which created the Secret Service.... the law enforcement agency charged with defending the President from, among other things, assassination attempts such as the one that befell Lincoln that evening. Was Lincoln also a victim of bad timing? Perhaps he had ESP? Not really... rather, it's a strange historical coincidence. While we currently think of the Secret Service as primarily existing to protect the President, that was not its original intent.
During the early to mid-1800s, roughly a third of American money was counterfeit. The solution was something similar to today's approach to large scale problems, form a commission. On the urging of Secretary of the Treasury Hugh McCulloch, Lincoln did exactly that. The conclusion was to form a federal law enforcement division (at the time, there was no FBI), the "Secret Service of Division of the Department of the Treasury." That Division was born just hours before John Wilkes Booth fatally shot the President.
The Secret Service carried out their Treasury duties, primarily, for the next 35 years. While Lincoln's assassination sparked a discussion about the need for a permanent security detail for the President, this need went unfulfilled for decades. In the interim period, both James A. Garfield (1881) and Warren G. Harding (1901) were assassinated. The latter caused Congress to work toward a solution, and, informally, Presidential security became a duty of the Service starting with Harding's successor, Theodore Roosevelt.
The Service's mission still includes "investigations into crimes against the financial infrastructure of the United States."
Bonus fact: During the American Revolution, then-General Washington had a security detail which traveled with him, called the "Command-in-Chief's Guard." The Guard was disbanded in 1783, after the War. But it was not free of controversy. One of the Guardsmen, Thomas Hickey, was caught counterfeiting (another coincidence!) and incarcerated. While incarcerated, he confessed to another inmate that he was plotting to defect to the British. He was executed in June of 1776.
The Star of David
Before 1979, Iran was under the control of the Shah and had relatively peaceful relations with Israel. Iran Air's headquarters was built in that calmer, friendlier time, and the lead architects on the design were, in fact, Israeli.
Fast forward a few decades. Iran and Israel are, in no way, friendly, and the world has given us Google Maps, replete with satellite view. So a small, possibly innocent/accidental marking of the building's history... hidden on its roof... is now in full view: a Star of David. Iran, upon finding it, was not amused and is currently investigating how to remove the mark from the building.
http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=197395 (Note: I believe it has since been removed).
This isn't the first time Google Maps' eagle eye has caused controversy. In 2007, map-watchers noticed that a Naval building in Coronado, California resembled a swastika when viewed from above. A small controversy erupted, and the Navy has since decided to do something about it.
http://www.naturalsearchblog.com/archives/2007/09/26/google-maps-forces-navy-to-redesign-swastika-building/
To date, they've taken minor steps to try and obfuscate the shape, mostly by adding trees and bushes around the building. (Strangely, the Google team seems to have also taken steps to help, as the Google Maps satellite view of the building changes angles when you view it...
http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&q=Coronado+CA&t=k&om=1&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Coronado,+San+Diego,+California&ll=32.676138,-117.157763&spn=0.00454,0.005289&z=18
....instead taking a 45 degree angle approach.)
Other discoveries? A man-made, man-shaped lake near Sao Paolo, Brazil...
http://googlesightseeing.com/maps?p=1460&c=&t=k&hl=en&ll=-21.805149,-49.089977&z=18
and this absolutely incredible raised-earth sculpture of Sultan the Pit Pony in Wales.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/picturegalleries/8018761/Britain-from-the-Air-an-exhibition-of-aerial-photographs-in-Bath.html?image=4
Bonus fact: In World War II, Japan had an interesting method for reading maps at night. No, not flashlights. Bio-luminescent organisms, pictured here. http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photo-of-the-day/cypridina-zahl/
They glow blue when disturbed, allowing for reading at night -- batteries not required.
.... that Henrietta Lacks, died on October 4, 1951, from cervical cancer which had metastasized throughout her body. She was 31 years old, and was buried in a family burial plot without a tombstone. But while Lacks herself is gone, a small part of her lives on. And lives nearly everywhere.
In January of 1951, Lacks was originally diagnosed with cancer. Unbeknownst to Lacks or her family, the treating physician took a sample of the cancerous cells and gave them to a researcher, Dr. George Otto Gey. Gey (pronounced "Guy") made an incredible discovery: Lacks' cells did not seem to die very quickly, if at all. While most others' cells -- cancerous or otherwise -- died in a few days time, Lacks' could be kept alive, and divided and multiplied. From this small cluster of cancer cells, researchers could create a seemingly infinite number of human cells upon which they could run tests. This was a huge boon for research, as prior to Gey's discovery, researchers spent an inordinate amount of time trying to keep human cells alive and viable so that meaningful data could be produced from experimentation.
In order to protect Lacks' privacy, Gey dubbed his discovery the "HeLa" cell line. Gey, to his credit, made HeLa cells available to researchers throughout the world -- and the world responded. Jonas Salk used HeLa cells in tests of his polio vaccine. Per Baltimore's City Paper, Lacks' cells have also been used in research regarding AIDS, cancer, gene mapping, exposure to radiation and other potential toxins, and a bevy of other scientific endeavors.
The Virginian-Pilot reported that there are over 11,000 patents filed which involve Lacks' cells.
http://hamptonroads.com/2010/05/cancer-cells-killed-her-then-they-made-her-immortal?cid=posld
The New York Times notes that over 50 million tons of her cells have been grown over the last sixty years, and apparently, "you can get some for yourself simply by calling an 800 number." In total, over 60,000 published scientific studies involved HeLa cells, with ten more being added each day as of early 2010.
Of course, as reported by ABC News, the companies which now produce and sell HeLa cells make billions of dollars. But Lacks' family -- which did not even learn that the cells came from Henrietta until the mid-1970s -- has not made a dime from HeLa's widespread use.
.....that on August 21, 1911, the Mona Lisa.... Leonardo da Vinci's masterpiece... was stolen off the wall of the Louvre, leaving bare the four iron pegs on which it hung. The thief, later identified as then-Louvre employee Vincenzo Peruggia, hid in a closet the day before (a Sunday), knowing that the museum would be closed the next day. He emerged from his hiding place on the 21st, took the Mona Lisa off the wall, discarded its nearly 200 pounds of security devices and decorative frames, and carried the painting up under his smock. He walked out the door and into freedom.... until, 28 months later, he tried to sell it, and was instead nabbed by the authorities.
Peruggia's motivations, however, are almost certainly not those of the standard art thief: that is, he was not looking to simply (to understate the feat) fence the masterpiece and walk out an overnight millionaire. Rather, Peruggia was either a nationalist ideologue looking to reclaim the artwork on behalf of his native Italy, or, perhaps, a rube to a master criminal in the making.
The former theory is straight-forward: Peruggia, an Italian by birth, allegedly believed that da Vinci's work (in that he, too, was Italian) could only be properly displayed in Italy..... so he stole it to fix that "problem." Unfortunately, there are a lot of reasons to believe that Peruggia simply used this excuse.... successfully, it turned out... to limit his jail time once caught. (Tried in Italy, he served seven months, with Time implying that his patriotic motives played into the short amount of time behind bars.) Some examples include the fact that he attempted to sell the painting (for the equivalent of $100,000) and not merely donate it; that he waited over two years to move it; that he returned to France after his release; and that he was at least loosely affiliated with another criminal syndicate: art counterfeiters.
It is the art counterfeiters story which suggests that Peruggia's motives were less than honorable patriotism.
An Argentine con man by the name of Eduardo de Valfierno allegedly was behind the theft. (In 1914, after the theft and recovery of the Mona Lisa, but before Peruggia was brought to trial, Valfierno told his story to an American journalist named Karl Decker, with the promise that Decker not publish the story until after Valfierno's death. Decker agreed. This is the only source for Valfierno's account.) Valfierno's "business" was in faux masterpieces. He'd commission artists to create realistic-looking copies of famous works of art and sell them to collectors around the world, claiming the works were the original. To buttress his claims of authenticity, he would pass off another forgery -- documents from the museums in which the original hung, stating that that the original was stolen and, to avoid embarrassment, the museum in question instead quietly displayed a replica. Unfortunately for Valfierno, one such collector bragged about one of his purchases, leading to press coverage of the (faked) theft -- and almost exposing Valfierno's fraud. So Valfierno decided to take no further chances.
As the story goes, Valfierno hired Peruggia and others to steal the Mona Lisa... but not before he commissioned the creation of six counterfeits and made sure they were distributed around the United States. (Valfierno surmised that it would be easy to get through customs before the theft but nearly impossible afterward.) Once the media took up the story of the theft itself, Valfierno was able to sell the six fake paintings without much trouble and without much risk, as the purchasers, now knowingly buying stolen property, had no real recourse if they ever caught on to the swindle. With the real Mona Lisa in Valfierno's possession, he also had the luxury of knowing that the Louvre would never get back the original, making it unlikely at best that the purchasers of the fakes would catch on, anyway. Of course, this part of the scheme did not go to plan.
Valfierno claims that Peruggia was well compensated for his role, but that the thief gambled that money away. Peruggia's solution? He knew where Valfierno kept the true Mona Lisa, so he simply did what he had done a year or two earlier, and stole it. Again.
Bonus fact: The Mona Lisa is not painted on canvas, but on three pieces of wood roughly an inch and a half thick.
Source:"The Crimes of Paris: A True Story of Murder, Theft, and Detection" by Thomas Hoobler. Eleven reviews, 4.5 stars on average. It contains an approximately 6,500 word chapter on the theft of the Mona Lisa, upon which the above is based.
....that on August 9, 2003, an airplane named the Spirit of Butts Farm took off from Cape Spear in Newfoundland, Canada, on its way to Clifden, Ireland. In the world of modern aviation, such a transatlantic flight should be common. But neither Cape Spear nor Clifden have an airport. In fact, Clifden has a population of only about 3,000 people, many of which live in the relatively rural outskirts of the town. And Cape Spear has a lighthouse, but is otherwise uninhabited.
On the plus side, Cape Spear is considered to be the easternmost point in North America, while Clifden is located on Ireland's western shore. Which makes sense, as the Spirit of Butts Farm, below, is a radio-controlled model airplane. And it's the first RC plane to make the flight across the Atlantic.
Weighing 11 pounds and carrying about a liter of fuel, the plane -- named after the farm of a man named Beecher Butts (where the flight crew practiced) and Charles Lindberg's Spirit of St. Louis -- made the over 1,800 mile flight in about 38 hours. In doing so, its pilot, a then-77 year old, legally blind and partially deaf man named Maynard Hill, set two world records: one, for the longest distance traveled by a model airplane; and two, for the longest time in flight.
The feat was no overnight success. Hill and some friends worked, on and off, for ten years designing the plane, in the end settling on a lantern-fuel powered vehicle made of fiberglass and balsa wood. They first attempted the feat a year earlier, making three attempts, each of which failed to travel more than 500 miles. And the successful flight did not go off smoothly. The plane was equipped with a GPS device which helped the plane -- running across the Atlantic on autopilot -- stay on course, all while reporting its position back to Hill (in Canada) and his colleague Dave Brown (in Ireland). But for a three hour period, communications ceased, leading most of the team and onlookers to think the plane had crashed. When the GPS data came back in, cheers were short-lived, as the plane's flight data had the plane going slower than had hoped -- it was travelling at 42 miles per hour, while Hill et al were hoping for tailwinds to push it along at 55 mph. This heavily suggested that it would run out of fuel before making its way.
But at roughly 2 p.m. on August 11, 2003, the Spirit of Butts Farm landed safely -- with less than two ounces of fuel left in its tank, leaving it less than an hour left before it would have crashed.
Bonus fact: The landing spot for the Spirit of Butts Farm -- again, Clifden, Ireland -- was not chosen at random. In 1919, John Alrock and Arthur Whitten Brown completed the first non-stop transatlantic flight when they crash landed there. The flight took just under 16 hours.
Now that you've read the "The Spirit Of Butts Farm" watch the video's of what these airplanes can do:
RC Jet - Full 3D LAVI Fighter, Turbine Powered. Crazy! And my favorite of all the Air Force Airplanes, The F-4 Phantom:
Clap,clap,clap! Love' em!
Imagine going home one evening and ordering dinner for you and your family, something simple from the local restaurant, and putting it on your credit card. The next day, you run some rather pedestrian errands – drop off the dry cleaning, pick up some cereal and toothpaste and other odds and ends at the grocery store, and maybe some M&Ms or something. Again, charge it all to the credit card. At the end of the month, you are going to get a bill – a bill you are expected to pay.
Now imagine that you are the President of the United States. Instead of ordering from a local eatery, you call up your Executive Chef. Instead of running your own errands, White House staff does it for you. The salaries of all of these people are covered by the government. But the items themselves? The meals, the dry cleaning, the toothpaste, and the snacks? What is true for the rest of us is true too for the President: at the end of the month, you are going to get a bill – a bill you are expected to pay.
Yes, the President has to pay for incidentals.
Don't worry -- the state dinners, Secret Service detail, etc. are all paid for. And the President can probably afford his four to six eggs, potatoes, and wheat toast -- http://www.saveur.com/article/Kitchen/Breakfast-of-Champions ....
....his annual salary, set forth by 3 U.S.C. 102, http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/3/usc_sec_03_00000102----000-.html
....is $400,000, plus another $50,000 for expenses incurred in official duties. (And no, he does not pay rent nor hotel-like occupancy fees. That same section of the U.S. Code notes that the President "shall be entitled also to the use of the furniture and other effects belonging to the United States and kept in the Executive Residence at the White House.") Given the other amenities that come with the job -- and the (gratis) White House's staff which can approach 100 employees -- the salary is more than enough to cover the cost of toothpaste, etc.
So every month, the White House provides the First Family with a bill. And as National Geographic reported, "n the first months of a new administration, sticker shock is routine."
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/01/president/bumiller-text/3
Says Gary Walters, former chief usher at the White House (who managed the home for multiple First Families), "I can't remember anyone not complaining." After all, when you have world-class chefs preparing your food, they spare no expense. And the bill reflects that.
http://ngm.nationalgeographic.com/2009/01/president/bumiller-text/4
WHY DO THEY CALL IT A GLOVE BOX?
In the early days of the automobile the use of gloves was considered essential, not only as a style statement for the discriminating, often wealthy driver wearing a pair of white, gauntlet gloves, but also for utility reasons to keep the hands warm. Many early automobiles didn't come with heaters, and driver and occupants were forced to dawn heavy gloves to protect their hands.
What is a Glove Box?
The glove box, sometimes referred to as the glove compartment, is a sealed, or unsealed container inside an automobile used for storage. Most modern cars have sealed glove boxes, but the Jeep Wrangler, for example, even in recent models, have glove boxes, or portions of the box that do not have a door.
Glove Box History
There's not a lot of printed information available to show when the first glove boxes were included in automobiles, or even which makes and models had them. It is clear, however, the reason for having a glove box in your car. Many early vehicles did not have enclosed cabs and driving to church with the family on those cold Sunday mornings required everyone to wear a pair of gloves. It just makes sense to keep the gloves in a special compartment in the car so they would always be handy.
Jockey Box
In England, and in certain areas of the northwest United States, glove boxes are still referred to as "jockey boxes.". The World Detective website is one of few that offers a plausible explanation for this term. A jockey, of course, is a person who works with horses, and according the this site, the term jockey carried over to include one who works on horseless carriages. A bit of a stretch, possibly, but it's the only explanation available.
Glove Box Design
For those who can remember the glove boxes that came in cars in the 1940s through the '70s, you'll recall they were oftentimes large and always secured by heavy metal doors with locks. Sometime during the '70s car makers starting including shallow cup holders on the back side of these doors. The Buick Electra, made sometime during the '70s had one such feature. The problem with those containers is they were so shallow the cup would fall easily, even during a curve on a highway, much unlike the deep holders in cars today.
Modern Uses
It's likely if you looked in a sample of glove boxes in today's cars few pairs of gloves would be found. Vehicle registration, insurance papers, sunglasses, pens, paper and maps are more the probable items carried in modern-day glove boxes. Owners of convertibles may use the locking feature on glove boxes more than those who own hardtops, for obvious reasons.
___________________________________________________
Larryj
Thanks Larry, I had not heard of the British calling a glove box a jockey box but here are some automobile differences I have heard of:
British to American
Bonnet – Hood
Boot – Trunk
Cubby Box – Glove box
Damper - shock absorber
fascia - dashboard
hood - convertible top
Lorry - Truck
Silencer - Muffler
[My favorite] Torch - Flashlight
Windscreen – Windshield
Petrol – Gasoline
Tyre – Tire
MOT – DOT (Ministry of Transportation-Department of Transportation)
And what we call an alligator clip, the British call a crocodile clip.
Also, I can recall when heaters were an extra cost option on all cars. An included heater became standard sometime in the late 60s and maybe even later. Don't know about air conditioning or automatic transmission.
I remember talking to a salesmen when I was wanting a '61 Ford and he said a heater was optional because some areas of the country, such as Florida, did not need one. I thought at the time it was weak thinking, if that was the thinking.
And I remember those shallow cup holders. You had to grab the cup when turning or coming to a stop. They were hardly functional. Dont know what Detroit was thinking about with those things.
Very Interesting. If I'm still allowed to post something, my new 1970 Ford Maverick didn't have a glove box either, just an open shelf in the same place. I kept nothing there. I put all the stuff in a box under the driver's seat instead.
Speaking of air conditioners..................do you remember the tubular things that hung on the passenger window with ice water in them? There was an air intake in the front and an outlet to let the cool air into the car. I seem to remember the only person to benefit from this thing was the front seat passenger.
Larryj
Remember them well Larry. Back when I was a lad I rode in the back seat of an early 50's Chevy to Martinville, Arkansas, that had one in the passenger window. When the driver hit a rough RR crossing I would get a liberal dash of cold water slung on me. Wasn't much different than riding in the back of Pops's 51 Desoto with the windows down and him chewing Beech-Nut chaw :D
If they were on the right front passenger window side, I remember them and knew they were for cooling but never came in contact with one. You could also get little fans that sat on the dashboard.
There was a time in the early 50s when I thought that those who had air conditioned cars were considered to be rich folks.
.....Athletes can be attached, (figuratively, of course) to their uniform numbers. Famously, the wide receiver born Chad Johnson renamed himself "Chad Ochocinco," a Spanish-ish reference to his uniform number, 85. ("Ocho Cinco" is "Eight Five;" "eighty five" would be "ochenta y cinco.") In the world of sports, especially when superstitions can be exceptional, a player's uniform number is not simply a random designation. But when a player changes teams, sometimes, his much-loved uniform number is already taken. What is a superstar to do?
Pony up.
In 1993, Major League Baseball Hall of Famer Rickey Henderson found himself traded, shipped off by the Oakland A's to Toronto. He had worn #24 since joining the Yankees in 1985 (save for a few weeks in 1989) and wanted to don that same number, now as a member of the Blue Jays. But another outfielder, Turner Ward, already had #24. Henderson saw an easy solution. Ward's salary for the season was $160,000; Henderson's was north of $3 million -- and he received $300,000 extra in exchange for consenting to the trade. Henderson wrote Ward a check for $25,000 for the number.
Since then, pro sports have seen similar exchanges. Pitcher Roger Clemens gave slugging first baseman Carlos Delgado a Rolex, valued at $20,000, for uniform #21. Former NBA player Vin Baker once bought his number from another player for the relative bargain price of $10,000. In 2007, NFL player Jason Simmons used the opportunity to do a good deed, giving new teammate Ahman Green #30 if Green agreed to pay the down payment on a home for a disadvantaged single-parent family.
Former NFL punter Jeff Feagles is one of the few who has been able to sell a number twice -- although with mixed results. His first transaction, with quarterback Eli Manning, went smoothly, and Feagles got a family vacation to Florida out of the deal. His second one, however, did not go so well. When wide receiver Plaxico Burress joined the New York Giants in 2005, he bought #18 off Feagles in exchange for an outdoor kitchen. But as of August 2010, Feagles had not received the kitchen. (Apparently, this was unrelated to the fact that by this point, Burress was in prison for accidentally shooting himself in the leg at a New York City night club.)
While hiccups in these transactions are rare, Feagles' story isn't the only one. In 2004, NFL running back Clinton Portis offered new Washington Redskins' teammate Ifeanyi Ohalete $40,000 for uniform #26, payable in three payments. (Why Portis requested a payment plan is left unknown.) Before the final $20,000 payment was made, the Redskins cut Ohalete from the team, so Portis, figuring that Ohalete's claim to the number had lapsed, refused to keep making payments.
Ohalete sued, and the two settled for $38,000 total -- but not before Portis suggested an alternative resolution (which sadly, never happened): a boxing match.
Bonus fact: In 1990, Rickey Henderson signed a five year, $8.5 million contract with the A's, which included a $1 million signing bonus. About a year later, the A's were trying to balance their books, and kept coming up $1 million short. The team called Henderson and asked him what he did with the check. His answer: He put it up on his wall, uncashed, as a daily reminder that he was a millionaire.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voynich_manuscript
..... that the following article, "Mystery Tome" is from a book called the Voynich Manuscript. Nearly everything about the book is a mystery. We don't know who wrote it. We don't know when he wrote it, or why. We don't know what language it is in nor what script was used to write it -- the whole thing is unpronounceable gibberish. We can recognize some of the illustrations -- there is one on most pages -- but only in general terms (e.g. herbs or zodiac signs) but do not know why they are there. The consensus is that it's a pharmacology book, but that's clearly a guess.
The manuscript is, in its current state, 240 pages of vellum (a type of parchment). It is named for Wilfrid Michael Voynich, bookseller from the early 1900s: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilfrid_M._Voynich
....who came into its possession in 1912 and popularized the inherent mystery to the book; Voynich hoped to "prove" that the book was a long lost tome of famed philosopher Roger Bacon: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roger_Bacon
.....which would make it exceptionally valuable. (Indeed, some think the book is a hoax, intended by Voynich to defraud a purchaser out of a princely sum.)
The manuscript has some striking features, suggesting that it actually does mean something -- at least to the author. The text is written left to right with an irregular right margin, and the pen strokes used suggest that the author was, at least in his mind, writing something intelligible. The glyphs used to spell the "words" used are consistent throughout the manuscript, forming what appears to be an alphabet of twenty to thirty unique characters. And these "words" follow rough rules of language -- some letters only appear with other letters; some letters appear only at the beginning/end of words; words appear in bunches around certain topics (as delineated by the illustrations). All of this, combined, suggests that the Voynich Manuscript's corpus consists of a cohesive discussion about something.
But to date, no one knows what it all means. Cryptographers since World War I have attempted to interpret it but to no avail. Some researchers have managed to carbon date the vellum, placing it as near certainly created in the early 1400s -- so the book is probably not that of Bacon's, as he died in 1294. Researchers have broken the illustrations into categories, with illustrations of astrological terms most readily apparent
Theories as to the manuscript's origins are as infinite as the mysteries the book provides. It may be a hoax, but if it is, it is by far the most elaborate one from its time period -- unnecessarily so, given the Medieval period's relatively weak deciphering tools -- and without clear motivation. Some believe that the book is the product of a delusional mind which managed to piece together a fake language known only to the author. Finally, there are nearly a dozen suspected possible legitimate authors of the manuscript, but the reasons for the encryption are all suspect. See an example below:
http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Voynich_Manuscript_%28121%29.jpg
In all, the Voynich manuscript is considered by many to be the world's most mysterious publication.
Bonus fact: Roger Bacon, one of the earliest advocates for the modern-day scientific method, had calendars as a particular interest.... he found the now nearly-defunct Julian calendar to be a mathematical abomination. The Gregorian calendar (the one we use today) suffers from many of the same flaws. In 1930, a Brooklyn woman proposed the "World Calendar," which solved many of the mathematical problems by, amongst other things, creating a day just before New Year's Day (at the expense of December 31st) called "Worldsday." The inclusion of Worldsday would ensure that January 1 was always a Sunday (and December 30 always a Saturday) as Worldsday would be outside of the parlance of the normal week. The proposal failed to find adoption when religious group pointed out that their holidays followed seven day cycles and could not simply ignore the presence of Worldsday
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julian_calendar
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/World_Calendar
...that you should live every day as if it is your last. That may be easier said than done. But what if you really knew the exact day when will the world end?
There have been and still are many End-of-World predictions:
In the year 70, Rabbi Jose, the Galilean, predicted that the world would end in the year 130.
In 90 CE, Saint Clement 1 predicted that the world would end at any moment.
Apparently a writer called Tichonus predicted the end of the world would take place in the year 381.
Both Hyppolytus (170-236) and Lactantius (250-330) put the date at about the year 500.
In the 900s, many predicted that the year 1000 would be the end of time.
In 1147, Gerard of Poehlde said the world would end in 1306.
In 1179, John of Toledo predicted the end of the world during 1186.
Joachim of Fiore (1135-1202) suggested the world might end at around the year 1300.
Mother Shipton (1488-1561) predicted the world would end in 1881.
In the early 1500s, Zwickau prophets (a Christian sect) believed that the world would end soon (around 1520).
Joseph Smith (b. 1805, founder of the Latter Day Saints movement, the Mormons) said, "I prophesy in the name of the Lord God, and let it be written.... the Son of Man will not come in the clouds of heaven till I am eighty-five years old." Which would have been the year 1890... but he was assassinated in 1844.
In 1836, John Wesley (co-founder of the Methodist Church) wrote that "the time, times and half a time" of Revelation 12:14 were 1058 and 1836, "when Christ should come." His brother Charles (the other co-founder) predicted in 1794 that Doomsday would take place in that year.
In 1874, Charles Taze Russell predicted the Rapture in 1910 and the end of the world in 1914.
When the Jews reclaimed Jerusalem in 1967 many predicted the end of time is near.
Isaac Newton calculated that the world will end in 2060.
Nostradamus predicted it to be the year 3786 or 3797.
The Islamic faith Qiyamah (the Day of Resurrection) is predicted "When immorality overtakes shamelessness and is perpetrated publicly," amongst other things.
And, according to The Bible, in Matt 24:36 : "No one knows about that day or hour, not even the angels in heaven, nor the Son, but only the Father."
In the meantime, try to live every day as if it is your last. Smile more and love more.
Bonus Fact: More "End of the World Predictions" http://www.bible.ca/pre-date-setters.htm
If the ancients could "see" solar flares I can understand where some of these old predictions could come from. We've got a big build up again right now on through 2012.
I could start some great rumors for the people who believe anything negative, about the electro magnetic forces from the coming solar flares stopping pacemakers, ruining solar panels, frying everyone's computer, causing birds to get lost, and power surges setting peoples' houses on fire.
Maybe I can really write that up and sell it to National Inquirer for big bucks.
There will really be some minimal problems but not worse than any other time of increased solar activity .It's being planned for right now. Should make for some beautiful Auroras though.
....If the government has no knowledge of aliens, then why does Title 14, Section 1211 of the Code of Federal Regulations, implemented on July 16, 1969, make it illegal for U.S. citizens to have any contact with extraterrestrials or their vehicles?
....23% of all photocopier faults worldwide are caused by people sitting on them and photocopying their butts.
....the "sixth sick sheik's sixth sheep's sick" is said to be the toughest tongue twister in the English language.
....there are actually two types of humans? The slightly larger and less intelligent kind, males, have protruding external genitalia called "penises" that are used for making important life decisions. Meanwhile, females have these nifty things called "vaginas" that no one understands yet, especially males.
....If you could count the number of times a cricket chirps in one minute, divide by 2, add 9 and divide by 2 again, you would have the correct temperature in celcius degrees... How do they know that?
....The Dutch town of Leeuwarden can be spelled 225 different ways-
1. Leeuwaarden
2. Leewaarden
3. Leewarden
4. Leuwarden
5. leuwaardenn
6. Leuuwarrden......
224. Bradford
....If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle; if the horse has one front leg in the air, the person died as a result of wounds recieved in battle; if the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
....that Caligula of Rome had his father, mother and two brothers killed to become emperor. Nero had his mother and first wife killed. These two emperors were hated so much by the people that all references to them were deleted from official Roman documentation.
The first French king, Clovis II, went mad after stealing the arm of a martyr. His great-grandson, Childeric III was known as "the idiot". The mother of Louis IX complained that he was "not sound of mind". And his younger son, Robert of Clermont went mad after being hit on the head with a sledge hammer.
Charles VI, called Charles the mad, ruled France from 1380 to 1415. At stages, he believed that he was made of glass and inserted iron rods into his clothing to prevent him from breaking.
The Habsburg Kings of Spain descended from Queen Juana The Mad of Castile, who was mentally unstable. Her ancestors increased her inheritance by inbreeding. These incestuous marriages resulted in the mentally and physically handicapped King Carlos II of Spain, who had an enormous, misshapen head and a chin exaggerated to almost caricature-like proportions rendering him unable to chew and barely able to speak.
Several British kings went mad as a result of a blood disorder that causes gout and mental derangement. The most famous was Mad George III, who ruled England in the 18th Century. George was afflicted with porphyria, a maddening disease which disrupted his reign as early as 1765. Several attacks strained his grip on reality and debilitated him in the last years of his reign. Keeping it in the family, in 1776 his sister, Princess Caroline Mathilda married, at age 15, the deranged Christian VII of Denmark. George III died blind, deaf and mad at Windsor Castle on January, 29 1820.
The United States briefly enjoyed the services of a monarch, Emperor Norton I, who proclaimed himself Emperor of the United States and Protector of Mexico in 1859. He had all his "state proclamations" published in San Francisco's newspapers and wrote letters that were seriously considered by Abraham Lincoln and Queen Victoria.
Sun worshiping Aztecs celebrated the inauguration of Ahuitzol in 1486 by offering the hearts of 80,000 prisoners, presumably to show that their new king could sacrifice more than any of his predecessors.
See: Many kings were just plain mad: http://www.madmonarchs.nl/
Bonus Fact: Emperor Of The United States
Emperor Norton of the United States was born to John and Sarah Norton in London on February 14, 1819. His parents immigrated to South Africa when Joshua was one year old. In 1849, Joshua moved to San Francisco where he speculated in the real-estate market with his $40,000 inheritance. After considerable initial success, he lost his fortune in speculating on rice imports.
On September 17, 1859, Joshua Abraham Norton declared himself Emperor of the United States: "At the pre-emptory request of a large majority of the citizens of these United States, I Joshua Norton, formerly of Algoa Bay, Cape of Good Hope, and now for the last nine years and ten months past of San Francisco, California, declare and proclaim myself the Emperor of These United States."
On occasion, he would also act as "Protector of Mexico." He continued to make proclamations throughout his 21-year "reign." Newspapers of the day printed his proclamations (and even made some up which were not from Norton).
In order to pay his bills Emperor Norton issued paper notes, mostly in 50 cent, $5 and $10 denominations. Worthless at the time, today they are worth far more than the face value.
In 1869 he abolished both the Democratic and Republican parties. He also called upon the leaders of the world to join him in forming a League of Nations where disputes between nations could be resolved peacefully.
Joshua Norton died on January 8, 1888. Thirty-thousand people attended the funeral.
....that a year is not an arbitrary period of time, it is an astronomic reality insofar as it represents the time it takes for the earth to orbit around the sun. A good calendar therefore, needs to match this period of time. It takes 365.242 days for the earth to complete the trip. Instead of adding .242 of a day (5 hours 48 minutes and 30 seconds) to a 365-day year the leap-year system was devised. Every four years an extra day was added to the 365 days in the regular calendar thereby creating 366-day years. This system is relatively accurate, but .242 is not exactly the .250 of a day that it needs to be for the leap-day to work perfectly. Over the centuries the .008 of a day (11 minutes 30 seconds) began to accumulate.
So, what happened to the Calendar in October 1582?
The continuing accumulation caused by the inaccuracies of the Julian calendar came to an end in 1582. Pope Gregory XIII stated that 10 days in October were to be removed from the calendar. Specifically, he struck the 5th through 14th from the month which created a very bizarre October 1582. You can imagine what people's schedule's looked like during that month:
October 1582
Su Mo Tu We Th Fr Sa
1 2 3 4 15 16
17 18 19 20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27 28 29 30
31
Pope Gregory XIII, whom the modern calendar is named after (Gregorian), also established a system to prevent the accumulation from developing all over again. Every four years divisible by four would continue to be a leap year, but years divisible by 100 would not, unless they are also divisible by 400. The year 2000 was one of these special years that comes once every four centuries. 2000 is divisible by 100 but also divisible by 400 and therefore it is designated as a leap year.
The new Gregorian Calendar is far superior to the inaccurate Julian Calendar that it replaced, but it still not perfect. There are still minuscule accumulations of time and in thousands of years, another correction may have to be enacted.
Perhaps the most interesting event of 1582 (aside from the calendar change), is that William Shakespeare (at age 18) got married to Anne Hathaway in Stratford-upon-Avon.
"Perhaps the most interesting event of 1582 (aside from the calendar change), is that William Shakespeare (at age 18) got married to Anne Hathaway in Stratford-upon-Avon."
Anne Hathaway, not to be confused with the US actress playing Catwoman. Catwoman not to be confused with our Catwoman.
What a getup! At least she's wearing practical shoes....(she says sarcastically) ;D
Lisa
Quote from: farmgal67357 on September 27, 2011, 06:56:48 PM
What a getup! At least she's wearing practical shoes....(she says sarcastically) ;D
Lisa
Eartha Kit was the best Catwoman (In the Batman Show, not here on the forum), Julie Numar was the sexiest and my favorite on the TV show. Our Catwoman is my favorite poet and my inspiration for some of my best poetry, just don't have the inspiration now.
David
We need to hear some more Cat Rhymes! It's too dark around here. Did you know that? 8)
Eartha Kitt certainly had the best purrrrrrrr! :laugh:
Lisa
Quote from: farmgal67357 on September 28, 2011, 06:16:50 PM
Eartha Kitt certainly had the best purrrrrrrr! :laugh:
Lisa
yes she did.................. she was great.
....that the length from your wrist to your elbow is the same as the length of your foot.
Your heart beats 101,000 times a day. During your lifetime it will beat about 3 billion times and pump about 400 million litres (800 million pints) of blood.
It is impossible to lick your elbow. Well, for almost everyone... but a few can.
Your mouth produces 1 litre (1.8 pints) of saliva a day.
The human head contains 22 bones. More on the head and brains
On average, you breathe 23,000 times a day.
Breathing generates about 0.6g of CO2 every minute.
On average, people can hold their breath for about one minute. The world record is 21 minutes 29 seconds, by David
Merlini.
On average, you speak almost 5,000 words a day – although almost 80% of speaking is self-talk (talking to yourself).
Over the last 150 years the average height of people in industrialized nations increased by 10 cm (4 in).
In the 19th century, American men were the tallest in the world, averaging 1,71 metres (5'6″). Today, the average height for American men is 1,763 m (5 feet 9-and-half inches), compared to 1,815 m (5'10″) for Swedes, and 1,843 m (5'11″) for the Dutch, the tallest Caucasians.
The tallest nation in the world is the Watusis of Burundi: 1.98 m (6 feet 6 inches) tall.
If the amount of water in your body is reduced by just 1%, you'll feel thirsty.
It is impossible to sneeze and keep one's eyes open at the same time.
55% of people yawn within 5 minutes of seeing someone else yawn.
Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, suggested that a woman could enlarge her bust line by singing loudly and often.
A person can live without food for about a month, but only about a week without water.
You'll drink about 75,000 litres (20,000 gallons) of water in your lifetime.
After a certain period of growth, hair becomes dormant. That means that it is attached to the hair follicle until replaced
by new hair.
Hair on the head grows for between two and six years before being replaced. In the case of baldness, the dormant hair was not replaced with new hair.
Men loose about 40 hairs a day. Women loose about 70 hairs a day.
In the Middle Ages the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow was called an ell.
A person remains conscious for eight seconds after being decapitated.
The first successful human sex change took place in 1950 when Danish doctor Christian Hamburger operated on New Yorker George Jorgensen, who became Christine Jorgensen.
The muscle that lets your eye blink is the fastest muscle in your body. It allows you to blink 5 times a second.
On average, you blink 15 000 times a day. Women blink twice as much as men.
A typical athlete's heart churns out 25 to 30 litres (up to 8 gallons) of blood per minute.
24 of the known 118 elements are found in your body – see What the average human body contains
We have four basic tastes plus umami. The salt and sweet taste buds are at the tip of the tongue, bitter at the base, and sour along the sides; umami is a mixture of tastes sensed along the center of the tongue.
Not all our taste buds are on our tongue; about 10% are on the palette and the cheeks.
Unless food is mixed with saliva you cannot taste it.
The liver is the largest of the body's internal organs. The skin is the body's largest organ.
On average a hiccup lasts 5 minutes.
Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails.
Your middle fingernail grows the fastest.
Your finger nails grow at 1 nanometre per second (0.000 000 001 m/s). Your hair grows at 4 nanometres per second (0.000 000 004 m/s).
It takes about 3 months for the transplanted hair to start growing again.
About 13% of people are left-handed. Up from 11% in the past.
In 1900, a person could expect to live to be 47. Today, the average life expectancy for men and women in developed countries is longer than 70 years.
A newborn baby's head accounts for one-quarter of its weight.
King Henry I, who ruled in the England in the 12th century, standardized the yard as the distance from the thumb of his outstretched arm to his nose.
The bones in your body are not white – they range in color from beige to light brown. The bones you see in museums are white because they have been boiled and cleaned.
Our eyes are always the same size from birth.
Every person has a unique tongue print.
If all your DNA is stretched out, it would reach to the moon 6,000 times.
Approximately two-thirds of a person's body weight is water. Blood is 92% water. The brain is 75% water and muscles are 75% water.
The colored part of the eye is called the iris. Behind the iris is the soft, rubbery lens which focuses the light on to a layer, called the retina, in the back of the eye. The retina contains about 125 million rods and 7 million cones. The rods pick up shades of gray and help us see in dim light. The cones work best in bright light to pick up colors.
We actually do not see with our eyes – we see with our brains. The eyes basically are the cameras of the brain.
Babies are born with 44 head bones, many fuse later. I learned 28, 29,or even 30 bones in the head, depending on whether the lower jaw (mandible) hyoid and the 6 little ear bones are counted. Shades of long ago EMT class! 8)
..... that George Washington was the first president under the US constitution of 1789. However, the US was an independent nation for 13 years before the Constitution was signed.
For one year during this time John Hanson served as "President of the US in Congress assembled." Technically, he was the first president of the United States.
Washington's vice president was John Adams, the first Vice President of the United States.
The Vice President of the United States has only two primary official duties: 1) to preside over the Senate and to cast tie-breaking votes there, 2) and to preside over and certify the official vote count of the United States Electoral College. The Vice President's salary is $400,000 per year.
This is a list of the current presidential line of succession, as specified by the United States Constitution and the Presidential Succession Act of 1947 as subsequently amended to include newly created cabinet offices.
# Office Current Officer
President of the United States Barack Obama (D)
1 Vice President of the United States Joe Biden (D)
2 Speaker of the House John Boehner (R)
3 President pro tempore of the Senate Daniel Inouye (D)
4 Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton (D)
5 Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner (I)
6 Secretary of Defense Leon Panetta (D)
7 Attorney General Eric Holder (D)
8 Secretary of the Interior Ken Salazar (D)
9 Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack (D)
Secretary of Commerce Vacant (Acting U.S. Commerce Secretary is Rebecca Blank)
10 Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis (D)
11 Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius (D)
12 Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Shaun Donovan (D)
13 Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood (R)
14 Secretary of Energy Steven Chu (D)
15 Secretary of Education Arne Duncan (D)
16 Secretary of Veterans Affairs Eric Shinseki*
17 Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano (D)
George Washington was the eighth president considering that John Hanson was followed by six others.
Warph the VP's salary is 230,000 a year, the presidents salary is 400,000 a year
Quote from: srkruzich on October 01, 2011, 06:05:13 PM
Warph the VP's salary is 230,000 a year, the presidents salary is 400,000 a year
Yep, you're right. Joe Biden's first term will pay $227,300 a year, and will be adjusted after that for further changes in living expenses. It is about half of the President's pay. Benefits with the Vice Presidency don't actually exist, but the veep is eligible for a Congressional pension program if he serves for 5 years or more... ( lets hope that never happens) ...based on his role as President of the Senate.
Biden has served for about 40 years in the government already so he will be getting a government pension based on his high 3 years of salary.
....that Papua New Guinea occupies the eastern half of the island of New Guinea, in Oceana. It has a population of roughly six and a half million and is the home to hundreds of different ethic groups and, with over 800 recognized languages, paces the world. One of the groups indigenous to Papua New Guinea is the Fore (pronounce "for-ay"), a 20,000 person-strong people who, before the 1950s, were almost entirely insular. And soon after the Fore began having contact with the outside world, they began to die in extraordinary numbers. But unlike other cases where outsiders bring with them diseases or pathogens which the previously isolated people cannot resist, in this case, the Fore were killing themselves.
The Fore people had, unfortunately, discovered the disease "kuru" -- a disease which, much like the loosely related mad cow disease -- is a progressive disease which attacks and destroys the brain and nervous system. While its initial cause is unknown, we now believe that it is spread via cannibalism -- a custom then common among the Fore but now forbidden. After the death of someone else in the community, the surviving kin would dismember the deceased's body and harvest whatever fat was left on the corpse, which was seen as particularly "good" as it resembled pork. Other organs -- including the deceased's brain -- were also eaten. Altogether, these practices are the most likely reason kuru -- a disease which the Fore call "the laughing death" -- spread throughout the Fore people, killing roughly 1,000 of them (at the time, as much as 10% of their total population) in the late 1950s and early 1960s.
Given the grisly details as to the transmission of kuru, it may seem odd that the kuru adopted "the laughing death" as a moniker for the affliction. For that, one needs to look to the symptoms. First, the victim begins to noticeably lose control over some motor function, including slurred speech. Then, kuru robs its victim of ambulation and, as a double whammy, causes a wave of depression to strike. But -- as an odd, sinister twist -- kuru then does something to its victim's brain to make the inexplicable funny, for when those afflicted with kuru hit this second stage, they also laugh without cause, explanation, or even recollection of such laughter. This laughing part only subsides when the third, brief phase strikes, one marked by a total loss of muscle control, massive susceptibility to infection, the inability to eat, and as a result, death. There is no cure.
And amazingly, kuru is still around. While kuru numbers declined rapidly after the Fore stopped their cannibalism tradition, it nonetheless lingers due to an extraordinarily long incubation period. While most cases become symptomatic within a few years (if not much sooner), kuru has been known to sit idly within an infected person's body for over fifty years.
Bonus fact: Another horrible way to go? Fatal familial insomnia fits the bill. It is a genetic disorder which is extraordinarily rare -- only forty families have ever been known to exhibit it. The onset of symptoms begin after age 35 and typically not until around 50, when for about four months, the person has an ongoing bout of insomnia, leading to panic attacks and sometimes paranoia. Then, for about five months, the patient sleeps even less, and begins to hallucinate. Then, the person becomes entirely unable to sleep, spiralling into dementia and soon after, death. From first symptoms to death may take as long as 18 months.
.... that Chuck Norris was originally cast as Luke Skywalker in the Star Wars movie series, but quit after he was told he was not allowed use his beard as a shield because it didn't look realistic. Problems also arose after Norris used the "force", because the women on set reportedly "couldn't sit for a week." Norris defended his behavior by stating, "I know no other way." Chuck did play an important role in the movie, however. The Death Star was an exact replica of Norris' left testicle.
More Chuck Norris Facts: http://www.chucknorrisfacts.com/
---------
....that There are, world-wide, only about 13 million Jews.... a number totaling less than half the population of Saudi Arabia or about 18% of Iran's. Roughly 5.5 million live in Israel, with most (as many as 3 million) located near Tel Aviv. Another 2 million live in the New York City area. And exactly one Jewish person -- Zablon Simintov, age 51 or 52... lives in the entire nation of Afghanistan.
In 1948, when the State of Israel declared its independence, the Afghani Jewish population numbered roughly 5,000. But the Soviet invasion in 1979 lead to a mass migration, mostly to Israel, Pakistan, and the United States. By the time the Taliban came to power in the late 1990s, only two Jews (Simintov and a man named Ishaq Levin) lived in the nation. The two, together (but in separate rooms), lived in the ruins of the last remaining synagogue in Kabul starting in or around 1998, but quickly had a falling out: Simintov suggested that Levin, then in his late 70s, move to Israel, to escape the bitter cold weather in Kabul. Levin took it as an affront, the two quarreled, and each reported the other to the Taliban for various alleged wrongdoings. Each ended up imprisoned by the Taliban. Even after Levin's death, Simintov was not willing to forgive upon finding Levin's body on the synagogue floor, he told the Washington Post that he would not miss Levin.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A39702-2005Jan26.html
Practicing Judaism is, understandably, quite difficult for Simintov. Because he's the only Jew around, keeping kosher requires that he perform the rituals typically performed by specialists (e.g. shechita, the ritual slaughter). And in almost all regards, especially since the Taliban shut down his carpet trading business, he is reliant on the donations of others, both within the Kabul area and around the world.
Simintov's wife and daughters live in Israel, and he may join them one day, as he stated in an interview with Al Jazeera English (video link). But for now, he remains the last Jew in Afghanistan.
Bonus fact: Observant Jews keep kosher, and probably the most visible rule of kashrut requires that observers refrain from eating pork products. This is also true of observant Muslims, who follow a similar set of dietary laws (halal) which outlaws pork. In Afghanistan, pork and pig products are outlawed across the board by the sectarian government, to the point where there is only one pig in the entire nation.... at the Kabul Zoo. In 2009, due to swine flu fears of visitors (even though the zoo noted they were irrational), the pig was quarantined.
.... that the US Census Bureau reported that the 6 billionth person was born at 1.24am on Sunday July 18, 1999. The United Nations however, had set that landmark at October 12, 1999.
Every second 5 people are born and 2 people die, a net gain of 3 people. At this rate, the world population will double every 40 years and would be 12 billion in 40 years, 24 billion in 80 years, and more than 48 billion in 120 years. However the United Nations estimate that world population will stabilize at 12 billion in 120 years, citing that effective family planning will result in a universally low birth rate. Education plays a key role: almost half of the 6 billion people are under age 25.
At the beginning of the second millennium (1000 AD) the world population was 400 million. In 1750 there were about 800 million people in the world. In 1850 there were a billion more, and by 1950, another billion. Then it took just 50 years to double to 6 billion. In another 50 years the world population is expected to be 9 billion, which means that a decrease in growth of the world population is expected.
The recent global population explosion is not only the consequence of increased birth rates but also the result of an unprecedented decrease in death rate. Significant advances in public health and medicine, phenomenal agricultural yields and the expanding global economy contributed to the population explosion as the lifespan average continues to increase.
Only one in ten people lived in cities in 1900. By 1994 the figure had grown to one of every two people, creating megalopolies of millions to tens of millions inhabitants. More than 400 cities have a population of more than a million people. Managing such large cities, and better management of the planet's resources, could become the most difficult problem of this century.
In spite of the population increase and desertification, famines have actually become less frequent in the past 200 years. The famines in Africa seen on TV are due to the political strife and civil wars (see current conflicts between countries) that disorganize the economy, paralyze transportation, and prevent emergency food drops. In fact, out of the 40 poorest and hungriest nations on earth, 36 actually export food to richer countries.
Every day 200 million couples make love, 400,000 babies are born, and
140,000 people die, 25,000 because of Starvation.
Bonus Fact: About 25,000 people die every day of hunger or hunger-related causes, according to the United Nations. This is one person every three and a half seconds, as you can see on this display. Unfortunately, it is children who die most often.
http://poverty.com/
.....the only place in the universe where a flag flies all day, never goes up or comes down, never flies half-mast and does not get saluted, is the moon. It is, of course, the American Flag. We're the only country to have landed people on the moon even though British Interplanetary Society engineers had in 1939 designed a ship to carry people to the moon. Since Apollo 11 landed on moon on July 20, 1969 until 1972, 12 American astronauts walked on the moon, spending 170 hours roaming over 60 miles (100 km), planting 6 flags in total. They brought home 880 pounds (400 kilograms) of soil and rock, and 30,000 photographs.
The six American flags on the moon were planted during the missions of Apollo 11,12,14,15,16,and 17. The flags of the European Union, Russia, and India are also on the moon but they are displayed on equipment or probes.
The first landing of the moon is celebrated in the festival of Evoloterra on July 20th.
Last man on the moonThe Apollo 17 crew were the last men on the moon. With Ronald Evans in the command module, Commander Eugene Cernan and scientist Harrison H. Schmitt drove 34 km (21 miles) in the lunar buggy. On December 11, 1972 they left behind a plaque that reads:
"Here Man completed his first exploration of the Moon, December 1972 A.D. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind." Cernan was the last man to have set foot on another celestial body.
Last words spoken on the moonThe first words spoken on the moon, by Neil Armstrong, are well known, but what were the last words spoken from the moon?
"America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow." – Commander Eugene Cernan, Apollo 17 Mission, December 11, 1972.
Just in case you forgot Neil Armstrong's words (when he stepped onto the moon surface with his left foot first):
"One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind." On returning to Earth, he explained that he thought he had said "one small step for a man."
Who owns the moon?Planting a flag on the moon does not mean owning it or any part of it. The United Nations Outer Space Treaty (long name: Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies) of January 27, 1967 states that "outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of occupation, or by any other means."
Video : Apollo 17 – Last men on the moon
....that Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwyrndrobwllllantysiliogogogoch is a village and community on the island of Anglesey in Wales. The long form of the name is the longest officially recognized place name in the United Kingdom and one of the longest in the world, being 58 letters in length (51 letters in the Welsh alphabet, where "ch", "ng" and "ll" count as single letters).
The name means: St Mary's Church (Llanfair) in the hollow (pwll) of the white hazel (gwyngyll) near (goger) the rapid whirlpool (y chwyrndrobwll) and the church of St Tysilio (llantysilio) by the red cave ([a]g ogo goch).
This village was originally known as Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll (and is sometimes still referred to as Llanfairpwllgwyngyll) and was given its long name in the 19th century in an attempt to develop the village as a commercial and tourist center. and According to the 2001 census, the population of the community is 3,040. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Llanfairpwllgwyngyll
Hidden Messages
.... if close your eyes for a moment and try to get a mental image of Amazon.com's logo. You probably see something like bold, lowercase black letters with a slight orange curve under them. Like many brand marks, the logo is there to represent the company in an immediate, visual manner, replete with a healthy dose of symbolism. But Amazon's has a hidden meaning. The orange curve is intended to invoke recollections of a smile. And note that the curve is an arrow, starting at "a" and extending to "z." This, too, is intentional, as Amazon wishes to express that they have everything (or, at the time, every book) "from A to Z."
Amazon is, by no means, the only organization to slip hidden, perhaps subliminal messaging into its brand marks. For example, FedEx wants to express not just your packages, but also the idea that those parcels are always moving forward. Its logo, below, does that in an extraordinarily subtle way. Pay particular attention the next time you see a FedEx truck go by and look to the white space between the orange "E" and "x" -- it forms an arrow, pointing ahead: The presence of the arrow in the company's Arabic logo is both obvious and forced, and the designer of the logo explicitly notes that intentional inclusion of the arrow.
Others doing similar things? Goodwill's smiling logo doubles as a lower-case "g." Tostitos' mark features two people -- the lower-case "t"s -- sharing a tortilla chip. And if one looks carefully at the mountains in Toblerone's logo, there's a bear, symbolizing the city of Bern, Switzerland.... the town from which the chocolate hails.
But not all shadows and silhouettes are intentional. Rumors once circled the crest of lions on boxes of Marlboro cigarettes; the white space under the lions' legs create a shape loosely similar to a pair Ku Klux Klansman cloaked in white, who together hold a sign reading "Veni Vidi Vici" -- Latin for "I came, I saw, I conquered." Some suspected that Marlboro was a front for the Klan, but this has been widely debunked.
Bonus fact: In the early 1970s, FedEx was in dire financial straits, needing an infusion of cash to maintain operations. Venture capital was likely on its way, but not soon enough. As recounted by supply chain expert Roger Frock in his book, Changing How the World Does Business: FedEx's Incredible Journey to Success, the company needed $24,000 to make a jet fuel payment, but only had $5,000 in cash. The company's founder, Fred Smith, sprung into action: he took the company's last $5,000 and went to Vegas. Smith won an additional $27,000 and the company survived.
What are the odds of winning?
You have seen how a handful people were lucky enough to win a big lottery or hit that $1 million jackpot at a casino. (And you wished them happiness with their new wealth, of course.) How often have you wondered if it is worth playing the lotto or gambling? In short, what are the odds of winning?
Calculating the odds
Wagering against a randomizing value is risky.
It mostly is a game of chance but you can increase your chances of winning for instance at poker or blackjack by requiring some skill. It also will help if you educate yourself somewhat in probability theory. Unfortunately you won't be able to cut a deal with the father of probability theory, Girolamo Cardano, who was a friend of Leonardo da Vinci, because he passed away in 1576. Even if you had such opportunity, Cardano, an ardent gambler, would probably have advised you to carefully consider Nicolaus Bernoulli's St. Petersburg Paradox.
The odds of winning your local lottery is around 18 million to 1, that is 18,000,000 to 1. The odds of winning Powerball can be as high as 50 million to 1 and higher. The odds of being struck by lightning is actually lower! (The odds of your government fixing the economy is much higher.) However, believe it or not, you have a bigger chance – odds as low as 100,000 to 1 – to win at the casino or online casino.
Keep in mind that in most countries you do pay taxes on your winnings. In the United States you'll pay 28% tax on your lottery pay-out and up to almost 40% when winning millions. Also keep in mind that you can deduct lottery and gambling losses
The BIG winners
To win, you have to play. As these lucky players did:
1989: at the age 76, Elmer Sherwin won $4,6 million on a megabucks jackpot progressive slot. 16 years later, in 2005 at the age 91, he won another $21 million.
1997: late Australian billionaire Kerry Packer won $20 million at Las Vegas MGM Grand – but 2 years later he lost $28 million on the tables.
2000: two couples, Larry and Nancy Ross, from Michigan, and Joe and Sue Kainz, from Illinois, share the Mega Millions jackpot of $363 million.
2002: Andrew Whittaker Jr wins $314,9 million on American Powerball lottery.
2003: a young guy walked away with $39,7 million from the The Excalibur Hotel and Casino.
2005: Dolores McNamara wins $160 million on the EuroLotto.
2006: 8 meat packers share in a Powerball $365 million.
2007: a retired auto worker from Ohio wins $314 million on the Powerball; 2 ticket-holders, one from New Jersey and one from Georgia, share $390 million.
2009: a business owner from Greece hit the $8,69 million jackpot with a Microgaming online game.
2011: Jim and Carolyn McCullar, from Washington state, and Holly Lahti, from Idaho, won the Mega Millions jackpot of $380 million.
2011: Scottish couple Colin Weir and his wife Chris win $262 million on the EuroMillions.
The above are just a few examples
(Livescience.com) .....that a giant sea monster, the likes of the mythological kraken, may have swum Earth's ancient oceans, snagging what was thought to be the sea's top predators — school bus-size ichthyosaurs with fearsome teeth.
The kraken, which would've been nearly 100 feet (30 meters) long, or twice the size of the colossal squid, Mesonychoteuthis, likely drowned or broke the necks of the ichthyosaurs before dragging the corpses to its lair, akin to an octopus's midden, according to study researcher Mark McMenamin, a paleontologist at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts.
There is no direct evidence for the beast, though McMenamin suggests that's because it was soft-bodied and didn't stand the test of time; even so, to make a firm case for its existence one would want to find more direct evidence.
McMenamin is scheduled to present his work Monday (Oct. 10) at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America in Minneapolis.
Cause of death
Evidence for the kraken and its gruesome attacks comes from markings on the bones of the remains of nine 45-foot (14 meter) ichthyosaurs of the species Shonisaurus popularis, which lived during the Triassic, a period that lasted from 248 million to 206 million years ago. The beasts were the Triassic version of today's predatory giant squid-eating sperm whales.
Mark McMenamin, a paleontologist at Mount Holyoke College in Massachusetts was interested in solving a long-standing puzzle over the cause of death of the S. popularis individuals at the Berlin-Ichthyosaur State Park in Nevada. An expert on the site, Charles Lewis Camp of U.C. Berkeley, suggested in the 1950s that the ichthyosaurs succumbed to an accidental stranding or a toxic plankton bloom. However, nobody has been able to prove the beasts died in shallow water, and recent work on the rocks around the fossils suggests they died in a deepwater environment, McMenamin said.
"I was aware that anytime there is controversy about depth, there is probably something interesting going on," McMenamin said. And when he and his daughter arrived at the park, they were struck by the remains' strangeness, particularly "a very odd configuration of bones."
The etching on the bones suggested the shonisaurs were not all killed and buried at the same time, he said. It also looked like the bones had been purposefully rearranged, likely carried to the "kraken's lair" after they had been killed. A similar behavior has been seen in modern octopus.
The markings and rearrangement of the S. popularis bones suggests an octopus-like creature (like a kraken) either drowned the ichthyosaurs or broke their necks, according to McMenamin.
The arranged vertebrae also seemed to resemble the pattern of sucker disks on a cephalopod's tentacle, with each vertebra strongly resembling a sucker made by a member of the Coleoidea, which includes octopuses, squid, cuttlefish and their relatives. The researchers suggest this pattern reveals a self-portrait of the mysterious beast.
The perfect crime?
Next, McMenamin wondered if an octopus-like creature could realistically have taken out the huge swimming predatory reptiles. Evidence is in their favor, it seems. Video taken by staff at the Seattle Aquarium showed that a large octopus in one of their large tanks had been killing the sharks. [On the Brink: A Gallery of Wild Sharks]
"We think that this cephalopod in the Triassic was doing the same thing," McMenamin said. More supporting evidence: There were many more broken ribs seen in the shonisaur fossils than would seem accidental, as well as evidence of twisted necks.
"It was either drowning them or breaking their necks," McMenamin said.
So where did this kraken go? Since octopuses are mostly soft-bodied they don't fossilize well and scientists wouldn't expect to find their remains from so long ago. Only their beaks, or mouthparts, are hard and the chances of those being preserved nearby are very low, according to the researchers.
Though his case is circumstantial, and likely to draw skepticism from other scientists, McMenamin said: "We're ready for this. We have a very good case."
Steinway Grand
A concert grand piano is one of the more complex devices built by human hands. Steinway pianos, still entirely handmade, have about twelve thousand individual parts. To make one instrument in the company's Long Island City, New York, factory takes nearly a year and about 450 skilled artisans; case makers, plate fitters, grand finishers, belly makers, stringers and fine-tuners, among many others.
Larryj
Preditions gone awry
..... that in 1894, the president of the Royal Society, William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, predicted that radio had no future. The first radio factory was opened five years later. Today, there are more than one billion radio sets in the world, tuned to more than 33 000 radio stations around the world. He also predicted that heavier-than-air flying machines were impossible. The Wright Brother's first flight covered a distance equal to only half the length of the wingspan of a Boeing 747. He also said, "X-rays will prove to be a hoax."
In the 6th century BC Greek mathematician Pythagoras said that earth is round – but few agreed with him. Greek astronomer Aristarchos said in the 3rd century BC that earth revolves around the sun – but the idea was not accepted. In the 2nd century BC Greek astronomer Erastosthenes accurately measured the distance around the earth at about 40,000 km (24,860 miles) – but nobody believed him. In the 2nd century AD Greek astronomer Ptolemy stated that earth was the center of the universe – most people believed him for the next 1,400 years.
In the early 20th century a world market for only 4 million automobiles was predicted because "the world would run out of chauffeurs." Shortly after the end of World War II (1945), the whole of Volkswagen, factory and patents, was offered free to Henry Ford II. He dismissed the Volkswagen Beetle as a bad design. Today, more than 70 million motorcars are produced every year. The Beetle became one of the best-selling vehicles of all time.
The telephone was not widely appreciated for the first 15 years because people did not see a use for it. In fact, in the British parliament it was mentioned there was no need for telephones because "we have enough messengers here." Western Union believed that it could never replace the telegraph. In 1876, an internal memo read: "This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication." Even Mark Twain, upon being invited by Alexander Graham Bell to invest $5 000 in the new invention, could not see a future in the telephone
Irish scientist, Dr. Dionysius Lardner (1793 – 1859) didn't believe that trains could contribute much in speedy transport. He wrote: "Rail travel at high speed is not possible, because passengers ' would die of asphyxia' [suffocation]." Today, trains reach speeds of 500 km/h.
In 1927, H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, asked, "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" In 1936, Radio Times editor Rex Lambert thought "Television won't matter in your lifetime or mine."
In 1943, Thomas Watson, the chairman of IBM forecast a world market for "maybe only five computers." Years before IBM launched the personal computer in 1981, Xerox had already successfully designed and used PCs internally... but decided to concentrate on the production of photocopiers. Even Ken Olson, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, said in 1977, "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
After the invention of the transistor in 1947, several US electronics companies rejected the idea of a portable radio. Apparently it was thought nobody would want to carry a radio around. When Bell put the transistor on the market in 1952 they had few takers apart from a small Japanese start-up called Sony. They introduced the transistor radio in 1954.
In 1894, A.A. Michelson, who with E.W. Morley seven years earlier experimentally demonstrated the constancy of the speed of light, said that the future of science would consist of "adding a few decimal places to the results already obtained."
In 1954, a concert manager fired Elvis Presley, saying, "You ought to go back to driving a truck." In 1962, Decca Records rejected the Beatles, "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
In 1966, Time Magazine predicted, "By 2000, the machines will be producing so much that everyone in the U.S. will, in effect, be independently wealthy." In that year too CoCo Chanel said about miniskirts: "It's a bad joke that won't last. Not with winter coming."
Sometimes a few decimal places make a massive difference. Investment banks rely on computer models to direct trading activity; in August 2007, Goldman Sachs's hedge funds and other quant funds were left exposed by a series of market swings, each of which their software predicted would occur only once every 100,000 years. Goldman Sachs required a $3 billion (€1.9 billion) bailout, with other banks joining the hand-out queue.
Perhaps the guy who got it wrong most was the commissioner of the US Office of Patents: in 1899, Charles H. Duell, assured President McKinley that "everything that can be invented has been invented."
To prophesy is extremely difficult – especially with regard to the future – Chinese proverb
"BOND.... JAMES BOND"Jame Bond 007
He is handsome, tall, drives a fast car, has an unlimited expense account, and always gets the girl. That's just the actor. The character he portrays also has a license to kill. and is now
James Bond debuted in Ian Fleming's novel Casino Royale in 1953. The novel was adapted for television in 1954, featuring Barry Nelson as 007. The first Bond movie, Dr No, was released in 1962, starring Sean Connery. David Niven took the lead in a spoof version of Casino Royale in 1967; it is not recognized as part of the Bond franchise. Since Dr No, the equivalent of half the world's population have seen at least one Bond movie
Sean Connery starred in seven Bond movies (including the "unofficial" Never Say Never Again in 1983), George Lazenby in one, Roger Moore in seven, and Timothy Dalton in two. Pierce Brosnan was issued his fourth licence to thrill in the 21th Bond movie, Die Another Day. Daniel Craig had his martini shaken, not stirred, in the 22nd Bond movie, a remake of Casino Royale. He kissed the girls in the 23rd (officially 22nd) Bond movie, Quantum of Solace, released in 2008. Craig is now working on a new James Bond Movie to be released in 2012. All the 007 actors are over 1,8 metres (6 feet) tall.
In the first 22 movies, Bond has 23 vodka martinis, 6 of which he orders himself but two of those he never receives. The rest are prepared and brought to him. Most surprisingly, in his 7 appearances as Bond, Sean Connery utters the phrase "shaken, not stirred" only once, in Goldfinger. In Fleming's novels, Bond drinks gin martinis instead of vodka martinis.
The 007 sign
The Bond character was said to have been based on Dr John Dee, the very first British secret agent. Dee, who lived from 1527 to 1608, was an advisor to Queen Elizabeth I. He was a brilliant mathematician, magician, philosopher, alchemist and astrologer. During his time, England was at war with Spain, and fearing spies, Dee designed the 007 code for his correspondence with the Queen. The 2 zeros indicated "for your eyes only," and the 7 was a cabalistic, or, cryptic number. Dr Dee was not the only secret agent of the time. Seeing Spain amassing a new vast empire in the "New World" (the Americas), Queen Elizabeth secretly sent the pirate-turned-explorer Englishman Francis Drake (1540-1596) west with the added intent to harass the Spanish. It is known that Dr Dee and Drake actually met to discuss strategies.
However, Fleming explained the creation of Bond: "I extracted the Bond plots from my wartime memories, dolled them up, attached a hero, a villain, and a heroine, and there was the book."
Ian Fleming
Ian Fleming (28 May 1908 – 12 Aug 1964) was attached to the British Naval Intelligence Division during World War II. After the war, Fleming purchased a patch of land in Jamaica and built a bungalow on it, calling it Goldeneye. It was here, in his forties, on 14 July 1952 that after three attempts the first words of the first Bond novel were created: "The scent and smoke and sweat of a casino are nauseating at three in the morning."
The Bond name was simply borrowed from the author of Birds of the West Indies. The character M was modeled on Admiral John Godfrey, Director of Naval Intelligence Division (NID), to whom in 1939 Fleming was made personal assistant.
In the novels, James Bond and Q actually never meet. Fleming wrote about Major Boothroyd and the Q branch but never mentioned a character called Q.
Author John Gardner took over the writing of Ian Fleming in 1981 with his first novel License Renewed. Sixteen years later he relinquished the 007 pen to Raymond Benson who debuted with Zero Minus Ten and ending with his last offering called The Man With The Red Tattoo in 2002. Three years on, Charlie Higson was awarded the challenge to depict the teenager Bond in a 1930s setting in a series of 5 Young Bond books, starting with Silverfin
Places where James Bond made love
In the first 22 movies, Bond is told 35 times that he will die. He doesn't, of course. What he does, however, is make love 81 times: in a hotel room (20 times), London flat (2), at her place (15), someone else's place (2), on a train (3), in a barn (2), in a forest (2), in a gypsy tent (2), hospital (3), in a plane (2), in a submarine (1), in a car (1), on a motorized iceberg (1), in, around, under, or by water (25 times). Of the first 62 Bond girls, 31 were brunettes, 25 blonds, and 4 redheads. Women moaned "Oh, James!" 16 times.
From Thunderball:
Pat: "What exactly do you do?"
Bond: "Oh, I travel... a sort of licensed troubleshooter."
Bond expert Steve Hadlow - Get the latest 007
news on James Bond site: http://myweb.tiscali.co.uk/007bs/
The 007 girls: http://commanderbond.net/
Ian Fleming Site: http://www.ianfleming.com/
The IRS will still collect taxes after a nuclear attack
....that the United States Internal Revenue Service manual lays out the basic ground rules for "continuity planning", which ensures that the IRS will still be able to function under any number of extreme circumstances. This includes wars, natural disasters, terrorist attacks, pandemic influenza, and yes, even nuclear explosions. (You can read all about it in the IRS manual).
In fact, the U.S. Treasury Department has had plans since the 1960s to revive and maintain the American economy after a nuclear attack. After such an attack, economists in secret locations will oversee the apportioning of tax-free cash grants to survivors (a stimulus package), while the government buys up assets destroyed in the attack (like the Troubled Asset Relief Program), and pays off any outstanding bank loans and mortgages. After that, the pre-existing tax policy will likely be abandoned, and the IRS will have to form a new policy for generating government revenue to fund the rebuilding process. No firm tax plan for such a scenario has been agreed upon, but several proposals and guidelines have been prepared and stored at relocation sites for just such an occasion. Which of the plans they opt for will be decided based on the situation on the ground, though one likely system would enact a sales tax as high as 30%.
While nuclear winter won't be enough of a crisis to free us from the IRS, we can take comfort in the fact that the United States Postal Service will also be functioning in that time of crisis. The USPS has an emergency planning manual for just such an occasion. Their post nuclear attack plan has been in place since 1981. Not only will they continue to deliver the mail, they will also have to distribute the 60 million change-of-address forms that they already have prepared and distributed throughout 30,000 post offices. Check out this Brookings article to learn more about the U.S. government's post-doomsday plans.
.....that Ben Matlock, the Atlanta-based fictional attorney portrayed by Andy Griffith in the eponymous television show Matlock, tried dozens if not hundreds of fictional cases. Each (with some exception) followed a similar pattern. Matlock, in his pale blue suit, would represent one of a seemingly endless list of clients wrongly accused of murders but with a weak alibi. The case starts to go well, until -- as Matlock surprisingly discovers (causing him to make this face) -- that someone has a deep, dark secret, such as an affair, etc., which derails Matlock's theory as to who is the true murderer.
But Matlock wins in the end, due to some convoluted twist involving absurd facts and legal proceeding which could not exist in the real world. Take, for example, the following. Matlock sought to demonstrate that someone other than his client was guilty of the murder committed and found a unique witness: the victim's dog. Matlock brought the dog to the courthouse, and the dog saw (smelled?) the person Matlock and his client believed was the true murderer. The dog barked like a lunatic and the jury, finding reasonable doubt that Matlock's client was guilty of the crime, acquitted the accused.
Fiction? Surely. But in the case of Rosie, a golden retriever, there is a kernel of truth to the story.
Rosie, per the New York Times, is a "therapy dog who specializes in comforting people when they are under stress." And recently, she went to work in a courthouse, during a trial, sitting alongside a 15 year old girl who was on the witness stand, testifying that her father had raped and impregnated her. (The father was on trial for the crimes associated with these allegations.) The father was convicted, and the daughter, per her psychologist, thanked Rosie immensely.
But Rosie's role in the courthouse is not without controversy. While prosecutors and others argue that the dog enables witnesses to testify in and about situations which they would otherwise avoid, defense attorneys wonder aloud of juries are being unintentionally misled by the dog. After all, they argue, the dog -- cuddling up to a witness and being pet -- injects credibility upon the witness which may be undue, and cannot be easily distilled from the testimony. (As one defense attorney noted, you can't cross-examine a dog.) Prosecutors argue that this concern is overstated at best and the dog serves a much greater purpose, and, as advocacy site CourthouseDogs.com believes, the dogs "promote justice" which would be woefully absent without the animals' inclusion. And the gusto with which courthouse dog supporters believe this to be the case should not be taken lightly; after all, Rosie is named for famed civil rights activist Rosa Parks.
The defense team in the aforementioned rape case is appealing -- understandably, especially given the novelty of Rosie's inclusion. There is a very good chance that the New York State Court of Appeals -- the state's highest court -- will end up deciding the matter. And if dogs are similarly used in federal trials, perhaps one day Rosie and her canine friends will be the subject of a Supreme Court decision.
Bonus fact: If a courthouse dog case were to go to the Supreme Court, the dog would not be a party to the case. But in another situation, dogs could, in theory, be a named party. That situation? Civil asset forfeiture claims. There, the government brings a civil (that is, non-criminal) action against an alleged criminal's property, claiming that the property was used in the furtherance of a crime. Note that the case is not brought against the alleged criminal but, in fact, against the property itself. This leads to odd sounding case names such as United States v. $124,700 in U.S. Currency, a real case decided in 2005.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USA_v._$124,700
.....that the Indian state of Goa sits on India's eastern shore. It is the smallest of the nation's 28 states by land area, at under 1,500 square miles. It is the fourth smallest by population, with about 1.5 million inhabitants, and is mostly Hindu (65%) with a sizable amount of Christians (26%) and a small amount of Muslims (6%). It is also the only place on the planet you are likely to come across a "pig toilet," perhaps one of the most foul and awful inventions in human history.
When it comes to food, pigs are, well, pigs.... they will eat just about anything. Soybeans and corn make up the diet of the typical farm-fed American pig. Wild pigs typically forage on a diet of bugs (dead or alive), trees, flowers, leaves, etc., but also will consume the occasional dead animal upon which the pig encounters. Pigs have been known to eat garbage of all sorts as well. In fact, pigs, when in enclosed areas, will just eat and eat and eat until there is literally nothing left but dirt -- and then, they'll start digging, looking for more food. Anything in the area is likely to be eaten, destroying whatever is in the area. And some Goan take this all-accepting diet to solve a problem: plumbing.... or, a lack thereof.
Meet the pig toilet.
The pig toilet is, basically, a big hole acting as both outhouse and trough. A person comes to the outhouse section and, colloquially, does his business. The outhouse is situated over the pig sty, with a pathway connecting the two. The "stuff" travels down the carved out path from the outhouse into the pig sty or adjacent trough.
For the person, it's nature calling. For the pig, it's the dinner bell.
This, of course, makes later slaughtering and eating the pig a huge health risk. For decades, this was not a very big problem, as the vast majority of Goa's population (being Hindu or Muslim) would not eat pork products regardless, due to religious reasons. However, as the population of Goa has become more sophisticated, the employment of pig toilets has begun to wane.
That said, if someone offers you sorpatel, you may want to pass.
Bonus Fact: Sorpotel, is a dish of Portuguese origin now commonly cooked in the coastal Konkan region of India primarily Goa and Mangalore and in northeastern Brazil. Ingredients include meat and offal, which varies depending on region from pork to lamb and even beef. The meats are first parboiled, then diced and sauteed before being cooked in a spicy and vinegary sauce.
The flavourings and spices differ from region to region, for example, some use more vinegar. The size of the pieces also varies, as does cooking technique: some sautee the meat prior to cooking it in the sauce, while others add the diced parboiled meat directly to the sauce.
In Goa, Sorpotel is often accompanied by "sanna" - a spongy, white, and slightly sweet steamed rice and coconut bread. However, it can also be enjoyed with bread, on rice, or in a bun as a sandwich.
....that you become a brand new person every seven years? Poppycock! Don't believe it. It's a neat idea, and one that has caught the popular imagination. Here's how the story goes: Every seven years (or 10, depending on which story you hear) we become essentially new people, because in that time, every cell in your body has been replaced by a new cell. Don't you feel younger than you were seven years ago?
No... it hasn't worked for me.
It is true that individual cells have a finite life span, and when they die off they are replaced with new cells. As The New York Public Library's Science Desk Reference (Stonesong Press, 1995) notes, "There are between 50 and 75 trillion cells in the body.... Each type of cell has its own life span, and when a human dies it may take hours or day before all the cells in the body die." Forensic investigators take advantage of this vaguely morbid fact when determining the cause and time of death of homicide victims.
Red blood cells live for about four months, while white blood cells live on average more than a year. Skin cells live about two or three weeks. Colon cells have it rough: They die off after about four days. Sperm cells have a life span of only about three days, while brain cells typically last an entire lifetime (neurons in the cerebral cortex, for example, are not replaced when they die).
There's nothing special or significant about a seven-year cycle, since cells are dying and being replaced all the time. It's not clear where this myth began; perhaps some well-meaning but innumerate person simply added up the all the lifespans of the body's various types of cells and (mistakenly) assumed that all the cells are renewed after seven years.
You don't think that LarryJ had anything to do with that myth, do ya? ... being an Army Medic and all.
....that President Obuma is struggling to quit smoking for good, joining the millions of Americans who know what an uphill battle it is to give cigarette butts the kiss-off.
"This is not something that he's proud of," said White House Press Secretary at a news briefing. "He knows that it's not good for him. He doesn't like children to know about it, obviously, including his. And I think he has worked extremely hard."
So why is smoking so difficult to give up?
Inhaling a puff of smoke from a cigarette sends nicotine molecules zooming up into the brain within seconds. There, the nicotine grabs hold of receptors on brain cells and releases a wave of dopamine, the brain's feel-good chemical, bringing feelings of pleasure and comfort.
Besides dopamine, smoking also activates the release of other molecules in the brain that make you feel good, including chemicals called endogenous opioids, which heighten positive feelings and subdue negative ones, according to 2004 research from the University of Michigan.
And cigarette companies haven't been making it any easier for people to kick the habit. USA Today reports that over the past decade, companies have made changes to the design and ingredients in cigarettes to make them more alluring to first-time smokers, and more addictive for long-time smokers.
These changes include adding ammonia to the tobacco, which converts nicotine into a form that gets to the brain faster, as well as adding holes to cigarette filters that allow people to inhale smoke more deeply into their lungs, the paper said. Other additions, such as sugar and "moisture enhancers," reduce the dry, burning sensation of smoking, making it a more pleasant experience — especially for new cigarette smokers.
When you stop smoking, and your nicotine receptors stop being activated. Essentially, you're not getting as much dopamine as you're used to, which can cause feelings of withdrawal. In fact, a 2002 study in the Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology showed that people who had quit cold turkey had lingering feelings of depression and tension 31 days later.
Adolescents' bodies are even more sensitive to nicotine, and therefore, they become addicted more easily than adults, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS). This helps explain why, every day, approximately 4,000 teens try their first cigarette and 1,000 teenagers become daily smokers.
For those hoping that switching from regular cigarettes to filtered, low-tar, or "light" variations is a healthier choice, research has shown these alternatives do not reduce the overall risk of disease among smokers, and may actually hinder their effort to quit, according to the DHHS.
Doctors have long noticed a link between smoking and cancers found in organs beside the lungs, including kidney, colon and bladder cancers.
Now, a new study shows lighting up a cigarette changes a person's gene activity across the body. The findings may be a clue to why smoking affects overall health – from heart disease to combating infections.
A research team from Australia and San Antonio, Texas, analyzed white blood cell samples of 1,240 people, ages 16-94, who were participating in the San Antonio Family Heart Study.
They found that the self-identified smokers in the group – 297 people – were more likely to have unusual patterns of "gene expression" related to tumor development, inflammation, virus elimination, cell death and more. A gene is expressed when it codes for a protein that then instructs, or kick-starts, a process in the body.
The authors of the study found cigarette smoke could increase or decrease the level of expression of 323 genes.
"On some levels, we were surprised by the extent of the influence exposure to cigarette smoke had on gene expression, especially considering we used such a simple measure of smoke exposure: smoker or non-smoker," said lead author Jac Charlesworth, a research fellow at the Menzies Research Institute Tasmania in Australia.
On the other hand, Charlesworth said, doctors have known "for a very long time" that smoking worsens cancer risk overall, depresses immune systems and causes other problems. Heart disease, cataracts and poor wound healing are all more common in people who smoke, according to the National Institutes of Health and the new study.
Why genes take a hit. "One of the most important things this study did was to go some way towards understanding the biological responses the body has to smoking," Charlesworth told Life's Little Mysteries. "Now we know that part of the process is the result of changes at the gene level."
Cigarette smoke contains more than 4,000 chemical compounds, some of them known toxins and carcinogens. When someone smokes, the toxins enter the bloodstream through the lungs and are distributed throughout the body, the authors explained in the paper.
Because the activity of a single gene may influence a whole set of other genes' expression, the study could not explain which chemical in cigarette smoke was responsible for affecting which gene.
"Our results indicate that not only individual genes but entire networks of gene interaction are influenced by cigarette smoking," the authors wrote in the paper.
Question remain. Charlesworth and her colleagues admitted the scope of their study was limited. The researchers were able to find subjects by testing samples from people in an existing study of Mexican-American families. It's likely that smoking would affect other ethnic groups the same way, the researchers wrote, but they could not be sure unless other ethnic groups were involved in the study.
However, the study design let researchers examine a purely "environmental influence," according to Charlesworth. In other words, the research team could measure what smoking does to gene expression independent of the influence of a person's genetic predisposition for cancer.
Charlesworth said her team is now gathering information for a second study on the same subjects with samples collected 15 years after the start of the original study in 1992.
"We will then be able to look at the response of these expression profiles to changing cigarette smoking habits and other general influences over time," Charlesworth said.
"It will also be interesting to determine whether any of these [gene] expression alterations persist in individuals who cease smoking, or if they are entirely reversible," she said.
The study will be published Thursday in the journal BMC Medical Genomics.
Thank God, I was able to stop smoking December 7, 2000 and I am so glad to report that I find even the thought of the coughing, the gasping and the bronchitis is a thing of the past.
Altho I will always have some signs from being a smoker, with the COPD that I am beginning to see, and my cancer I had was due to smoking......Thank God it is gone.
I can not believe just how bad I smelled, I am surprised how much I notice the stink.......or a smoker. Not nice at all.
Judy, I quit smoking about the same time as you and I am so glad I did. I would never have believed how bad it smells, never noticed it when I was smoking but really do now.
Quitting smoking was my resolution in January 2001, and I can say that I have pretty much been smoke free since then. I have had three cigarettes since then, I gave myself permission to smoke whenever I wanted to, really wanted to, and that is how many times that I have really wanted to. I must admit that it smells better, and that I feel better. Breathing is certainly better. Hopefully I won't end up with C.O.P.D. although I am certain that my lungs have been damaged some. I need/want to walk more than I do; I am just a little lazy I think. :-\
Good job, ladies. I wish more people had your fortitude. There is nothing worse walking into a cloud of smoke while eating an ice cream cone... (gag,gag).
You know, a lot of people quit smoking for different reasons. Me? A few years back, I got up from my desk one day to head out to the smoking area at work and..... well, have a look at this security video and find out why I quit smoking:
(I recommend using the full screen while viewing the video).}
..... that you can detect a liar. There are numerous ways in which a person's body language can give you clues as to whether or not they are telling lies.
Members of police departments and security experts use these clues to catch out criminals during interrogation. Research has shown that people lie every four minutes of every day. They may not even be aware that they are doing it and it may be an unconscious reaction.
One of the biggest signs that a person is telling lies is that they avoid eye contact during conversation. They may also touch their face continuously, very often covering their mouth with their hand. Touching or scratching the nose is also said to be a sign of distraction to cover up lies. A person who is lying may be trying to make you focus on their actions rather than their words.
When a person tells lies, their physical expression is often very stiff and limited. If a person is smiling as they lie, only the mouth will move. A real smile involuntarily causes movement of the mouth, eyes, forehead, cheeks and jaw.
The liar's hand, leg and arm movements are toward his own body; the liar takes up little space. The liar's body language is not open. Liars do not look relaxed, even though they may be trying to give the impression that they are.
When a person is telling lies, he/she has a variety of ways to distract you from the lie. Liars may move around the room and place objects between you and them, such as a book or coffee cup. A liar will feel uncomfortable facing and looking directly at you when talking and may turn his/her head and body away from yours. An innocent person will go on the offensive, while a guilty person will get defensive.
When explaining something, a liar may put into the conversation more detail than is necessary. He/She will not be comfortable with pauses or silences. The person telling lies may speak softly or in garbled words. However, a very accomplished liar is able to speak directly and with confidence; salespeople are great at this technique.
If you suspect someone of telling lies change the topic of conversation abruptly. The liar will willingly change topics with you and become more relaxed. A person who is telling the truth will become confused by this sudden change. Another sign of someone telling a lie is yawning. The liar may try and look as relaxed as possible during the lie, and yawing and stretching are ways of achieving this.
All this talk about how bad I stink because I'm a smoker---hell, there are times I get in my pick-up and that full ash tray is enough to make a maggot gag-----------------BUT-------- I would much rather smell that ash tray than a person that pours the perfume on. I've been in the cafe when the smell from the "ol hens table" makes me think I'm at an Avon convention. I would rather smell a rutting buck !!!
Bet I raised a few feathers with my opinion, huh ? :angel:
Well-------, yes. Didn't you intend to? But I have to agree with you, perfume is used much too heavily. It's all right, I guess, if you are trying to cover up something, but wouldn't a bath be more enjoyable for everyone?
What about men's aftershave? Hasn't that about knocked you over sometimes?
A stink is a stink! The worse part of this is that when you are allergic to most perfume's, smoke, and anything else, I would rather breathe without gasping for air, or my inhaler.
I love to smell anything outdoors, I have always been a gardener, but about 10 years ago, I found out the hard way not to bring beautiful smelling flowers, i.e. roses, iris' even mums, into my apartment. Started gasping and no I did not need the emergency room, just treated myself until I did go to my doctor
I have even developed an allergy to cats and dogs. But, them I will not give up. Just keep at a distance. gee it is fun, getting older.
Oh, I started with hay fever when about 50, had never had a problem until one year, Charlie and I took my folks fishing on
Diamond J and drove through a field of golden rod and fished in them rest of afternoon and came home with the sneezing and wheezing and runny eyes that go with it.........So, that is why I must be careful around any type of smell.
Yes, it is not fair........but I would bet me smoking for 33+ years had a lot to do with it, just like me developing cancer. Not a pretty picture when you watch someone gasping for air. A Stink is a Stink!
I hate to wake up at 2 or 3 in morning and smell whatever I had cooked for dinner but I am not going quit cooking or eating. Have to learn to live in the same world.
Wilma,
If a dapper young feller such as myself was to splash a little Jade East cologne on, you know you would be swoon'n after me !!! :D
:laugh: Only if she was upwind, and then that's a maybe. ;D ;D
Larryj
I am not saying that he uses too much Jade East, but I can tell when the wind is in the southeast.
Jade East? My word, how old are these men? How about some Hai Karate too! 8)
Was telling a niece a couple years back about Jade East and low and behold she found it somewhere on the internet and bought me a bottle---it still smells as good as it did when I was a pup---in moderation of coarse. Hai Karate and Jade East smelled about the same to me---but when I wore Hai Karate ol Sarge would give me a karate chop in the ol goozle gozzel.
Old Spice is the only thing a MAN should wear. And before one of you says it, besides his clothes.
....that DCA could be a cure for most cancers:
http://www.rexresearch.com/diclacet/dca.htm
Sounds very promising! I do hope they are onto something, and that this possible cure does not get pushed aside in favor of more expensive treatments. :-\
Old Spice has been my choice for many years now. Jade East and Hai Karate brought back memories. Did anyone remember Brut?
Larryj
BRUT......by Faberge'. ;D
Lisa
I love the soap and water smell of any body. Man or woman,
but, one of the aroma's I love is a musk smell.............and yes, I think Brute and Stetson are a couple that
I tolerate.
As long as people don't bathe in whatever perfume/aftershave, I love to smell them. Flowery and most women's that I have been
around trigger my sinus' to react.
Dad has asthma and neither one of us can be around a candle shoppe................he gets choked up just standing down wind from a bon-fire and I am afraid that both of our problems are due to the fact we did smoke...........and just may be in the genes.
Like I said, I enjoy different odors of nature and man............nose has always been able to detect the smallest hint of a gas-leak, and other smells....
I enjoy being near a smoker for just a bit. Depends on what they are smoking.
The thing that stops me from lighting up again, is that with one puff, I would be a 2 pack a day smoker and I plain can't afford to smoke, finacial or health.
Old Spice ? They still make that stuff ? I thought when "old" Don McD went to the big "long line" in the sky, where there are prime pelts in every trap, that they would quit making that stuff. Yep, he would extract the essence from a skunk with a hypo needle then squirt it in a Bubble-Up bottle that had a chunk of inner tube wired tight over the opening---then send it off to the Old Spice factory where they would bottle it up for Wilma and Larry to splash that skunk pee all over their necks and face. Throw in a few beaver castors so it would have "staying power' and they were good to go !! :angel:
Aw yea, the ol Brut, Larry---as I wandered the hallways in school the chicks used to say,"that brute smells like Brut"------------------------I'm warning you Doc---one wise ass comment about that and I will hump clear to California to beat you about the head and shoulders with intent to do bodily harm---after we toss down a couple cold brews to get the trail dust out of my throat !!!
:laugh: :laugh: :laugh: :laugh:
Bubble Up?
As far as coming out here to do bodily harm, bring it on, Leg! And you bring the beer and I drink Gluten Free beer, don't forget.
AND, THAT IS NOT WHAT THE "CHICKS" IN SCHOOL SAID ABOUT YOU. I THINK IT WAS "THAT B...HEAD SMELLS LIKE BRUT."
There's your wise ass comment, leather butt. ;D
Larryj
I guess that shut him up! And, if it didn't slow him down from coming out here, I will have my syringes ready for his shots. ;)
Larryj 8)
I am one tired puppy. Humping to California to have a "little talk ' with Doc. Crossed the Rockies this afternoon and running down the west slope started getting shin splits so instead of jogging straight thru I decided to get a motel tonight and low and behold it has internet service so got on the forum. I aint as young as I used to be but if I get a tail wind and my running shoes hold up I should be in Ca. in a couple days.
You'll be running straight into those Santa Ana winds, better be careful, no telling where you will end up at.
He is going to get a tail wind, alright. It's gonna send him all the way to Hawaii.
I'll wave when you fl...wobble over, dude. ;D
Larryj
Jar, you must be in Cortez.There's a great Mexican diner on the main drag and the turn to Telluride isn't very far.
Go see Casa Verde if you have time.The Old Anasazi may still be whispering in the trees there. Enjoy your run. ;) ;D ;D ;D 8)
.....that an Army Medic was on vacation in the depths of Louisiana and he wanted a pair of genuine alligator running shoes in the worst way, but was very reluctant to pay the high prices the local vendors were asking. After becoming very frustrated with the "no haggle" attitude of one of the shopkeepers, the Medic shouted, "maybe I'll just go out and get my own alligator so I can get a pair of running shoes made at a reasonable price!"
The vendor said, "By all means, be my guest. Maybe you will run into a couple of Marines Grunts who were in here earlier saying the same thing."
So the Medic headed into the bayou that same day and a few hours later came upon two men standing waist deep in the water. He thought, "those must be the two Marines the guy in town was talking about." Just then, the Medic saw a tremendously long alligator swimming rapidly underwater towards one of the Marines.
Just as the alligator was about to attack, the Marine grabbed its neck with both hands and strangled it to death with very little effort. Then both Marines dragged it on shore and flipped it on its back. Laying nearby were several more of the creatures.
One of the Marine's then exclaimed, "Damn, this one doesn't have any shoes either!"
Well, well, looks like when I get done reading from the Good Book to ol Doc in Californy I will be swinging down thru Arizona on the way home and be opening a whole can of Kansas whup ass on an old Fly-Boy !!!
I got my lap top with me sitting in top of a palm tree scoping Doc's house out, right now. Someone keeps peeking out of a curtain but other than that, the place looks deserted. Not to worry though because I'm very patient and sooner or later he will have to go to the beach to look at the bikinis and when that happens I will pounce on him like a chicken on a June bug.
Man o man----stopped at a referred Mexican diner in Cortez and not sure what was in the tacos but it sure aint agreeing with my little tummy. Hey Larry--that mess on your sidewalk under the palm tree ? It was a California condor sitting on a lower limb---I aint lying buddy---can you believe a damn bird made such a mess ?
You must be lost, jughead, all the condors are in Northern California. And, I am pretty sure ol' Warph lives in a gated community, so lots of luck getting in. :laugh:
Larryj
That gate is to keep him from getting out. Very common out there.
Did You Know-------It has now been over 100 days since there was an assault on one of our local citizens? Witnessed by two individuals, in daylight hours. Two men pulled another man off a running tractor when he was doing volunteer mowing for the city of Elk Falls, and beat him. Reports were filed witness statements taken and NOTHING has been done.......way to go Elk county, I'm so damn proud to live here.
Perhaps the victim refused to press charges. The law cannot do anything without a warrant and a warrant won't be issued unless there is sufficient evidence to show cause, such as witnesses or the victim. The law can investigate a complaint, but unless an eyewitness is willing to testify, there is nothing that the law can do. Was there a complaint filed? Was there a warrant issued? Why hasn't the public heard more about this including names of victim and assailants. Something like this has surely hit the grapevine. The victim has to take the responsibility of testifying if he wants anything done.
@Diane, you are probably right. However, in using Google Earth, I did see a big sign on the gate that says.
NO SALESPEOPLE ALLOWED
NO JEHOVAH WITNESSES ALLOWED
NO PETS, (EXCEPT SERVICE ANIMALS), ALLOWED
AND ESPECIALLY..............
NO MARINES ALLOWED. :laugh:
Larryj
Quote from: larryJ on December 03, 2011, 09:23:23 AM
@Diane, you are probably right. However, in using Google Earth, I did see a big sign on the gate that says.
NO SALESPEOPLE ALLOWED
NO JEHOVAH WITNESSES ALLOWED
NO PETS, (EXCEPT SERVICE ANIMALS), ALLOWED
AND ESPECIALLY..............
NO MARINES ALLOWED. :laugh:
Larryj
You forgot mormons. I have alerted security (former AP's) at the front gate that a grunt is on the loose. They wanted to know what he looks like and I told them to picture a Arizona Condor, red beak and all, and likes to sit in palm trees and crap on sidewalks.
It will cost me a few beers but what the hey.. better to be safe from condor poo, than sorry.(How about dem Denver Broncos... Tebow might be for real)
....that:
•The largest animal that ever lived is also currently living -- the blue whale.
•The world consumes 2 quarts (approx. 2 liters) of oil per person per day.
•If Earth was the size of a basketball, the moon would be the size of a tennis ball and they'd be 25 feet apart.
•For every 100 girls born in China, 119 boys are born.
•Of all the people in history that have reached 65 years of age, half of them are living right now.
•If Earth's life was compressed into one year, then humans would have been around for only 2 seconds.
•The Middle East's population almost tripled over the last 30 years.
....that Scientists create strands of "Invisibility Cloak" .... This video demonstrates an "invisibility cloak" that can make objects beneath it disappear. Scientist Ali Aliev at the University of Texas in Dallas is working on a technology that uses thin threads of carbon nanotubes that, when heated rapidly, makes it look like the objects under the tubing disappear. This technique uses the "mirage effect." When the carbon tubes get extremely hot, their surface bends light around it and "hides" the object. This big change in temperature over a small distance bends light rays so they're sent towards the eye tricking the brain into thinking the rods are invisible. Experts say this technology can be used for military tanks and planes with temperature-sensitive plates.
....that China is the world's biggest english-speaking nation? Or that India has more people with IQ's over 120 than the total population of the USA? Or that a home computer in 2049 will have more computing power than the total human species of 2011?
....that the 3 most valuable brand names on earth: Coca-Cola, IBM and Microsoft, in that order as of 2009. Google is 7th, but it did not even make the top 100 until 2005.
The founder of McDonald's has a Bachelor degree in Hamburgerology.
Colgate's first toothpaste came in a jar.
Clans of long ago that wanted to get rid of their unwanted people without killing them used to burn their houses down - hence the expression "to get fired."
Warren Buffet, started out as a Pinball repairman.
Youngest member of The Forbes 400: Mark Zuckerberg, 25 Net Worth: $2 billion.
Yahoo! was originally called 'Jerry's Guide to the World Wide Web'.
The first ATMs were installed in NYC in 1977 at Citibank branches.
When Scott Paper Company first started manufacturing toilet paper they did not put their name on the product because of embarrassment.
Wal-Mart has "revenues that exceed those of Target, Home Depot, Sears, Kmart, Safeway, and Kroger -- combined."
Walt Disney World generates about 120,000 pounds of garbage every day.
Farthest you can get from a McDonald's in the USA: 107 miles as the crow flies, 145 miles by car.
In the 40's, the Bich pen was changed to Bic for fear that Americans would pronounce it 'Bitch.'
(http://media.townhall.com/Townhall/Car/b/mrz122211dAPC20111222014648.jpg)
....as the world digests news of the death of despot Kim Jong Il, 10 facts paint a picture of North Korea's isolation from the international community.
1. High militarized area
The border between North and South Korea is one of the most militarized areas in the world, according to the State Department, with a combined total of almost two million military personnel under the control of Pyongyang (1.2 million), Seoul (680,000) and foreign powers including the United States (28,000). North Korean arms outnumber those in the South by about two to one, including offensive weapons such as tanks, long-range artillery, aircraft and armored personnel carriers. However, much of the military equipment in North Korea is obsolete.
2. Still at war
Both sides are technically in a state of war, after a ceasefire halted the Korean War more than 50 years ago. Tensions reached their highest levels in years in 2010 with the torpedoing of a South Korean warship, resulting in the deaths of 46 sailors. The South blamed the attack on Pyongyang, but North denied responsibility. Later that year, the North bombarded a South Korean island, the first such attack against civilian target since the 1950-53 Korean War.
3. 51 social categories
North Korea groups its citizens into 51 social categories, graded by loyalty to the regime, according to The Economist. Of those groups, 29 are considered to make up a mostly rural underclass that is hostile or at best ambivalent towards the regime.
4. Gourmet cuisine, starvation
Kim Jong Il had a taste for cigars, cognac and gourmet cuisine, while four in five of North Korean children suffer from malnutrition because food is poorly distributed. In March, the World Food Programme (WFP) estimated that 6 million North Koreans needed food aid and a third of children were chronically malnourished or stunted Daily potato rations have been cut by a third, to two for each person.
5. 2 inches shorter
Analysis of escapees from North Korea shows that those born after the partitioning of the Korean Peninsula in the North were consistently about 2 inches shorter than their counterparts in the South, according to a 2004 report in Economics and Human Biology. The minimum height for recruitment to the North Korean army is reported to have fallen by just under an inch. The well-nourished Kim Jong Un was fit enough to have been a keen basketball player while at school in Switzerland, according to fellow students.
6. Secret children
Kim Jong Un was kept from public view until September 2010, when he was 27 years old. The existence of his eldest brother, who was passed over in Monday's succession, was hidden completely from grandfather Kim Il Sung until his death in 1994.
7. 'Clairvoyant wisdom'
North Korea is famous for its colorful use of language, praising its leaders and denouncing its critics. Monday's statement announcing Kim Jon Il's death ran to 1,500 words, and was addressed to "All Party Members, Servicepersons and People." It praised his "clairvoyant wisdom" and said he had "put the dignity and power of the nation on the highest level and ushered in the golden days of prosperity unprecedented in the nation's history." It concluded: "Arduous is the road for our revolution to follow and grim is the present situation. But no force on earth can check the revolutionary advance of our party, army and people under the wise leadership of Kim Jong Un."
8. China crucial
North Korea's survival depends on crucial trade with China: Last year, trade between the two was worth an estimated $3.5 billion, up nearly 30 per cent from 2009.
9. What a golfer!
Kim Jong Il piloted jet fighters, according to the country's propaganda machine, even though he traveled by land for his infrequent trips abroad, reputedly because he was nervous about flying. He penned operas, had a photographic memory, produced movies and accomplished a feat unmatched in the annals of professional golf, shooting 11 holes-in-one on the first round he ever played — if North Korea is to be believed.
10. War, war or jaw, jaw?
Despite the regular tensions, at least one expert thinks the North and South have too much to lose from a full-scale military conflict. Dr Jim Hoare, a British former diplomat who served in the country, told msnbc.com that both sides had "gone to the brink of conflict several times" but stopped short. "Seoul [20 miles from the border] is a vulnerable city and the North would face annihilation," told msnbc.com.
....that Kim Jong Un, Jong Il's third and youngest son, has been the percived heir to the leadership of North Korea since late 2010, when his father's health began to fade. Also known as Kim Jong Woon, Kim Jung Woon and Pak Un, he was announced as the "Great Successor" by North Korean state television shortly following his father's death.
Very little is known about Jong Un. North Korean officials list his date of birth as Jan. 8, 1984, but there is speculation that he was actually born in 1983.
He attended school at the International School of Berne, in Switzerland, where classmates described him as shy, though particularly competitive, especially in basketball and other sports. He is said to have studied computer science privately in Korea.
He is a Daejang in the Korean People's Army, a military rank equivalent to that of a General in the United States Army. There are rumors that he is married, but nothing yet has been confirmed.
Many analysts have noted that it will be interesting to see how Jong Un will lead, whether his European education and fondness for certain aspects of American culture will lead North Korea in a different direction than it followed under his father. Others have suggested that, because of Jong Un's youth and inexperience, his uncle, Chang Sung Taek, could act as regent.
....that Scientists at Waseda University in Tokyo have created a robot that smacks you in the face if you snore during sleep.
Scientists say the robot can manage sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a common disorder in which a person has one or more pauses in breathing, or takes shallow breaths, while they sleep, disrupting a normal sleep cycle. The system consists of a large arm attached to a teddy bear pillow, a microphone that listens for snoring sounds and a pulse oxymeter the user must wear on their finger in order to monitor blood/oxygen levels. The 'bot is activated if it detects the wrong combination of blood/oxygen and snoring patterns. The arm can be adjusted to be more of a gentle tap to nudge you awake.
I have sleep apnea and use a C-Pap machine and sometime it gets to be a hassle using the face mask I wear at night that is connected to the machine. If anyone uses a C-Pap, they know what I'm talking about. This robot sounds like fun compared to the face mask... Warph
....that World War I began in the summer of 1914, as hostilities between European nations boiled over into violence. The War lasted over four years, involved roughly 70 million soldiers, and claimed the lives of 15 million people. Marked by trench warfare over the European countryside, the War literally drew lines across the landscape between the French, British, and Russian on one side; Germany, Austria-Hungry, and Turkey on the other. But for a brief period, beginning on Christmas Eve, 1914, German and British soldiers near Ypres, Belgium, informally agreed to a cease fire, and instead of exchanging artillery fire, exchanged gifts.
That night, German troops celebrated the holiday by decorating their trenches and singing Christmas carols, bringing a small, comforting part of home to the bloody stage of war. The British returned fire, so to speak, singing carols of their own. Then, communications became more explicit, as enemy combatants began yelling at each other: yelling season's greetings, that is. Soon, a real-life Hug o'War followed. British and German troops alike left their trenches, meeting each other to exchange gifts of food, tobacco, and souvenirs from the other side. Joint prayer circles formed organically. Artillery fire came to halt.
Today, a cross marks the place where this spontaneous, informal cease fire took place, against all odds
Bonus fact: While there was no Christmas Truce in World War II, toys played a role — or, rather, the reverse. Japanese invasions in the Far East and Pacific Rim severely hampered the importation of rubber into the United States. The U.S. government instituted a handful of measures to maintain the supply of rubber stateside, including rationing out current rubber supplies; salvaging used tires; issuing propoganda promoting car pooling; and turning toward the science community to develop an alternative, synthetic rubber-like material. One of the early byproducts of these last measure? Silly Putty.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Christmas_Truce_1914.png
.....that as terrible as it sounds, Christians once banned Christmas!
It may seem like Christmas has always been celebrated in the United States, but that's not the case. In fact, the joyous religious holiday was actually banned in America for several decades.... by Christians themselves.
The original war on Christmas was waged during the sixteenth and seventeenth century by Puritans, or Protestant Christians who believed that people needed strict rules to be religious and that any kind of merrymaking was sinful.
"Shocking as it sounds, followers of Jesus Christ in both America and England helped pass laws making it illegal to observe Christmas, believing it was an insult to God to honor a day associated with ancient paganism," according to "Shocked by the Bible" (Thomas Nelson Inc, 2008). "Most Americans today are unaware that Christmas was banned in Boston from 1659 to 1681."
All Christmas activities, including dancing, seasonal plays, games, singing carols, cheerful celebration... and especially drinking.. were banned by the Puritan-dominated Parliament of England in 1644, with the Puritans of New England following suit. Christmas was outlawed in Boston, and the Plymouth colony made celebrating Christmas a criminal offense, according to "Once Upon a Gospel" (Twenty-Third Publications, 2008).
Christmas trees and decorations were considered to be unholy pagan rituals, and the Puritans also banned traditional Christmas foods such as mince pies and pudding. Puritan laws required that stores and businesses remain open all day on Christmas, and town criers walked through the streets on Christmas Eve calling out "No Christmas, no Christmas!"
In England, the ban on the holiday was lifted in 1660, when Charles II took over the throne. However, the Puritan presence remained in New England and Christmas did not become a legal holiday there until 1856. Even then, some schools continued to hold classes on December 25 until 1870.
Although the change was gradual, people began to once again embrace the holiday until Christmas as we know it today... complete with mistletoe, eggnog and candy canes... was celebrated throughout the American colonies.
(http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/111223045046-earth-sized-planets-story-top.jpg)
This chart compares the first Earth-size planets found around a sun-like star to planets in our own solar system.Two new Earths and the search for lifeBy Meg Urry, Special to CNN
Editor's note: Meg Urry is the Israel Munson professor of physics and astronomy and chairwoman of the department of physics at Yale University, where she is the director of the Yale Center for Astronomy and Astrophysics. This article was written in association with The Op-Ed Project.
New Haven, Connecticut (CNN) -- Americans were enthralled by fake reports of an alien invasion in the Orson Welles "War of the Worlds" radio broadcast on Halloween Eve in 1938. Hundreds of science fiction movies from the 1902 silent epic "A Trip to the Moon" (featured in the current film "Hugo") to "Star Wars" to this year's "Cowboys and Aliens" have fed a deep curiosity about intelligent beings elsewhere in the universe.
Hang on to your hats, because reality is starting to catch up.
Last Tuesday, scientists reported evidence from the Kepler satellite that two Earth-sized planets are orbiting a nearby star about 1,000 light years from earth -- practically our back yard compared to the extent of our Milky Galaxy, but far too distant to visit with current spacecraft.
These planets, named Kepler 20-e and Kepler 20-f, have sizes and masses similar to the Earth, and their host star is similar to our sun. But the resemblance ends there. Both orbit very rapidly -- in 6.1 days and 19.6 days, respectively, compared to 365 days for an Earth year -- so both are much closer to their star than the Earth is to the sun.
This makes both planets way too hot to support life as we know it. Still, the pace of planet discovery is astonishing. Sometime in the next few years, scientists will likely discover Earth-like planets that are capable of supporting life.
Our sun is just one star among the hundreds of billions that make up the Milky Way galaxy, which itself is only one of hundreds of billions of galaxies in the universe. Over the last 15 years, astronomers have found hundreds of planets orbiting stars in our corner of the Milky Way and the list will pass 1,000 next year.
Planets are plentiful. Discoveries of planets are limited only by the capabilities of current telescopes and instruments and by the time needed to sample several full orbits of a planet around its host star.
Most "extra-solar planets" (or "exoplanets") have been found by measuring tiny Doppler shifts (wavelength shifts) in the light of the host star. With this method it is easier to find heavy planets than light ones, and easier to find planets in close rather than distant orbits. So most of the planets found so far are big ones, similar to Jupiter or Neptune in our solar system, only orbiting much, much closer than the Earth to their host star. This is kind of like surveying your neighborhood for sumo wrestlers: You find far fewer than the number of other people who live there, and way fewer than the population of the world. So the 716 known exoplanets are just the tip of the iceberg.
The Kepler satellite uses a different method, based on transits of planets across the face of their host star. Visible light from the star dims very slightly, typically by 0.01% or less for an Earth-sized planet passing in front. Thus Kepler finds planets regardless of mass, although it more easily sees large planets (which cover more of the star's surface and thus diminish the light more) and it only sees planets that cross the star as seen from the Earth (which most planets don't).
By the way, you can help make these discoveries. At www.planethunters.org, a citizen science project started by colleagues of mine at Yale, anyone can search the Kepler data for signs of new planets. In particular, users might find unusual systems that the Kepler computer algorithms don't search for. (For a fun Christmas holiday interpretation of the Kepler plots of star brightness over time, see this video.)
"Life" can mean anything from single-celled organisms to a walking, talking homo sapiens, or possibly something much stranger. For now, scientists are focusing on conventional carbon-based life because its signatures are well known.
Such life requires liquid water, meaning a temperature between freezing (32 F) and boiling (212 F). Planets too close to their star will be too hot, like the sweltering surface of Venus, which approaches the 800 degree Fahrenheit temperature of Kepler 20-f. Planets too far away have frigid surfaces, like Europa, a moon of Jupiter.
Temperatures that allow water to be liquid define the so-called "habitable zone" -- like Goldilocks' favorite porridge, planets in the habitable zone are not too hot, not too cold, but just right for life.
We haven't yet found definitive signs of life elsewhere in the universe. But we can estimate that even the narrowest case of carbon-based life on an Earth-like planet orbiting a sun-like star in the habitable zone is likely, because planets are probably common around such stars, sun-like stars are common in our galaxy, and our galaxy is similar to many throughout the universe.
We also know the building blocks of life -- amino acids and other organic compounds -- form naturally from carbon, water and energy, as the chemists Stanley Miller and Harold Urey first showed more than 50 years ago.
Sadly, although life is likely to exist on exoplanets throughout our Milky Way galaxy, intelligent life is another thing altogether. Humans have lived at most a few hundred thousand years out of the Earth's 4.6 billion year history -- or less than 0.006% of the available time. In contrast, simple single-celled organisms probably formed several billion years ago, and thus have populated the Earth for more than three-quarters of its existence. This means it is overwhelmingly likely that the life we find elsewhere will be extremely primitive.
Face it: We're not going to be IM'ing with aliens, nor should we expect an invasion or a rendezvous in outer space.
For now, we're just looking for cells breathing and multiplying. Not "Another Earth" -- more like "The Blob" (or, "The Green Slime").[/font]
Promotional poster for the 1950 film 'The Flying Saucer.'
CREDIT: Colonial Productions
(http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/images/i/869/i02/flying_saucer_poster-02.jpg?1324322372)
.....that 2011 was a year of weird news, and sitting on the cusp of 2012, it's time to look back on the odd year that was — as well as look ahead to a year that promises a new level of strangeness.
Monster sightings in 2011: Researchers looking in Siberia for the yeti — the Asian version of North America's Bigfoot — claimed in October to have found "indisputable proof" of the long-sought mystery beast. The Russian team, which included several American scientists, located some odd footprints, as well as some gray hairs in a cave. About a month later, a member of the expedition, biologist John Bindernagel, claimed his group found even more evidence, including nests and shelters made of tree branches twisted together. However, another member of the same group reported finding evidence of hoaxing and branded the whole expedition a publicity stunt.
2011 was also the year that the mystery of the chupacabra, the Hispanic vampire beast, was solved, after some 15 years of mystery. DNA testing on dead "chupacabras" found in Texas and elsewhere revealed them to be mostly dogs and coyotes afflicted with mange, and the legendary creature's origin was traced back to a 1995 monster movie instead of any real-life encounter. [Is It Illegal to Kill a 'Chupacabra'?]
Monsters to look for in 2012: Will the yeti footprints and hair samples finally reveal the truth? If the claims made by the Russian expedition are not hype or hoax, then perhaps the world will finally get definitive proof of the long-rumored creature. Surely after so many decades of ambiguous sightings and searches, hard evidence of Bigfoot or the yeti is long overdue. As for the chupacabra, people in North America and elsewhere will continue to find mangy dogs and coyotes and assume the unfortunate beasties are chupacabras.
Doomsday predictions made in 2011: The year began on an ominous note when fundamentalist Harold Camping, leader of the ministry Family Radio Worldwide, concluded after careful study of the Bible that the world would end May 21. The announcement made national news, and concerned many believers. Camping and his followers were embarrassed when May 21 came and went without a hitch, and he eventually admitted there must have been a miscalculation somewhere. Camping moved the date back a few months, concluding that October was the real month Armageddon would begin. That doomsday date came and went, as well, and the only thing destroyed was Camping's credibility.
Doomsdays to prepare for in 2012: The upcoming year is certain to bring more concerns about doomsdays and apocalypse — not necessarily from Bible-thumping evangelicals but (supposedly) from the ancient Mayans, whose calendar "ends" next year. Some New Agers think the world will end along with the end of the Mayan calendar cycle; others believe a new age of global peace and harmony will emerge. For other groups, the concern isn't so much the calendar date but a collision between Earth and the mysterious (and nonexistent) planet Niburu. Of course, people have been predicting doomsdays for millennia, and while nary one has come to pass, one day, sooner or later, the prognosticators will be right. [Does Howard Camping Foresee the World Ending in 2012?]
UFOs and aliens spotted in 2012: The summer of 2011 was an especially busy period for UFO sightings, according to an organization that tracks such reports. The Mutual UFO Network noted that sightings in some states more than doubled their usual numbers. The group could not explain the apparent increase, saying that it could be real, or possibly just a computer error.
As the reports of sightings soared, so did the lights in the skies. In early October more than a dozen strange lights were seen over the northern Utah city of Washington Terrace just after 11:30 p.m. They emitted a strange, fiery glow as they headed north at an estimated speed of about 70 mph, according to one eyewitness. The lights puzzled the public and police and had the UFO community buzzing. Finally, students at the local Bonneville High School admitted they had launched 16 lit Chinese lanterns that night; the lanterns had been reported as UFOs.
Even close-up views of alien spaceships proved to be of something else. That was the case of a "flying saucer" spotted being hauled down a main street in a Kansas town; it turned out to be a (comparatively mundane) military spy plane.
UFOs and aliens to look out for in 2012: There's some reason to believe UFO sightings will continue at the same rate, or even increase, through 2012. UFO reports historically occur in clusters or "flaps." And reports could be on the rise because more and more people carry cellphones with built-in cameras, making it easier than ever to report a potential sighting.
A few sightings tend to encourage even more sightings. Will extraterrestrials finally make their presence clearly known, landing on the White House lawn or staying still long enough to get some clear, sharp photos or videos? That's been the hope and promise of UFO believers for decades now.
Benjamin Radford is deputy editor of Skeptical Inquirer science magazine and author of Scientific Paranormal Investigation: How to Solve Unexplained Mysteries. His Web site is www.BenjaminRadford.com.
.....that Big Foot just might exist. One of the most famous films of a Bigfoot/Sasquatch was of a thing nicknamed "Patty" because it was recorded by a man named Roger Patterson and his friend Jim Gimlin near the Klamath River in California back in October of 1967. Recently the film was viewed by a famous fellow who says that it proves to him that this is a real creature. A giant ape native to so many places around the world. It has been sighted and recorded in 49 states. The Indians have tales of them going way back and pioneer and colonial sightings are shared.
For every credible film there are tons of stupid hoaxes which hinder real research. But there are a large number of sightings in Jackson, NJ, Manchester, and down by the Bass River State Park as well as north in Sussex county, Stokes State Forest and etc.
Is this a HOAX???:
Several things about these creatures in the films are interesting. First, the bent leg compliant gait is impossible for humans at the rate of speed the subject if moving. Second the long arms that fall to the knee line are too long for humans. This can be seen in the original film itself. The rise/ fall stepping and inline step is not human like either. You can literally see the muscle ripple beneath the fur and you can see the foot and toes rise up on footfall. In the small animation at top you can see the muscle and fat shake with the footfall from the back down into the thigh.
What do you think? Does the FBI have an interest in Big Foot? http://squatchwatch.weebly.com/the-fbi-bigfoot-files.html
I guess until or if they ever really get a true closeup, it will always be a mystery. Then again, today, even a closeup would bring out the skeptics I guess. I don't know what would prove if it exists or does not except a live capture or a group of professionals finding one.
As for me, I just can't say one way or the other, but I find it fascinating.[/font]
(http://squatchwatch.weebly.com/uploads/9/4/5/1/945132/890360_orig.jpg)
MERRY CHRISTMAS AND A HAPPY NEW YEAR, COUSINS!
For those of you who are curious............When the Pasadena Hunt Club began the Tournament of Roses festivities, one of the rules was that if Jan. 1 falls on a Sunday, the parade is postponed until the following day. As this is Southern California, bad weather has not been a factor in too many years. I have seen the parade go on in rain and freezing cold and like tomorrow, those marching down the parade route will be sweating bullets due to the 80 degree temperature. News programs today are showing people claiming their place along Colorado Blvd. to watch the parade and many are in swimsuits sunbathing. I used to always go outside on the front porch when the stealth bomber would fly over because it had to come by our house. My wife says she has seen it, but I never have. Upon mentioning this to my son, he said, "Dad, it's a stealth bomber............DUH! You're not supposed to see it."
And to think of all the money I paid for his college education was not wasted..............!
Tune in tomorrow morning and enjoy my world for a few hours.
Larryj
(http://www.weirdfacts.com/images/image.jpg)
....that probably the most famous tradition in the United States is the dropping of the New Year ball in Times Square, New York City, at 11:59 P.M. Thousands gather to watch the ball make its one-minute descent, arriving exactly at midnight. The tradition first began in 1907. The original ball was made of iron and wood and weighed 700 pounds; the current ball is made of Waterford Crystal, weighs 1,070 pounds, and is six feet in diameter. There are over 9,000 LED lights, but uses hardly any energy. The ball was not lowered in 1942 and 1943 due to wartime restrictions
New Year is the oldest of all holidays, as it was first observed in ancient Babylon as many as 4000 years ago.
Celebrating New Year on January 1 is purely arbitrary, as neither it has agricultural significance nor astronomical. Many countries still celebrate it in spring, the season of rebirth of new crops.
The Roman senate declared January 1 as the New Year in 153 BC. Though even this date saw major tampering, it was Julius Caesar who again declared January 1 in Julian calendar as the New Year, in 46 BC.
New Years is still observed as the Feast of Christ's Circumcision by some denominations.
In various South American countries like Bolivia, Ecuador or Brazil, there is this tradition that has to due with yellow underwear. This means that you have to wear it immediately after midnight as it seems that yellow brings good luck. All women in Mexico who want to find their love in the new year have to wear red underwear.
In Denmark, it is a good sign when you find broken dishes in front of your door. Danish people specially keep a few plates that they break on New Year's Eve at their friends' doors. However, the tradition is no longer used.
In a small town in Chile, called Talca, visiting the graves of your dead relatives already became a tradition. On December 31, after dinner, a few members of the same family go to the cemetery, taking chairs and once they get there, they sit down and welcome the new year with all the dear ones that passed away. It is said that this tradition brings good luck. The tradition began in 1995 and now over 5,000 people have adopted it.
The first month of the year i.e. January has been named after God Janus (Latin word for door), in the Roman calendar. Janus is the God with two faces, one looking backwards and one forward, at the same time and marks the 'spirit of the opening'
The Romans began a tradition of exchanging gifts on New Year's Eve, by giving one another branches from sacred trees, for good fortune. The gift phenomenon is prevalent from those times, till date.
January 1 was revived as New Year in 1582, by the Gregorian calendar and so celebrated by most of the countries till date.
New Year is celebrated like a festival throughout the world and everyone around is in festive mood, partying, singing and dancing to ring out the old year and ring in the new.
In Britain, when the Big Ben clocks strikes 12, everyone gathers around to sing 'Auld Lang Syne', a Scottish song. It was written by Robert Burns in the 1700's, literally meaning "old long ago," or simply, "the good old days", to remember old and new friends.
It was once believed that the first visitor on New Year's Day would bring either good luck or bad luck for the rest of the year, depending on who he/she was.
Many cultures believe that anything given or taken on New Year, in the shape of a ring is good luck, because it symbolizes "coming full circle".
Many parts of the U.S. celebrate New Year by consuming black-eyed peas and other legumes, as it has been considered good luck in many cultures.
The tradition of making New Year resolution dates back to the early Babylonians.
People in Ecuador are used to make a scarecrow, which they dress up and fill it with newspapers and pieces of wood. At midnight, each family walks outside and burns the scarecrow. The tradition says that this destroys all the bad things that took place in the last 12 months and the new year can begin.
In Belgium, farmers are used to wish "Happy New Year!" to their animals in order to make sure that everything will work great in the new year.
Every Brazilian who wears white clothes on New Year's Eve will have a peaceful and successful year. Those who live next to the beach use to jump seven times into the waves, after midnight, and throw flowers in the water, while making a wish. It is said that this thing brings wealth.
The New Year in China, "Yuan Ti", is celebrated on January 17 and February 19. One of the most interesting manifestations is the Lantern Festival, in the 15th day of the new year, when thousands of lanterns lightened will illuminate the path towards the new year.
Traditionally, it was thought that people could alter the luck they would have throughout the coming year by what they did or ate on the first day of the year. It has, therefore, become important to celebrate first day of the New Year in the company of family and friends.
The Spanish ritual on New Year's eve is to eat twelve grapes at midnight. The tradition is meant to secure twelve happy months in the coming year.
Who would be the first person to pass over the threshold of your home in the New Year? In England, one of the most interesting traditions is related to this specific aspect. English people believe that if the first guest is a tall man with dark hair, the new year will be full of happiness and achievements.
In Spain, the tradition says that exactly at midnight one should eat 12 grapes for each chime of the clock. The 12 grapes symbolize the months of the year and it is said to bring good luck and success in the new year.
In Japan, Buddhist temples ring their bells 108 times. This tradition is called 'joya no kane' which means "bell rings on new year eve's night." The rings represent 108 sins, which is said people have in their mind and can commit. Listening to the 108 rings, the soul purifies.
In Sri Lanka, New Year's Eve is celebrated on April 13 or 14, based on the Hindu calendar. Sinhalese get their houses whitewashed and thoroughly cleaned to welcome the New Year. They light and decorate the house on the New Year's day as it is thought to be inauspicious decorating it before the New Year. Moreover, they prepare different sweets. The first dish they eat, which is also an old tradition of preparing Kiri Bhaat (milk rice) with rice from new crop. This is prepared by the father or the male head of the family.
Noisemaking and fireworks on New Year's Eve is believed to have originated in ancient times, when noise and fire were thought to dispel evil spirits and bring good luck.
Auld Lang Syne is sung at midnight to toast in the New Year. The song was composed by Robert Burns sometimes in the 1700's. The term means "old long ago" or "the good old days."
I tot I saw a B-2 bomber! I did, I did. I did see a B-2 bomber. (apologies to Tweety Bird.)
I was determined to not leave this life without seeing that dang bomber. I positioned myself on the front porch with the door open so I could hear the TV and the announcement of the flyover. I heard them say, "Wow, there it goes!" I'm looking at the mountains to the north trying to pick out a low flying bomber or at least hear a bomber. Then.................
Up above my house and a little to the North at about 2,000 feet, a magnificent B-2 bomber was angling up and banking to the North. A beautiful sight and very noisy. How did I ever miss this before?
I can cross this one off my bucket list.
Larryj
more........
That the TV coverage is at the beginning of the parade at the intersection of Colorado Blvd. and Orange Grove Ave. The first major obstacle for floats is making that right turn from Orange Grove onto Colorado. Closer toward the end, where the parade turns North onto Sierra Madre Blvd., some floats built with high clearances are designed to fold down to clear the 210 freeway overpass.
That those young people in the bands and on the floats, smiling and waving, are only at the beginning of a five mile walk. Trust me, they are not smiling and waving so much at the end. Arms begin to feel like lead.
That the bands with all the fancy dance moves aren't doing those moves at the end of the parade.
That there are several ambulances stationed along the last two or three miles of the parade for those marchers who become ill or pass out from heat exhaustion or just can't go on. Dehydration is a big factor during this trek down the boulevard. And, that band sponsors (parents, etc.) walk along on the sidewalks with bottles of water to refresh those who are in need.
That when the parade is over, the floats are parked by Victory Park in Sierra Madre for visitors to walk close to and see the beauty of those floats. Years ago, I went and all you do is walk along a path next to the floats to the end and back. It was free. That is no longer the case. The Tournament of Roses Foundation now charges an admittance fee.
That, in Los Angeles, there are seven regular TV channels. The parade is shown on three on them at once. One station, Channel 5, will rebroadcast the parade at the end of the live parade. And then again, one more time after that.
Larryj
What a great game!!!!! Go Ducks Quack...Quack!
(http://media.oregonlive.com/oregonian/photo/2011/12/10388671-standard.jpg)
Billion Dollar Home
Mukesh Ambani has money. A lot of money. With an estimated personal wealth of roughly $27 billion (give or take a few dimes), the chairman of Indian conglomerate Reliance Industries is one of the ten richest people in the world.
And, by the looks of his house, he wants you to know it.
In 2002, Ambani purchased a nearly 50,000 square foot swath of land in an upscale part of South Mumbai... Altamont Road, in the Cumballa Hill area... where land prices can reach up to $2,500 per square foot. (Manhattan's Fifth Avenue goes for about four times that, but Altamont Road is nonetheless one of the most expensive in the world.) It took him five years to clear the legal red tape necessary to begin construction, but in 2007, Ambani broke ground on his house.... a house he named Antilia, after a mythical island in the Atlantic. The house is, in a word, extravagant.
(http://dlewis.net/nik-archives/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Ambani_house_antilia.jpg)
The home — which is habitable right now, but not yet fully completed...has 27 floors and stretches 550 feet toward the sky. There is living space totalling 400,000 square feet; that is, roughly seven football fields. It contains a parking garage for 168 cars and its own auto repair yard taking up one of its floors. It does not have a swimming pool.... it has three. There's a ballroom, three floors of hanging gardens, a yoga studio, its own health spa, and a 50-person theatre. There are three helipads and its own air traffic control tower. And in case the three pools and the rest of the amenities aren't enough to escape the heat in South Mumbai — Antilia contains an "ice room," replete with man-made snow flurries.
The building requires six hundred full-time staff members and the building itself cost tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars to build.... reports vary widely. The building is estimated to be worth about $1 billion.
And only six people live there.
Bonus fact: At $39 billion, Warren Buffett is one of the few people worth more than Mukesh Ambani. In 1957, he purchased a rather typical-looking five bedroom home in Omaha, Nebraska, seen here, for $31,500. Buffett still lives in that house today.
(http://dlewis.net/nik-archives/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Warren-Buffetts-House.jpg)
Warren Buffett purchased the above-pictured house in 1957 for $31,500. Accounting for inflation, Buffett paid the present-day equivalent of $250,000 for the home. It is a five bedroom stucco in Omaha, Nebraska.
... that this is your chance to know EVERYTHING there is to know about weird surveys. If you have a minute or two, check 'em out:
1.Nobody yet has explained satisfactorily why couples who marry in January, February, and March tend to have the highest divorce rates.
2.A recent study conducted by the Shyness Clinic in Menlo Park, California, revealed that almost 90 percent of Americans label themselves as shy.
3.The US OfficA recent study conducted by the Shyness Clinic in Menlo Park, California, revealed that almost 90 percent of Americans label themselves as shy.e of Consumer Affairs estimates 25 percent of ALL purchases result in some customer dissatisfaction. Yet two out of three people never complain because they don't think it'll help. Ironically, most businesses DO try to make good and value the feedback, especially from someone who doesn't make a habit of complaining.
4.The Average American/Canadian eats about 11.9lbs of cereal per year.
5.The Average American/Canadian drinks about 600 soda's per year.
6.More People use blue toothbrushes then red ones.
7.According to a 1995 survey, 7 out of 10 British dogs get Christmas gifts from their doting owners.
8.The average American family views television six hours each day.
9.About two hundred babies are born worldwide every minute.
10.Your statistical chance of being murdered is one in twenty thousand.
11.If you earn twenty thousand dollars a year, one minute of your time is worth a little more than seventeen cents.
12.One poll says one American in four has yet to ride in an airplane. As for the three out of four who have, most have flown several times. Incidentally, fewer than two percent have been "bumped" from a commercial flight. And for every person who prefers an aisle seat, there are three who prefer windows.
13.Five out of six people never keep diaries of any sort. Only six percent say they keep a daily diary, and many of these people are just Franklin Day Planner types, not real diarists.
14.Despite the fact that 77 percent of Americans go to the grocery store with a list, it's estimated that half of everything bought there is bought on impulse. Supermarkets report very strong sales of almost anything they stock at the check-out line.
15.More than one-third of us say our most difficult self-discipline challenge is weight, but almost as many cite spending. Coming in way behind these two are controlling our fears or our tempers, and fewer than two percent say their biggest challenge is smoking or drinking.
16.Two out of three people sleep on their sides, and they're about equally divided as to WHICH side. Of the remainder, slightly more sleep on their stomachs than sleep on their backs.
17.Forty percent of American adults cannot fill out a bank deposit slip correctly.
18.A survey finds that a quarter of all people who take a briefcase or something similar to work with them have got SOMETHING in it for self-defense.
19.Paranormal experts say people reach the peak of their ability to see ghosts when they're 7 years old.
20.Someone on Earth reports seeing a UFO every three minutes. In the U.S., reported sightings are most likely to occur in July, at 9 p.m. or 3 a.m.
21.Someone within 200 miles of your town claims to have had direct contact with a monster, ghost or other unexplainable being.
22.As many as nine out of ten people are right-handed, and the word for that side, "right," is derived from a variety of sources, all of which suggest strength. Left, on the other hand, comes from the Old English, lyft, for useless, weak.
23.The average New York City household generates 6.2 pounds of garbage each day. Every day, between 12,000 and 14,000 tons of solid waste are disposed at the Fresh Kills Landfill in Staten Island, New York.
24.The average human scalp has 100,000 hairs.
25.As much as six percent of the world's population may experience sleep paralysis, the inability to move and speak for several minutes after awakening.
26.Tide has 70 percent of the market share for detergent.
27.Forty percent of the American population has never visited a dentist.
28.A NUKE InterNETWORK poll found that 52 percent of Internet users have cut back on watching TV in order to spend more time online; 12 percent have cut back on seeing friends.
29.10 Percent of men are left-handed while only 8 percent of women are left-handed. Male or female, all left-handed people are "in their right mind."
30.A 1997 Gallup poll found that about one in four American workers - 24 percent - said that if they could do so, they would fire their boss.
31.A recent Gallup poll shows that 69 percent of Americans believe they will go somewhere after death.
32.
About 24 percent of alcoholics die in accidents, falls, fires, and suicides.
33.About 25 percent of all male Americans between the ages of ten and fifteen were "gainfully employed" at the turn of the century. By 1970, so few in that age bracket were employed that the U.S. Census Bureau did not bother to make inquiries about them.
34.About 60 percent of all American babies are named after close relatives.
35.August is the month when most baby's are born.
36.About 10 percent of the workforce in Egypt is under 12 years of age. Although laws protecting children are on the books, they are not well enforced, partly because many poverty-stricken parents feel forced to send their children out to help support the family.
37.Most humans can guess someone's sex with 95 percent accuracy just by smelling their breath.
38.Half of all men start to lose their hair by the time they turn 30. Everybody loses dozens of hairs a day - the key thing is whether or not they grow back. More than 40 percent of men wind up with significant hair loss.
39.According to one U.S. study, about 25 percent of all adolescent and adult males never use deodorant.
40.Focus group information compiled by CalComp revealed that 50 percent of computer users do not like using a mouse.
41.One in five American households move in a given year. The average American moves 11 times. But most of us - 61 percent - still live in the state we were born in. And big corporations report increasing resistance to transfers to new cities...with many people turning down promotions in order to stay put.
42.Before the Chinese take-over of Tibet in 1952, 25 percent of the males in the country were Buddhist monks.
43.By the end of the U.S. Civil War, 33 percent of all U.S. paper currency in circulation was counterfeit. This was a devastating situation for a nation struggling to recover economically from such a destructive war. On July 5, 1865, the Secret Service was created as a part of the Department of the Treasury to help suppress counterfeit currency.
44.Cold pizza is fairly popular. A survey found 15 percent actually PREFER pizza this way, suggesting that the number who love hot pizza but don't mind eating the leftovers cold the next day must be quite high indeed.
45.It is estimated that 60 percent of home smoke detectors in use do not work because they don't have a battery in them or the battery in the detector no longer has any potency.
46.Two-thirds of men wear briefs, 22 percent wear boxers, and six percent don't wear underwear (I assume 6% did not answer).
47.Nearly 87 percent of the 103 people polled in 1977 were unable to identify correctly an unlabeled copy of the Declaration of Independence.
48.According to a major hotel chain, approximately the same numbers of men and women are locked out of their rooms. 32 percent are less than fully dressed.
49.The population divides approximately in half between AM and PM people. But early-birds have the edge - 56 percent routinely rise early while 44 percent stay up late. Medical studies, by the way, find that people tend to work more productively in the morning.
50.A recent Gallup survey showed that in the United States 8 percent of kissers kept their eyes open, but more than 20 percent confessed to an occasional peek. Forty-one percent said they experienced their first serious smooch when they were age thirteen, fourteen, or fifteen; 36 percent between the ages of sixteen and twenty-one. The most memorable kiss in a motion picture was in "Gone With The Wind" according to 25 percent of those polled.
51.Residential buildings use about 35 percent of all available electricity.
52.The one extra room new-home shoppers want the most is the laundry room, at 95 percent. Only 66 percent of new-home buyers request an extra room to use as an office.
53.Spaghetti is the favorite pasta shape, with 38 percent favoring it over other pasta shapes. The second favorite shape is elbow macaroni, at 16 percent.
54.In the United States, more than 25 percent of women's fashion dollars are spent on sizes 16 and up.
55.More than 50 percent of adults surveyed said that children should not be paid money for getting good grades in school.
56.More than a third of all adults hit their alarm clock's "snooze" button each morning, an average of three times before they get up. Those most guilty of snatching some extra sleep are those in the 25-34 age bracket, at 57 percent.
57.Ninety percent of U.S. households have at lease one remote control for the television; 8 out of 10 report losing it.
58.Canada is the largest importer of American cars.
59.Chocolate manufacturers use 40 percent of the world's almonds.
60.Each year approximately 250,000 American husbands are physically attacked and beaten by their wives.
61.
Occasionally, hot dog sales at baseball stadiums exceed attendance, but typically, hot dog sales at ballparks average 80 percent of the attendance.
62.Of devout coffee drinkers, about 62 percent of those who are 35 to 49 years of age say they become upset if they don't have a cup of coffee at their regular time. Only 50 percent of those under age 35 become upset.
63.There are more telephones than people in Washington DC.
64.Only about 30 percent of teenage males consistently apply sun protection lotion when going poolside, compared to 46 percent of female teens.
65.Out of the 34,000 gun deaths in the U.S. each year, fewer than 300 are listed as "justifiable homicide," the only category that could include shooting a burglar, mugger, or rapist.
66.Executives work an average 57 hours a week, but just 22 percent say their hours are a major cause of stress.
67.Only 3 percent of Americans ages 18 to 21 attended college in 1890.
68.From the 1850's to the 1880's, the most common reason for death among cowboys in the American West was being dragged by a horse while caught in the stirrups.
69.Hawaii has the highest percentage of cremations of all other U.S. states, with a 60.6 percent preference over burial.
70.Hawaii is the only state in the United States where male life expectancy exceeds 70 years. Hawaii also leads all states in life expectancy in general, with an average of 73.6 years for both males and females.
71.Two out of three adults in the United States have hemorrhoids.
72.Over 15 billion prizes have been given away in Cracker Jacks boxes.
73.While the average cost of air travel is about $60 per hour, using an air-phone during that plane trip can cost as much as $160 per hour.
74.There have been several documented cases of women giving birth to twins who had different fathers, including cases where the children were of different races. To do so, the mother had to have conceived both children in close proximity. There has also been one recent case where a mother gave birth to unrelated "twins." In that instance, the mother underwent in vitro fertilization and had her own child and the embryo of another couple accidentally implanted in her.
75.In 1990 there were about 15,000 vacuum cleaner related accidents in the U.S.
76.Pediatricians estimate that 58 percent of their young patients go to child care or school even when ill, according to a Gallup survey. This despite the fact that 81 percent of mothers working full-time have stayed home at times to care for a sick child.
77.Per a "Newsweek" poll, 49 percent of American fathers described themselves as better parents than their dads.
78.Per a national survey, 80 percent of U.S. teachers in grades kindergarten through eighth grade have received chocolate as a gift from their students.
79.In 1915, the average annual family income in the United States was $687 a year.
80.In 1970 only 5 percent of the American population lived in cities.
81.In 1977, less than 9 percent of physicians in the U.S. were women.
82.In 1990 the life expectancy of the average American male was 72.7 years and 76.1 years for females. In 1900 the life expectancy was 46.6 for males and 48.7 for females.
83.In 1995, each American used an annual average of 731 pounds of paper, more than double the amount used in the 1980s. Contrary to predictions that computers would displace paper, consumption is growing.
84.In 1996, Americans bought only 12 inches of dental floss per capita.
85.In a 1996 poll, the top reason for filing for bankruptcy, as cited by 29 percent, is that filers are "overextended." Only 15 percent of bankruptcy filers cited job problems, and only 17 percent cited health problems. Divorce accounted for 12 percent of filings. Six percent simply said they couldn't stand bill collectors.
86.Per capita, it is safer to live in New York City than it is to live in Pine Bluff, Arkansas.
87.Police estimated that 10,000 abandoned, orphaned and runaway children were roaming the streets of New York City in 1852.
88.Results of a survey show that 76 percent of women make their bed every day, compared to 46 percent of men.
89.Adults spend an average of 16 times as many hours selecting clothes (145.6 hours a year) as they do on planning their retirement.
90.Half of all people who have ever smoked have now quit.
91.
Seventy percent of house dust is made up of dead skin flakes.
92.Seventy-three percent of Americans are willing to wear clothes until the clothes wear out. The poll conducted by Louis Harris and Associates also revealed: 92 percent are willing to eliminate annual model changes in automobiles; 57 percent are willing to see a national policy that would make it cheaper to live in multiple-unit apartments than in single-family homes; 91 percent are willing to eat more vegetables and less meat for protein.
93.Since 1978, at least 37 people have died as a result of shaking vending machines, in an attempt to get free merchandise. More than 100 have been injured.
94.Since the Lego Group began manufacturing blocks in 1949, more than 189 billion pieces in 2000 different shapes have been produced. This is enough for about 30 Lego pieces for every living person on Earth.
95.Sixty percent of big-firm executives said the cover letter is as important or more important than the résumé itself when you're looking for a new job.
96.Statistically speaking, the most dangerous job in the United States is that of Sanitation Worker. Firemen and Policeman are a close second and third, followed by Leather Tanners in fourth.
97.Statistically, traveling by air is the safest means of transportation. Atlanta's Hartsfield Airport handles more than 73 million passengers a year, making it the busiest airport in the world.
98.The average person over fifty will have spent 5 years waiting in lines.
99.40,000 Americans are injured by toilets every year.
100.According to the US Government people have tried nearly 28,000 different ways to lose weight.
101.Meteorologists claim they're right 85% of the time.
102."Evaluation and Parameterization of Stability and Safety Performance Characteristics of Two and Three Wheeled Vehicular Toys for Riding." Title of a $230,000 research project proposed by the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, to study the various ways children fall off bicycles.
103.5,840 people with pillow related injuries checked into U.S. emergency rooms in 1992.
104.8% of Americans twiddle their thumbs.
105.75% of people wash from top to bottom in the shower.
106.The average American looks at eight houses before buying one.
107.56% of the video game market is adults.
108.55,700 people in the US are injured by jewelry each year.
109.The average US worker toils for two hours and 47 minutes of each working day just to pay income tax.
110.The average American pays more in taxes than for food, clothing and shelter put together.
111.Portion of Harvard students who graduate with honors: 4/5
112.Chances that a burglary in the US will be solved: 1 in 7.
113.Portion of land in the US owned by the government: 1/3
114.There are more Barbie dolls in Italy than there are Canadians in Canada.
115.In 1984, 13,126 people were arrested in Federal drug cases.
116.In 1790, the U.S. government conducted its first head count. The total population was just under four million (3,929,625).
117.As of 1983, an average of Three billion Christmas cards were sent annually in the United States.
118.Over 2500 left handed people a year are killed from using products made for right handed people.
119.Conception occurs in December more than any other month.
120.The most popular name given to boat-owners' boats is "Obsession".
121.
122.They call it puppy love: An American Animal Hospital Association poll showed that 33% of dog owners admit that they talk to their dogs on the phone or leave messages on an answering machine while away.
123.In the U.S., 54% of wireless phone users are men and 46% are women.
124.The number one reason people choose to buy a wireless phone is for safety (nearly 50% of those who own wireless phones purchased it for safety).
125.There are over 15,000 miles of lighted neon tubing in the many signs on the Strip and downtown Las Vegas.
126.Over 110,000 marriage licenses are issued in Las Vegas each year. There are no blood tests and no waiting period required and the Marriage License Bureau is open from 8 am till Midnight Sunday through Thursday and 24 hours a day on Friday and Saturday! The most popular wedding days are New Year's Eve and St. Valentine's Day. Settings range from Casino/Hotel Wedding Chapels to helicopter ceremonies high above the Las Vegas "Strip", or for those in a hurry to start the honeymoon - there are even Drive-Up Wedding Chapels.
127.You have to break a lot of eggs to serve breakfast in Las Vegas. At Caesar's Palace alone, an average of 7,700 are prepared each day. With 2.8 million eggs delivered each year to that one resort. Caesars serves over 427 pounds of coffee each day and pours more than 3,000 ounces of orange juice every 24 hours.
128.The MGM Grand's 170,000-square-foot casino is larger than the playing field at Yankee Stadium. It contains more than 3,000 gaming machines.
129.It rains more often in London, England, on a Thursday than any other day of the week.
130.During the Christmas buying season, Visa cards alone are used an average of 5,340 times every minute in the U.S.
131.In the USA - more toilets flush at the half time of the Super Bowl than at any other time of the year.
132.Super Bowl Sunday is the most popular party day of the year — surpassing New Year's Eve. It is also the slowest weekend for weddings.
133.Super Bowl Monday sales of antacids increase by more than 20% over other Mondays.
134.Dominos Pizza sales typically double on Super Bowl Sunday.
135.Last year Americans ate more than 8.5 million pounds of tortilla chips on Super Bowl Sunday.
136.The Earth experiences 50,000 earthquakes a year.
137.A United Parcel Service delivery person typically makes up to 300 pickups or deliveries a day. That compares to someone doing 600 sets of step aerobics a day.
138.68% of Americans who view computer commercials on TV that advertise a processor, such as the Pentium III, believe it speeds up your Internet connections. However, a modem does that.
139.By 1995 8 million U.S. households had computers with CD-ROM drives, a 1600% increase over 1990.
140.The chance of contracting an infection during a hospital stay in the USA is 1 in 15.
141.Most deaths in a hospital are between the times of 4pm and 6pm, the time when the human body is at its weakest.
142.In the US, the error rate for doctors prescribing the wrong medicine for their patient's ailment is 12%.
143.There are 10 doctors in the U.S. with the last name of 'Nurse'.
144.The standard escalator moves 120 feet per minute.
145.Nine out of 10 Americans tell pollsters they have NEVER had a professional massage.
146.During the heating months of winter, the relative humidity of the average American home is 13% nearly twice as dry as the Sahara Desert.
147.Pennies, plural, have value to most Americans. A penny, singular, does not. Almost half of Americans say they would not bother to bend over to pick up a penny on the street, but more than half of us report having stashes of pennies laying around the house.
148.Only 30% of us can flare our nostrils.
149.21% of us don't make our bed daily. 5% of us never do.
150.Men do 29% of laundry each week. Only 7% of women trust their husbands to do it correctly.
151.40% of women have hurled footwear at a man.
152.85% of men don't use the slit in their underwear.
153.67.5% of men wear briefs.
154.85% of women wear the wrong bra size.
155.3 out of 4 of us store our dollar bills in rigid order with singles leading up to higher denominations.
156.13% of us admit to occasionally doing our offspring's homework.
157.50% admit they regularly sneak food into movie theaters to avoid the high prices of snack foods.
158.90% believe in divine retribution.
159.10% believe in the 10 Commandments.(Only 10%?!)
160.82% believe in an afterlife.
161.45% believe in ghosts.
162.13% (mostly men) have spent a night in jail.
163.29% of us are virgins when we marry.
164.58.4% have called into work sick when we weren't.
165.Over 50% believe in spanking - but only a child over 2 years old.
166.40% of McDonald's profits come from the sales of Happy Meals.
167.315 entries in Webster's 1996 Dictionary were misspelled.
168.On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily.
169.35% give to charity at least once a month.
170.69% eat the cake before the frosting.
171.When nobody else is around, 47% drink straight from the carton.
172.85% of us will eat Spam this year.
173.70% of us drink orange juice daily.
174.Snickers is the most popular candy.
175.22% of us skip lunch daily.
176.9% of us skip breakfast daily.
177.66% of us eat cereal regularly.
178.22% of all restaurant meals include French fries.
179.14% of us eat the watermelon seeds.
180.Only 13% brush our teeth from side to side.
181.45% use mouthwash every day.
182.
183.29% of us ignore RSVP.
184.71.6% of us eavesdrop.
185.Less than 10% are trilingual.
186.37% claim to know how to use all the features on their VCR.
187.53% prefer ATM machines over tellers.
188.56% of women do the bills in a marriage.
189.2 out of 3 of us wouldn't give up our spouse even for a night for a million bucks.
190.20% of us have played in a band at one time in our life.
191.40% of us have had music lessons.
192.44% reuse tinfoil.
193.57% save pretty gift paper to reuse.
194.66% of women and 59% of men have used a mix to cook and taken credit for doing it from scratch.
195.53% read their horoscopes regularly.
196.16% of us have forgotten our own wedding anniversary (mostly men).
197.59% of us say we're average-looking.
198.90% of us depend on alarm clocks to wake us.
199.53% of us would take advice from Ann Landers.
200.28% of us have skinny-dipped. 14% with the opposite sex.
201.51% of adults dress up for a Halloween festivity.
202.On average, we send 38 Christmas cards every year.
203.20% of women consider their parents to be their best friends.
204.2 out of 5 have married their first love.
205.The biggest cause of matrimonial fighting is money.
206.Only 4% asked the parents' approval for their bride's hand.
207.1 in 5 men proposed on his knees.
208.6% propose over the phone.
209.71% can drive a stick-shift car.
210.45% of us consistently follow the speed limit.
211.2/3 of us speed up at a yellow light.
212.1/3 of us don't wear seat belts.
213.22% leave the glob of toothpaste in the sink.
214.The typical shower is 101 degrees F.
215.Nearly 1/3 of US women color their hair.
216.9% of women and 8% of men have had cosmetic surgery.
217.53% of women will not leave the house without makeup on.
218.58% of women paint their nails regularly.
219.62% of us pop our zits.
220.33% of women lie about their weight.
221.10% of us claim to have seen a ghost.
222.57% have had deja vu.
223.49% believe in ESP.
224.4 out of 5 of us have suffered from hemorrhoids.
225.44% have broken a bone.
226.Only 30% of us know our cholesterol level.
227.14% have attended a self-help meeting.
228.15% regularly go to a shrink.
229.78% would rather die quickly than live in a retirement home.
230.Significantly more black women die from heart disease than any other group.
231.30% of us refuse to sit on a public toilet seat.
232.54.2% of us always wash our hands after using the toilet.
233.81.3% would tell an acquaintance to zip his pants.
234.It takes an average person fifteen to twenty minutes to walk once around the Pentagon.
235.The average life span of London residents in the middle of the 19th century was 27 years. For members of the working class, that number dropped to 22 years.
236.There are over 15,000 miles of lighted neon tubing in the many signs on the Strip and downtown Las Vegas.
237.The average IQ is 100, while 140 is the beginning of genius IQ.
238.12% of men never use their car blinkers.
239.44% of men tailgate to speed up the person in front of them.
240.4 out of 5 sing in the car.
241.Every minute 47 Bibles are sold or distributed throughout the world.
242.In a century's time Islam had converted one-third of the world.
243.In the United States, deaf people have safer driving records than hearing people nationally.
244.One-fourth of the world's population lives on less than $200 a year. Ninety million people survive on less than $75 a year.
245.In the famous Parker Brothers game "Monopoly," the space on which a player has the greatest statistical chance of landing is Illinois Avenue. This is followed by the B&O Railroad, Free Parking, Tennessee Avenue, New York Avenue and the Reading Railroad.
246.Burns are second only to traffic accidents as the cause of accidental loss of life in the U.S.: about 6,000 fatal burns a year.
247.The U.S produces 19% of the world's trash. The annual contribution includes 20 billion disposable diapers, 2 billion razors and 1.7 billion pens.
248.More than 63 million Star Trek books, in more than 15 languages, are in print; 13 were sold every minute in the U.S. in 1995.
249.New York City has the largest black population of any city in the United States. It is followed by Chicago and Philadelphia.
250.No one knows how many people live in the country of Bhutan. As of 1975, no census had ever been taken.
251.In the United States, five million teeth are knocked out annually.
252.Every year, over 8800 people injure themselves with a toothpick.
253.There are more television sets in the United States than there are people in Japan.
254.On a bingo card of ninety numbers there are approximately 44 million ways to make B-I-N-G-O.
255.Researcherd don't know why, but people living in mountain states eat 30% more cookies than other people.
256.According to the Texas Department of Transportation, one person is killed annually painting stripes on the state's highways and roads.
257.In 1993 there were an estimated 64 million cats in the United States.
258.Half a billion people - about one of every eight - are suffering chronic malnutrition today.
259.People are marrying younger today than they did before the turn of the century. In the United States, in 1890, the average age of men at their first marriage was twenty-six years, compared with twenty-three today. For women, the corresponding figures are twenty-two then and just under twenty-one now.
260.Per capita, Canada has more doughnut shops than any other country.
261.In 1977, according to the American Telephone and Telegraph Company, there were 14.5 telephone calls made for every 100 people in the entire world.
262.The photo most often requested from the U.S. National Archives is that of the meeting between Elvis Presley and President Nixon in 1970. Presley had requested that Nixon make him an honorary drug enforcement agent and Nixon accommodated him.
263.Ten percent of frequent fliers say they never check their luggage when flying.
264.Lost time in traffic could cost American businesses up to 100 billion dollars per year.
265.According to NASA, the U.S. has the world's most violent weather. In a typical year, the U.S. can expect some 10,000 violent thunderstorms, 5,000 floods, 1,000 tornadoes and several hurricanes.
266.The chance of contracting an infection during a hospital stay in the USA is 1 in 15.
267.The number of births in India each year is greater than the entire population of Australia.
268.Li is the family name for over 87 million People in China.
269.Americans use over 16,000 tons of aspirin a year.
270.The typical person swallows 295 during dinner.
271.The most common surname in Sweden is Johansson.
272.France has the highest per capita consumption of cheese.
273.The voltage of most car batteries is 12 volts.
274.The typical person goes to the bathroom 6 times a day.
275.The most common Spanish surname is Garcia.
276.In 1969, Iowa State College conducted a survey indicating that a parent's stress level at the time of conception is a major factor in determining the child's sex. The child is usually the same sex as the less stressed parent.
277.An eyebrow typically contains 550 hairs.
278.Hawaii has the highest percentage of cremations of all other U.S. states, with a 60.6 percent preference over burial.
279.Two out of three adults in the United States have hemorrhoids.
280.The Japanese cremate 93 percent of their dead, as compared to Great Britain at 67 percent and the United States at just over 12 percent.
281.Nearly half of all psychiatrists have been attacked by one of their patients.
282.About 24 percent of alcoholics die in accidents, falls, fires, and suicides.
283.About 25 percent of all male Americans between the ages of ten and fifteen were "gainfully employed" at the turn of the century. By 1970, so few in that age bracket were employed that the U.S. Census Bureau did not bother to make inquiries about them.
284.About 60 percent of all American babies are named after close relatives.
285.According to a 1995 poll, 1 out of 10 people admitted that they will buy an outfit intending to wear it once and return it.
286.According to a poll, only 29 percent of married couples agree on most political issues.
287.According to a poll, 39% of the people interviewed admitted that they snoop in their host's medicine cabinets.
288.According to Scientfic American magazine: if you live in the northern hemisphere, odds are that every time you fill your lungs with air at least one molecule of that air once passed thru Socrates lungs.
289.Ten percent of frequent fliers say they never check their luggage when flying.
290.Ten percent of men are left-handed while only 8 percent of women are left-handed.
291.Textbook shortages are so severe in some U.S. public schools that 71 percent of teachers say they have purchased reading materials with their own money.
292.Retirement planning time: Adults spend an average of 16 times as many hours selecting clothes (145.6 hours a year) as they do on planning their retirement.
293.A 1991 Gallup survey indicated that 49 percent of Americans didn't know that white bread is made from wheat.
294.The tail section of an airplane gives the bumpiest ride.
295.North America's most popular snack food is potato chips.
296.69% of men say that they would rather break up with a girl in private rather than in public.
297.In 1916, 55% of the cars in the world were Model T Fords.
298.About 1 out of every 70 people who pick their nose actually eat their boogers.
299.Women shoplift more often than men; the statistics are 4 to 1.
300.For the 66% of American's who admit to reading in the bathroom, the preferred reading material is "Reader's Digest."
301.67.5% of men wear briefs instead of boxers.
302.57% of British school kids think Germany is the most boring country in Europe.
303.You are more likely to win the state lottery than to be attacked by a shark.
304.Statistically the safest age of life is 10 years old.
305.Automobiles take up about 24 percent of the total area of Los Angeles.
306.About 43% of convicted criminals in the U.S. are rearrested within a year of being released from prison.
307.There was a ratio of 35 women to one man in England mental asylums in 1971. However in England prisons, this ratio was the opposite.
308.Seven people have been struck by meteorite fragments.
309.Coffee is the second largest item on international commerce in the world.
310.People in Iceland read more books per capita than any other people in the world.
311.Odds that you'll be killed by a plane falling from the sky: one in 25 million. Odds that it will happen today: 1 in 7 trillion.
312.Boys who have unusual first names are more likely to have mental problems than boys with conventional names. Girls don't seem to have this problem.
313.Sweden has the least number of murders annually.
314.The 3 largest newspaper circulations are Russian.
315.Smoking accounts for at least 7% of all health care costs in the US.
316.The salt scattered on American highways each winter to keep cars from skidding on snow and ice represents 10 percent of the world's annual output of the mineral.
317.53% of high school grads and 27% of college grads "get most of their information from TV."
318.The one extra room new-home shoppers want the most is the laundry room, at 95 percent. Only 66 percent of new-home buyers request an extra room to use as an office.
319.Most shark attacks are not deadly. Less than 20 percent of those attacked are killed. Contrary to popular belief, sharks don't tear their prey to pieces. After the initial attack, they tend to circle around waiting for the victim to die from blood loss. This gives time for rescue. Before you start having shark nightmares, however, remember this: More Americans are killed each year from bee-attack than from shark-attack.
320.The only country to register zero births in 1983 was the Vatican City.
321.Seven billion gallons of water are flushed down toilets in the U.S. every day.
322.The average raindrop reaches a top speed of 22 miles per hour.
What Became of TV Channel 1?
Ever wonder why your television dial starts with Channel 2? In the early days of television broadcasting in the United States, there was a channel 1 And there were television stations operating on channel 1 and TV sets had a number 1 on the dial. Here are the details. (All frequencies are in MHz.)
In 1937, the channel assignments for television were set as 1 to 19.
In 1940, the FCC allocated 42-50 MHz for FM radio broadcasting. All the frequencies had to me moved again.
Between 1940 and 1948, following a number of redistribution of frequencies, the frequencies were finally redistributed amongst the channels. The FCC allocated 42-50 for FM radio. And the number of channels was reduced from 19 to 13.
In 1945, the FCC decided to move FM radio to the 88-106 MHz band (later 88-108 MHz). Because FM broadcasting would be vacating 42-50 MHz, TV channel 1 was moved down to that part of the spectrum.
After 1948 the FM frequencies were changed from 44-50 Mhz to 88-106 (later 108) Mhz. Channel 1 was then freed to be allocated for mobile land services. But the Channels were never renumbered and channel 1 disappeared.
In the 1940s, the FCC assigned television's Channel 1 to mobile Services (two-way radios in taxicabs, for instance) but did not Pre-number the other channel assignments. That is why your TV set has channels 2 and up, but no channel 1.
.... that China has unveiled the worlds longest sea bridge, which stretches a massive 26.4 miles five miles further than the distance between Dover and Calais and longer than a marathon. The Qingdao Haiwan Bridge was completed on December 27, 2010 and is 26.4 miles long - the equivalent of 174 Tower Bridges, links the main urban area of Qingdao city, East Chinas Shandong province, with Huangdao district, straddling the Jiaozhou Bay sea areas.
The road bridge, which took four years and cost a cool 5.5 billion pounds to build, will be open for use in the New Year and is almost three miles longer than the previous record-holder, the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway in Louisiana. That structure features two bridges running side by side and is 23.87 miles (38.42km) long.
The three-way Qingdao Haiwan Bridge is a staggering 174 times longer than Londons Tower Bridge, over the Thames River and shaves 19 miles off the drive from Qingdao to Huangdao. Two separate groups of workers have been building the different ends of the structure since 2006. With an overall length of 42.58km, the route between Qingdao and Huangdao will be shortened by 30km, cutting the travel time by about 20 minutes.
(http://www.wonderfulinfo.com/amazing/world_longest_sea_bridge/pic01.jpg)
(http://www.wonderfulinfo.com/amazing/world_longest_sea_bridge/pic02.jpg)
(http://www.wonderfulinfo.com/amazing/world_longest_sea_bridge/pic03.jpg)
(http://www.wonderfulinfo.com/amazing/world_longest_sea_bridge/pic04.jpg)
......Bad Preditions > In 1894, the president of the Royal Society, William Thomson, Lord Kelvin, predicted that radio had no future. The first radio factory was opened five years later. Today, there are more than one billion radio sets in the world, tuned to more than 33 000 radio stations around the world. He also predicted that heavier-than-air flying machines were impossible. The Wright Brother's first flight covered a distance equal to only half the length of the wingspan of a Boeing 747. He also said, "X-rays will prove to be a hoax."
In the 6th century BC Greek mathematician Pythagoras said that earth is round – but few agreed with him. Greek astronomer Aristarchos said in the 3rd century BC that earth revolves around the sun – but the idea was not accepted. In the 2nd century BC Greek astronomer Erastosthenes accurately measured the distance around the earth at about 40,000 km (24,860 miles) – but nobody believed him. In the 2nd century AD Greek astronomer Ptolemy stated that earth was the center of the universe – most people believed him for the next 1,400 years.
In the early 20th century a world market for only 4 million automobiles was predicted because "the world would run out of chauffeurs." Shortly after the end of World War II (1945), the whole of Volkswagen, factory and patents, was offered free to Henry Ford II. He dismissed the Volkswagen Beetle as a bad design. Today, more than 70 million motorcars are produced every year. The Beetle became one of the best-selling vehicles of all time.
The telephone was not widely appreciated for the first 15 years because people did not see a use for it. In fact, in the British parliament it was mentioned there was no need for telephones because "we have enough messengers here." Western Union believed that it could never replace the telegraph. In 1876, an internal memo read: "This telephone has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication." Even Mark Twain, upon being invited by Alexander Graham Bell to invest $5 000 in the new invention, could not see a future in the telephone.
Irish scientist, Dr. Dionysius Lardner (1793 – 1859) didn't believe that trains could contribute much in speedy transport. He wrote: "Rail travel at high speed is not possible, because passengers ' would die of asphyxia' [suffocation]." Today, trains reach speeds of 500 km/h.
In 1927, H.M. Warner, Warner Brothers, asked, "Who the hell wants to hear actors talk?" In 1936, Radio Times editor Rex Lambert thought "Television won't matter in your lifetime or mine."
In 1943, Thomas Watson, the chairman of IBM forecast a world market for "maybe only five computers." Years before IBM launched the personal computer in 1981, Xerox had already successfully designed and used PCs internally... but decided to concentrate on the production of photocopiers. Even Ken Olson, founder of Digital Equipment Corporation, said in 1977, "There is no reason anyone would want a computer in their home."
After the invention of the transistor in 1947, several US electronics companies rejected the idea of a portable radio. Apparently it was thought nobody would want to carry a radio around. When Bell put the transistor on the market in 1952 they had few takers apart from a small Japanese start-up called Sony. They introduced the transistor radio in 1954.
In 1894, A.A. Michelson, who with E.W. Morley seven years earlier experimentally demonstrated the constancy of the speed of light, said that the future of science would consist of "adding a few decimal places to the results already obtained."
In 1954, a concert manager fired Elvis Presley, saying, "You ought to go back to driving a truck." In 1962, Decca Records rejected the Beatles, "We don't like their sound, and guitar music is on the way out."
In 1966, Time Magazine predicted, "By 2000, the machines will be producing so much that everyone in the U.S. will, in effect, be independently wealthy." In that year too CoCo Chanel said about miniskirts: "It's a bad joke that won't last. Not with winter coming."
Sometimes a few decimal places make a massive difference. Investment banks rely on computer models to direct trading activity; in August 2007, Goldman Sachs's hedge funds and other quant funds were left exposed by a series of market swings, each of which their software predicted would occur only once every 100,000 years. Goldman Sachs required a $3 billion (€1.9 billion) bailout, with other banks joining the hand-out queue.
Perhaps the guy who got it wrong most was the commissioner of the US Office of Patents: in 1899, Charles H. Duell, assured President McKinley that "everything that can be invented has been invented."
To prophesy is extremely difficult – especially with regard to the future – Chinese proverb
....that you cannot taste food unless it is mixed with saliva. The tongue is a muscle with glands, sensory cells, and fatty tissue that helps to moisten food with saliva. You cannot taste food unless it is mixed with saliva. For instance, if salt is placed on a dry tongue, the taste buds will not be able to identify it. As soon as saliva is added, the salt dissolves and the taste sensation takes place.
There are 4 basic tastes plus umami. The salt and sweet taste buds are at the tip of the tongue, bitter at the base, and sour along the sides; in all, about 10,000 taste buds. Umami is sensed along the center part of the tongue.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_Xo6pqIK9_MM/SgMHOwvUjJI/AAAAAAAAAGk/-mpgHoUFIUs/s200/tongue.jpeg)
The tongue is the strongest muscle in the body. On average length of a human tongue from the oropharynx to the tip is four inches (ten centimetres). But Stephen Taylor's tongue is even longer! He holds the Guinness World Record for the longest tongue: most people can stick their tongue out at an inch or two but Stephen's tongue, measured from the tip to the center of the closed top lip, measures 3.74 inches (9,5 cm).
The longest tongue of any living being belongs to a blue whale. The tongue of a blue whale is as long as an elephant and weighs almost 3 tons.
This really explains why after radiation and chemo why I lost my sense of taste (for some things) not everything.
To get the cancer they had to fry (sorry) the good parts, too.
I was left with very little saliva, and it has been interesting learning what tastes good and what doesn't.
....that:
The first man-made item to exceed the speed of sound is the bull whip our leather whip. When the whip is snapped, the knotted end makes a "crack" or popping noise. It is actually causing a mini sonic boom as it exceeds the speed of sound.
2.Travelling at the speed of 186,000 miles per second, light take 6 hours to travel from Pluto to the earth
3.A full moon always rises at sunset.
4.A bowl of lime Jell-O, when hooked up to an EEG machine, exhibited movement which is virtually identical to the brain waves of a healthy adult man or woman.
5.If the world were tilted one degree more either way, the planet would not be habitable because the area around the equator would be too hot and the poles would be too cold.
6.The opposite of a "vacuum" is a "plenum."
7.In 1980, Namco released PAC-MAN, the most popular video game (or arcade game) of all time. The original name was going to be PUCK MAN, but executives saw the potential for vandals to scratch out part of the P in the games marquee and labeling.
8.Clothes that are dried outside DO smell better because of a process called photolysis. What happens is this: sunlight breaks down compounds in the laundry that cause odor, such as perspiration and body oils.
9.Clouds fly higher during the day than the night.
10.Dirty snow melts faster than clean.
11.Back in the mid to late 80's, an IBM compatible computer wasn't considered a hundred percent compatible unless it could run Microsoft's Flight Simulator, probably because of the fact that it is one of the hardest programs to get running.
12.Some early TV screens did emit excessive X-rays, as did computer monitors, but that was fixed long ago. Doctors suggest that at worst, sitting too close might cause some temporary eye fatigue—the same for reading with insufficient light—but no permanent damage, no matter what your mother claimed.
13.A "fulgerite" is fossilized lightning. It forms when a powerful lightning bolt melts the soil into a glass-like state.
14.STASI, the East German secret police organization, devised a devilishly clever way to prevent someone from giving them the slip during the Cold War: they managed to synthesize the scent of a female dog in heat, which they applied to the shoes of the person under surveillance. Then they simply had a male dog follow the scent.
15.Experiments conducted in Germany and at the University of Southampton in England show that even mild and incidental noises cause the pupils of the eyes to dilate. It is believed that this is why surgeons, watchmakers, and others who perform delicate manual operations are so bothered by noise. The sounds cause their pupils to change focus and blur their vision.
16.A downburst is a downward blowing wind that sometimes comes blasting out of a thunderstorm. The damage looks like tornado damage, since the wind can be as strong as an F2 tornado, but debris is blown straight away from a point on the ground. It's not lofted into the air and transported downwind.
17.On December 2, 1942, a nuclear chain reaction was achieved for the first time under the stands of the University of Chicago's football stadium. The first reactor measured 30 feet wide, 32 feet long, and 21.5 feet high. It weighed 1,400 tons and contained 52 tons of uranium in the form of uranium metal and uranium oxide. Although the same process led to the massive energy release of the atomic bomb, the first artificially sustained nuclear reaction produced just enough energy to light a small flashlight.
18.A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and down continually from the bottom of the glass to the top. This is because the carbonation in the drink gets pockets of air stuck in the wrinkles of the raisin, which is light enough to be raised by this air. When it reaches the surface of the champagne, the bubbles pop, and the raisin sinks back to the bottom, starting the cycle over.
19.Bacteria, the tiniest free-living cells, are so small that a single drop of liquid contains as many as 50 million of them.
20.The proper name of earth's satellite is Luna. The grammar books say that "moon" (and likewise "earth" and "sun") should be lower case, with the exception of when "earth" is in a list with other planets. The earth is Terra; the sun is Sol. This is where we get the words "extraTERREstrial" and "SOLar".
21.At any given time, there are 1,800 thunderstorms in progress over the earth's atmosphere.
22.Compact discs read from the inside to the outside edge, the reverse of how a record works.
23.Because of the rotation of the earth, an object can be thrown farther if it is thrown west. If measured against a fixed point in space.
24.The fastest moon in our solar system circles Jupiter once every seven hours - traveling at 70,400 miles per hour.
25.George Ellery Hale was the 20th century's most important builder of telescopes. In 1897, Hale built a 40 inch wide telescope, the largest ever built at that time. His second telescope, with a sixty inch lens, was set up in 1917 and took 14 years to build. During the 14 years Hale became convinced that he suffered from "Americanitis" a disorder in which the ambitions of Americans drive them insane. During the building of his 100 inch lens Hale spent time in a sanatorium and would only discuss his plans for the telescope with a "sympathetic green elf".
26.Hale's 100 inch lens built in the early 1900s was the largest solid piece of glass made until then. The lens was made by a French specialist who poured the equivalent of ten thousand melted champagne bottles into a mold packed with heat maintaining manure so that the glass would cool slowly and not crack.
27.The shockwave from a nitroglycerine explosion travels at 17,000 miles per hour.
28.The planet Saturn has a density lower than water. If there was a bathtub large enough to hold it, Saturn would float.
29.Earth's atmosphere is, proportionally, thinner than the skin of an apple.
30.The first portable calculator placed on sale by Texas Instruments weighed only 2-1/2 pounds and cost a mere $150. (1971)
31.Carolyn Shoemaker has discovered 32 comets and approximately 800 asteroids.
32.Because of the salt content of the Dead Sea, it is difficult to dive below its surface.
33.The planet Venus has the longest day.
34.The first atomic bomb exploded at Trinity Site, New Mexico.
35.All organic compounds contain carbon.
36.Three astronauts manned each Apollo flight.
37.Out of all the senses, smell is most closely linked to memory.
38.There are 7 stars in the Big Dipper.
39.The hardness of ice is similar to that of concrete.
40.Jupiter is the largest planet in the solar system.
41.The speed of sound must be exceeded to produce a sonic boom.
42.The nearest galaxy to our own is Andromeda.
43.The Leaning Tower of Pisa is predicted to topple over between 2010 and 2020.
44.Mercury is the only metal that is liquid at room temperature.
45.Blood is 6 times thicker than water.
46.Dissolved salt makes up 3.5 percent of the oceans.
47.Three stars make up Orion's belt.
48.Glaciers store about 75% of the world's freshwater. In Washington State alone, glaciers provide 470 billion gallons of water each summer.
49.To an observer standing on Pluto, the sun would appear no brighter than Venus appears in our evening sky.
....that in 1966, the Beatles released the album "Yesterday and Today," featuring the "Butcher cover"... cover art depicting the band in butchers' coats holding disembodied baby dolls covered in blood (really corn syrup), which spiked outrage from the media and some fans. Capitol Records recalled the albums in order to replace the cover art, but having already produced thousands of the Butcher cover, they instead glued new covers onto the recalled ones. Fans quickly figured out the ruse and tried to peel off the new cover, in almost all cases failing. The Butcher cover has become a collector's item.
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/5/55/The_Beatles_-_Butcher_Cover.jpg)
....that sometimes, the grandest plans go awry. And because of that, we often plan for the worst-case scenario:
(http://media.npr.org/assets/img/2011/03/16/letter_custom.jpg?t=1300456635&s=3)
On July 20, 1969, astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin disembarked from a lunar lander, becoming the first people, ever, to walk on the moon. The landing, per NASA, was not the troubling part. Rather, NASA's biggest concern was whether the lunar lander would be able to leave the moon's surface and return to the lunar orbiter, piloted and manned by Michael Collins, awaiting them for the return to Earth. If the lunar lander's liftoff failed, both Armstrong and Aldrin would be marooned on the moon, with the world watching on television.
Then-President Richard M. Nixon's speechwriter, William Safire (who would later become a New York Times writer), took it upon himself to draft a plan and a message from Nixon in case of this disaster. That message outlined the plan. First, Nixon would call (in Safire's words) the "widows-to-be," offering the nation's condolences. Then, communications with the moon would be cut, and a member of the clergy would offer a prayer similar to one used for a burial at sea, and closing with the Lord's Prayer. Finally, Nixon would read the following statement to those watching on television:
"Fate has ordained that the men who went to the moon to explore in peace will stay on the moon to rest in peace.
These brave men, Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin, know that there is no hope for their recovery. But they also know that there is hope for mankind in their sacrifice.
These two men are laying down their lives in mankind's most noble goal: the search for truth and understanding. They will be mourned by their families and friends; they will be mourned by their nation; they will be mourned by the people of the world; they wil be mourned by a Mother Earth that dared send two of her sons into the unknown.
In their exploration, they stirred the people of the world to feel as one; in their sacrifice, they bind more tightly the brotherhood of man.
In ancient days, men looked at stars and saw their heroes in the constellations. In modern times, we do much the same, but our heroes are epic men of flesh and blood.
Others will follow, and surely find their way home. Man's search will not be denied. But these men were the first, and they will remain the foremost in our hearts.
For every human being who looks up at the moon in the nights to come will know that there is some corner of another world that is forever mankind."
The address was never used, and it's unclear if Nixon himself ever knew of its existence until well afterward. The astronauts, however, did learn of it. In 1999, in celebration of the 30th anniversary of the successful moon landing, the late Tim Russert had Aldrin, Armstrong, and Collins on Meet the Press and read the statement to them.
Bonus Fact: Eisenhower's Unread D-Day Speech
On June 6, 1944, Allied forces successfully pulled off the now-famous D-Day landing on Normandy Beach, France, a tide-turning victory in World War II. Had it failed, then-General Dwight D. Eisenhower was prepared to issue a statement, seen here, taking the blame for the defeat. Having a lot on his mind, he dated the draft incorrectly – it reads "July 5." Safire cited Eisenhower's decision to draft a worst-case-scenario statement as his reason to do the same for the moon landing.
(http://dlewis.net/nik-archives/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Eisenhower-D-Day-Failure-Message.gif)
On June 5, 1944, then-General Dwight D. Eisenhower jotted down the words above (larger image here; text below). He had written the speech in case the following day's D-Day invasion failed. (He got the date wrong; obviously, other things were on his mind.)
He threw the paper aside when it became clear that the invasion was a success, but a historically-aware assistant realized the value of the document and retained it.
The text of the unspoken address:
"Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops. My decision to attack at this time and place was based on the best information available. The troops, the air and the Navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do. If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt it is mine
alone."
SUPER BOWL XLVI - THIS SUNDAY... February 5, 2012 at Lucas Oil Stadium. Kickoff is scheduled for 6:30 ET on NBC.
What if I told you ....that I can recite every Quarterback in the NFL that won a Super Bowl in five minutes. Don't believe me?? Well, watch this!
Okay... let me see now... (ahem) getting ready.... (deep breath) okay, memory banks... here we go:
Bart Starr (Green Bay Packers, Super Bowl I & II), Joe Namath (New York Jets, Super Bowl III), Len Dawson (Kansas City Chiefs, Super Bowl IV), Johnny Unitas (Baltimore Colts, Super Bowl V), Roger Staubach (Dallas Cowboys, Super Bowl VI & XII), Bob Griese (Miami Dolphins, Super Bowl VII & VIII), Terry Bradshaw (Pittsburgh Steelers, Super Bowl IX, X, XIII & XIV), Ken Stabler (Oakland Raiders, Super Bowl XI), Jim Plunkett (Oakland/Los Angeles Raiders, Super Bowl XV & XVIII), Joe Montana (San Francisco 49ers, Super Bowl XVI, XIX, XXIII & XXIV), Joe Theismann (Washington Redskins, Super Bowl XVII), Jim McMahon (Chicago Bears, Super Bowl XX), Phil Simms (New York Giants, Super Bowl XXI), Doug Williams (Washington Redskins, Super Bowl XXII), Jeff Hostetler (New York Giants, Super Bowl XXV), Mark Rypien (Washington Redskins, Super Bowl XXVI), Troy Aikman (Dallas Cowboys, Super Bowl XXVII, XXVIII & XXX), Steve Young (San Francisco 49ers, Super Bowl XXIX), Brett Favre (Green Bay Packers, Super Bowl XXXI), John Elway (Denver Broncos, Super Bowl XXXII & XXXIII), Kurt Warner (St. Louis Rams, Super Bowl XXXIV), Trent Dilfer (Baltimore Ravens, Super Bowl XXXV), Tom Brady (New England Patriots, Super Bowl XXXVI, XXXVIII & XXVIX), Brad Johnson (Tampa Bay Buccaneers, Super Bowl XXXVII), Ben Roethlisberger (Pittsburgh Steelers, Super Bowl XL & XLIII), Peyton Manning (Indianapolis Colts, Super Bowl XLI), Eli Manning (New York Giants, Super Bowl XLII), Drew Brees (New Orleans Saints, Super Bowl XLIV), Aaron Rodgers (Green Bay Packers, Super Bowl XLV)
(whew.. gasp...) See, I told you and I did it in 4 min. & 53 sec.
Thank you... thank you very much...
...Warph
....that:
The length from your wrist to your elbow is the same as the length of your foot.
Your heart beats 101,000 times a day. During your lifetime it will beat about 3 billion times and pump about 400 million litres (800 million pints) of blood.
It is impossible to lick your elbow. Well, for almost everyone... but a few can.
Your mouth produces 1 litre (1.8 pints) of saliva a day.
The human head contains 22 bones.
On average, you breathe 23,000 times a day.
Breathing generates about 0.6g of CO2 every minute.
On average, people can hold their breath for about one minute. The world record is 21 minutes 29 seconds, by David
Merlini.
On average, you speak almost 5,000 words a day – although almost 80% of speaking is self-talk (talking to yourself).
Over the last 150 years the average height of people in industrialized nations increased by 10 cm (4 in).
In the 19th century, American men were the tallest in the world, averaging 1,71 metres (5'6″). Today, the average height for American men is 1,763 m (5 feet 9-and-half inches), compared to 1,815 m (5'10″) for Swedes, and 1,843 m (5'11″) for the Dutch, the tallest Caucasians.
The tallest nation in the world is the Watusis of Burundi: 1.98 m (6 feet 6 inches) tall.
If the amount of water in your body is reduced by just 1%, you'll feel thirsty.
It is impossible to sneeze and keep one's eyes open at the same time.
55% of people yawn within 5 minutes of seeing someone else yawn.
Hippocrates, the Father of Medicine, suggested that a woman could enlarge her bust line by singing loudly and often.
A person can live without food for about a month, but only about a week without water.
You'll drink about 75,000 litres (20,000 gallons) of water in your lifetime.
After a certain period of growth, hair becomes dormant. That means that it is attached to the hair follicle until replaced
by new hair.
Hair on the head grows for between two and six years before being replaced. In the case of baldness, the dormant hair was not replaced with new hair.
Men loose about 40 hairs a day. Women loose about 70 hairs a day.
In the Middle Ages the length from the tip of the middle finger to the elbow was called an ell.
A person remains conscious for eight seconds after being decapitated.
The first successful human sex change took place in 1950 when Danish doctor Christian Hamburger operated on New Yorker George Jorgensen, who became Christine Jorgensen.
The muscle that lets your eye blink is the fastest muscle in your body. It allows you to blink 5 times a second.
On average, you blink 15 000 times a day. Women blink twice as much as men.
A typical athlete's heart churns out 25 to 30 litres (up to 8 gallons) of blood per minute.
24 of the known 118 elements are found in your body – see What the average human body contains
We have four basic tastes plus umami. The salt and sweet taste buds are at the tip of the tongue, bitter at the base, and sour along the sides; umami is a mixture of tastes sensed along the center of the tongue.
Not all our taste buds are on our tongue; about 10% are on the palette and the cheeks.
Unless food is mixed with saliva you cannot taste it.
The liver is the largest of the body's internal organs. The skin is the body's largest organ.
On average a hiccup lasts 5 minutes.
Fingernails grow nearly 4 times faster than toenails.
Your middle fingernail grows the fastest.
Your finger nails grow at 1 nanometre per second (0.000 000 001 m/s). Your hair grows at 4 nanometres per second (0.000 000 004 m/s).
It takes about 3 months for the transplanted hair to start growing again.
About 13% of people are left-handed. Up from 11% in the past.
In 1900, a person could expect to live to be 47. Today, the average life expectancy for men and women in developed countries is longer than 70 years.
A newborn baby's head accounts for one-quarter of its weight.
King Henry I, who ruled in the England in the 12th century, standardized the yard as the distance from the thumb of his outstretched arm to his nose.
The bones in your body are not white – they range in color from beige to light brown. The bones you see in museums are white because they have been boiled and cleaned.
Our eyes are always the same size from birth.
Every person has a unique tongue print.
If all your DNA is stretched out, it would reach to the moon 6,000 times.
Approximately two-thirds of a person's body weight is water. Blood is 92% water. The brain is 75% water and muscles are 75% water.
The colored part of the eye is called the iris. Behind the iris is the soft, rubbery lens which focuses the light on to a layer, called the retina, in the back of the eye. The retina contains about 125 million rods and 7 million cones. The rods pick up shades of gray and help us see in dim light. The cones work best in bright light to pick up colors.
We actually do not see with our eyes – we see with our brains. The eyes basically are the cameras of the brain.
....that in 1964, a fireman named Jim Templeton took his daughter on an outing to Burgh Marsh in England. According to Templeton, they were alone that day save for a handful of cows and sheep in a nearby pasture. He took a few photos during the outing. You might not recall the days before digital photography, but it used to be that you would to take your rolls of exposed film to a developer and wait for them to be returned.
Templeton did just that. When he picked up the finished photos, the developer commented, "that would have been a real nice photo of Elizabeth if that man hadn't been standing back there." Templeton didn't understand what that was supposed to mean until he saw the picture.
"The Strange Case of the Solway Firth Spaceman"
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_-QSV9Acyf50/TBkU89dYHVI/AAAAAAAAAFg/hTXlk0eMmEA/s320/SolwayfirthSpaceman.jpg)
They saw no one else around in the entirety of the marsh, but the Templetons somehow caught the image of a man in what can only be described as a spacesuit, lurking about. Needless to say, Jim Templeton was disturbed about the proximity of this hitherto unseen "spaceman" so close to his little girl.
He describes his next course of action:
"I took the picture to the police in Carlisle who, after many doubts, examined it and stated there was nothing suspicious about it. The local newspaper, the Cumberland News, picked up the story and within hours it was all over the world. The picture is certainly not a fake, and I am as bemused as anyone else as to how this image appeared in the background."
After the publication of the photo in the newspaper, Templeton claims that two men showed up at his home. He described them as being dressed in what is now known as the stereotypical "Men In Black" look. They claimed to be agents of the British government but refused to produce any identification. They referred to themselves only as "#9" and "#10." They drove Templeton to the area of the marsh where the photograph was taken and asked him to describe the day to them, paying particular attention to weather conditions and "the behavior of area birds." That done, the two MIBs insisted that Templeton merely photographed a passerby. When Templeton continued to express disagreement with this assertion, the MIBs grew noticeably angry and drove off...leaving Templeton in the marsh with nothing but a bewildered feeling and a five mile walk home.
It gets weirder. There was a factory in the area by the marsh. This factory built, among other things, rockets and missiles. One of the models manufactured there was the Blue Streak missile. When this missile was going through tests at the Woomera Test Range in Australia, one launch had to be aborted when two strange figures appeared on the otherwise deserted firing range. When technicians at the test site later saw Templeton's photograph in an Australian newspaper, they recognized the "spaceman" as having the exact same size and appearance as the suited figures they sighted on the test range.
To this day, the Templeton photo remains unexplained.
So what was it? Who was it? This was long before the time of Photoshop, so that lends credibility. What's more, the Kodak Camera Company examined the film and pronounced it to be authentic not tampered with. Could this all be an elaborate hoax on the part of Jim Templeton? After all, we have only his word about there being no one else being at the marsh that day as well as for the visit from the MIBs. But if it was his own concoction, what did he gain from it? A bit of fame that was short-lived. Any monetary gain he had was slim if not non-existent. If anything, he probably had to endure more ridicule than benefit. Then there is the added weirdness of the Australian missile test.
So what are we dealing with here? A few UFO researchers were quick to claim this as an alien visitation. Not so fast, say I. The appearance of the spaceman flies in the face of the more common descriptions of aliens and that really is all we have to go on.
I'm beginning to wonder if we're being visited by time travelers. :-\
....that Madame Delphine Lalaurie: "The Evil Socialite"
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/b/b5/Lizzie_borden.jpg/220px-Lizzie_borden.jpg)was born Marie Delphine Macarty, circa 1775 to Louis Barthelemy McCarty and Vevue McCarty, prominent members of the New Orleans community. On June 12th, 1825, Marie Delphine Macarty married her third husband (the previous two had died), to Dr. Leonard Louis Lalaurie, a prominent dentist. In 1832, Dr. Lalaurie and his wife Delphine purchased the house at 1140 Rue Royale from another prominent member of New Orleans society, Edmond Soniet du Fossat who reportedly had the house constructed for the Lalaurie's. Immediately Delphine Lalaurie began decorating the home with elaborate furnishings. Costly furniture, elaborate paintings by well known artists of the day amongst other fine appointments. Soon thereafter, weekly parties were held at the Lalaurie Mansion, where the most prominent citizens of New Orleans would attend, including a judge, Judge Caponage, a very dear friend of the Lalauries.
Life in the Mansion
Although she would throw lavish parties with guest lists consisting of some of the most prominent people in the city, the manner in which Delphine LaLaurie tortured her slaves is probably the most widely known of the French Quarter's macabre tales. In 1833, after several neighbors allegedly saw her cowhiding a young servant girl in the mansion's courtyard, rumors began to spread around town that LaLaurie treated her servants viciously. According to one tale, a young slave girl was brushing LaLaurie's hair in the upstairs bedroom when the comb hit a snag in her mistress's hair, enraging LaLaurie.
LaLaurie whipped the 12-year-old slave girl, who tried to escape but fell to her death from a balcony overlooking the courtyard. The girl was quickly brought into the LaLaurie Mansion, but not before being observed by neighbors, who filed a complaint. The neighbors later asserted that the young girl was buried under a tree in the yard.
The legalities of the situation were handled by Judge Jean Francois Canonge, a friend of the LaLauries, who had visited the house on a previous occasion concerning the welfare of the LaLaurie servants. The LaLaurie slaves were confiscated and put up for auction, and the LaLauries were fined $500. Some of the LaLaurie relatives arranged to buy the slaves back and quickly returned them to her.
The Attrocities
On April 10, 1834, during another party, a fire broke out in the kitchen of the mansion. The kitchen — as was the norm in Spanish mansions — was separate from the home and located over the carriageway building across the courtyard. The firemen entered the building through the courtyard. To their surprise, there were two slaves chained to the stove in the kitchen. It appeared as though the slaves had set the fire themselves in order to attract attention. The fire itself was soon subdued. It was then that the real horror of what had happened in the mansion became apparent.
Published on 11 April, 1834, the New Orleans newspaper, The Bee, described how, "Upon entering the apartments the most appalling spectacle met their eyes. Several slaves more or less horribly mutilated were seen suspended from the neck, with their limbs apparently stretched and torn from one extremity to the other . . . the slaves belonged to a woman cast as demon, and they had merely been kept alive to prolong their suffering." It was said that slaves had had their bones broken and their bodies re-shaped, their lips sewn together, that women had been found nailed to the floor, that crude attempts at sex change operations had taken place, and that buckets full of body parts and gore had been found – a Grand Guignol Horror! Surviving slaves later described how they trembled with fear at the prospect of being taken to the attic, because no one ever re-emerged from the attic.
LaLaurie escaped by horse and carriage to Bayou St. John, where she allegedly paid the captain of a schooner to carry her across to Mandeville or Covington. Many claimed they escaped to Paris. Others say they remained on the outskirts of New Orleans. [Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Delphine_lalaurie ]
Her Death
Several different accounts of the death of Delphine LaLaurie are given. One report said she was killed by a wild boar in a hunting accident in France. Another story, as reported in The Daily Picayune of March 1892, insisted she died among friends and family in Paris.
(http://listverse.files.wordpress.com/2012/01/chad2.jpg?w=550&h=359)
...that in 2007, a series of photographs surfaced on the Internet that shows a bizarre aircraft hovering in different areas of California. According to various accounts, the object was almost completely silent and moved very smoothly. It was witnessed moving slowly until it took off in the blink of an eye. In April, May and June of 2007, the object was photographed in Lake Tahoe, Capitola, and Big Basin, California. Each account is strange, but the pictures are yet to be authenticated by any type of authority and could be fabricated.
What's the largest living organism?
The elephant? The blue whale? The T-Rex? No. The largest ever living organism is a mushroom. And not even a particularly rare one. The Armillaria ostoyae or 'Honey fungus' is very common, and is probably in your garden as we speak. However, lets hope it doesn't grow as large as the largest ever recorded specimen, in Malheur National forest, in Oregon. It covers 2,200 acres (890 hectares)!! And is between 2,000 and 8,000 years old!! The majority of the organism is under ground, in the form of a massive mat of tentacle-like mycelia (the mushroom's equivalent of roots). The giant honey fungus was originally thought to grow in different clusters around the forest, but researches have confirmed it is in fact one very, very large single organism!
So, when someone asks you,"What's the largest living organism? ... you can tell them that it is a Mushroom.
http://www.extremescience.com/biggest-living-thing.htm
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
What is the number of the Devil?
616. For 2000 years, 666 has been the number of the dreaded anti-Christ. An unlucky number for many, even the European parliament leaves seat number 666 vacant. The number is from the book of Revelation, the last book of the Christian Bible.
However, in 2005, a translation of the very earliest known copy of the book of revelation clearly shows it to be 616, not 666! The 1,700 year old copy was recovered from the city of Oxyrhynchus, in Egypt, and deciphered by a palaeographical research team from the University Of Birmingham, UK. The team was led by Professor David Parker.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Number_of_the_Beast
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
How many senses do you have?
At least nine. The five we all know about: Sight, hearing, taste, smell and touch, were first proposed by Aristotle, but there are now four more which are agreed among scientists to be official senses, these are:
1. Thermoception – the sense of heat (or it's absence) on our skin,
2. Equilibrioception – our sense of balance, which is determined by the fluid filled cavities in our inner ear.
3. Nociception – Pain.
4. Proprioception – or 'body awareness'. This is the conscious knowledge of where our body parts are without having to look, for example, close your eyes and waggle your big toe, you still know where it is in relation to the rest of you.
Some neurologists also argue that there are even more than 9. What about hunger? Or thirst? It's certainly a grey area.
http://www.psy.gla.ac.uk/~steve/best/senses.html
(http://dlewis.net/nik-archives/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/Coca-Cola-Coupon.jpg)
...that in 1886, Atlanta, Georgia passed a short-lived law prohibiting the sale and/or manufacture of alcohol. In response, a pharmacist named John Pemberton created a faux wine, mixing together fruit flavors with extracts from kola nuts (caffeine) and coca leaves (cocaine). He dispensed it via soda fountains — at the time, carbonated water was believed to have a medicinal benefit — and with that, Coca-Cola was born.
While the original Coke formula had a significant amount of cocaine in it, that was quickly stemmed and, by 1903 or thereabouts, eliminated from the recipe. This was done, in part, because the desired flavor can be extracted from the coca leaves, thereby removing the cocaine, setting the drug aside as a byproduct. But we do know that, to this day, Coca-Cola needs coca leaves to make its drinks; as a Coke exec told the New York Times, "Ingredients from the coca leaf are used, but there is no cocaine in it and it is all tightly overseen by regulatory authorities." http://www.nytimes.com/1988/07/01/business/how-coca-cola-obtains-its-coca.html
In fact, the United States (and most other nations) expressly prohibits the sale and trade of coca leaves. In order for Coca-Cola to continue to exist in its current form, the company has a special arrangement with the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) allowing it to import dried coca leaves from Peru (and to a lesser degree, from Bolivia) in huge quantities. The dried coca leaves make their way to a processing plant in Maywood, New Jersey, operated by the Stepan Corporation, a publicly traded chemicals company. The Stepan factory imports roughly 100 metric tons of the leaves each year, stripping the active ingredient — the cocaine — from them. The cocaine-free leaves are then shipped off to Coke to turn into syrup, and, ultimately, soda.
What does Stepan do with the cocaine? It goes to the Mallinckrodt Corporation, which creates a legal, topical anesthesia called cocaine hydrochloride. Cocaine hydrochloride is used to numb the lining of the mouth, nose, or throat, and requires a DEA order form to obtain.
Bonus fact: Coca-Cola's recipe contains a mystery flavoring, known as the "7X flavor." It is heavily guarded. In early 2011, This American Life broadcast an episode discussing a potential early recipe for the drink, but almost certainly not the one in use today. http://www.thisamericanlife.org/radio-archives/episode/427/original-recipe
(Coke denied that NPR had discovered the true formula. http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/02/16/bubbly-buzz-coca-cola-says-its-secret-recipe-is-still-a-secret/)
In that episode, Mark Pendergrast, author of "For God, Country, and Coca-Cola," an unauthorized history of the company (and beverage), told This American Life (via TIME) that "only two people know how to mix the 7x flavoring ingredient" and that "[t]hose two people never travel on the same plane in case it crashes; it's this carefully passed-on secret ritual and the formula is kept in a bank vault." http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/02/15/is-this-the-real-thing-coca-colas-secret-formula-discovered/
Double bonus!: The image above is a coupon for a free Coca-Cola. The coupon, which dates back to 1888, is believed to be the first coupon ever issued.
(Source) http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/08/110809-fingerprints-skin-disease-health-science-weird/
...that the condition that causes babies to be born without fingerprints, known as adermatoglyphia, has only appeared in four families in the world. One of those families agreed to partake in scientific research about the condition. In that family 9 of 16 people had no fingerprints. The researchers were able to isolate the gene that had the relevant mutation, SMARCAD1.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-QeF4D3j2QSw/TmpecJ6scSI/AAAAAAAABjE/U7SAj7VK8co/s1600/whorls.jpg)
This mutation has been labeled as "immigration-delay disease" because the lack of fingerprints makes it hard to cross borders. Other than the lack of fingerprints and less sweating, immigration-delay disease doesn't have any other side-effects.
Rig Veda, the oldest and perhaps most mystical text ever composed in India, says: "With deep respect, I bow to the sun, who travels 2,202 yojanas in half a nimesha." A yojana is about nine American miles; a nimesha is 16/75 of a second. 2,202 yojanas x 9 miles x 75/8 nimeshas = 185,794 m.
So it says that sunlight travels at 186,000 miles per second! In 1387 A. D. They know the correct figure for the speed of light. Yogis were using the mala to keep track of the number of mantras. It has 109 beads, 108+1 Guru Bead. Why so?:
1] The mala represents the ecliptic. It is divided into 27 equal sections called Nakshatras, and each of these into four equal sectors called paadas, or "steps," marking the 108 steps that the sun and moon take through heaven.
2] They stop at the 109th "guru bead," flip the mala and continue reciting backwards.
The guru bead represents the summer and winter solstices. Using a mala is a symbolic way of connecting ourselves with the cosmic cycles governing our universe. Yet there are another astronomical references to it:
1] The distance between the earth and the sun is approximately 108 times the sun's diameter. Distance between earth & sun is 149,597,890 km and diameter of sun is 1,392,000 km i.e. 107.45 times.
2] And the distance between the earth and the moon is 108 times the moon's diameter. Distance between earth & moon is 375,403km and moon diameter is 3,476 km i.e. 108 times.
3] The diameter of the sun is about 108 times the earth's diameter. Sun diameter is 1,392,000 km and Earth diameter at equator is 12756 km i.e. Sun is 109 times that of earth. That is why Gurumani is considered as of 109th.The invention of Zero:
The Zero was invented in India by Indian mathematicians dating as early as 5th century. They widely used it in calculations, astronomy and astrology. Zero was spread by Arabians to the Europe and there on it was spread all over. Before this, all Europeans used roman numerical which were difficult to calculate on as they were in the form of Symbols, lengthy and had limits.
New Math Multiplication Method:
Sorry, not into Sanscrit. I did that math the old fashioned way, much faster. :angel:
....that many of the items we use every day, like zippers and escalators, were once brand names. Even heroin, which no one should use any day, was a brand name. Here are some trademarked names that are often used as generic terms today:
1. You might think you're riding around on a Jet Ski, but if it's not made by Kawasaki Heavy Industries, it's just a personal watercraft.
2. Bubble Wrap is probably the greatest contribution made to our society by Sealed Air Corporation, which they rightly trademarked.
3. The term Onesies, referring to infant bodysuits, is owned by Gerber Childrenswear. According to their website, the trademark is aggressively enforced. (Twosies and Funzies also belong to Gerber.)
4. Jacuzzi is not only brand of hot tubs and bathtubs; they also make mattresses and toilets.
5. The Crockpot, a brand name for the slow cooker, was originally developed as a beanery appliance.
6. Fluffernutter is a registered trademark of the makers of Marshmallow Fluff, Durkee-Mower, Inc.
7, 8 & 9. Frisbee is currently owned by WHAM-O, but a legal battle to make this word and several others generic is underway. In 2010, Manley Toys Ltd. challenged WHAM-O, arguing that the terms Frisbee, Hula Hoop and Slip'n Slide have already become generic in the public lexicon. Personally, I think Ultimate Flying Disc sounds cooler than Ultimate Frisbee anyway.
10. Chapstick is a brand name of lip balm produced by Pfizer. In the event that you find yourself enjoying this product too much, websites dedicated to helping Chapstick addicts are available.
11. The perfect time to remind a friend or family member that Kleenex is a brand name for a tissue is right when they are desperately begging you to hand them one.
12. Ping-Pong was trademarked in 1901 as a brand of table tennis products named for the sound the ball makes when it hits the table.
13. On their website, Microsoft suggests that unless you are using their software, your PowerPoint is a "presentation graphics program."
14. When Q-tips were originally released, they were called Baby Gays. The name was changed to Q-tips—the "Q" standing for quality—in 1926. Although they have changed hands several times since then, Unilever owns the brand today.
15. Two hockey-player brothers designed Rollerblade inline skates from a pair of old roller skates in 1979. They were the only brand of inline skates until the mid-eighties, when several other companies emerged.
16. According to legend, Scotch tape earned its name when a frustrated customer told a 3M scientist to "take it back to your Scotch bosses and tell them to put more adhesive on it." Today, Scotch "Magic Tape" is only manufactured in one place in the world: Hutchinson, Minn.
17. The permanent marker was invented in 1956, but the Sharpie wasn't introduced until 1964. Today, the products are almost synonymous with one another.
18. In 1899, Pearle Wait sold his recipe for Jell-O to Orator Woodward for $450. In 1902, sales for the product were around $250,000. Today, the gelatin dessert is owned by Kraft.
19. Tupperware is a brand that got its name from its creator, Earle Silas Tupper.
20. George de Mastreal invented Velcro when he discovered that burrs stuck to matted dog fur. Today, it is the world's most prominent brand of hook and loop fasteners.
21. Weed Eater is owned by Husqvarna Outdoor Products.
22. Don't ask BIC what's in their line of correction fluid. The exact ingredients of Wite-out are confidential.
23. Johnson & Johnson manufactured gauze and adhesive tape separately until Earle Dickinson had the idea to combine them to create Band-Aids for his accident-prone wife.
24. The Zamboni is an ice resurfacer named after its inventor, Frank Zamboni.
25. TASER is a trademark of TASER International, and shouldn't technically be used as a verb. To be fair, "Don't hit me with that electroshock weapon, bro!" is probably hard to shout under duress. Bonus fact: TASER is an acronym. It stands for "Thomas A. Swift's Electric Rifle."
At one time all mechanical pencils were called eversharps after the first mechanical pencil, the Eversharp that came out around 1920.
Eversharp went out of business in the 1960s but the name did not stick to subsequent mechanical pencils.
Magic Markers, Zerox,Thermos bottle and yo-yo? ;)
Bonus Fact:
(http://dlewis.net/nik-archives/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/Pyrex-measuring-cup.jpg)
....that there is a war against Pyrex. Chances are, somewhere in your kitchen, you have a version of the measuring cup pictured above — if not multiples. Pyrex-brand measuring cups are incredibly common because they're made to withstand thermal shocks — that is, you can use one to measure hot water and, immediately after, cold water, and they won't likely break. Try that with a regular glass and you'll find it, in shards, all over the floor.
For decades, Pyrex was made of borosilicate glass, a special type of glass in which boron oxide is added to the mix. The added boron allows Pyrex to handle heat much better than typical glass, so Pyrex is commonly found in kitchens, laboratories, and in use with aquarium heaters (as the heaters are, necessarily, submerged in much cooler water). But in 1998, Corning, the company which made Pyrex, sold the brand to World Kitchen LLC. World Kitchen decided to stop the manufacture of borosilicate glass, and since then, Pyrex sold in the United States is made of tempered soda-lime glass, which does not handle heat as well as borosilicate glass does. (It may, however, be more resilient to drops.) In most cases that does not matter much, as tempered soda-lime glass is still pretty good at withstanding thermal shocks.
But it's not great. In 2010, Consumer Reports (as reported by its quasi-independent blog, Consumerist), tested some Pyrex and and found that taking the newer glass out of a hot oven and placing it on a wet granite countertop yielded poor results: the glass shattered almost instantly, and violently so. (There's a video at the Consumerist link). And as Popular Science demonstrated, super-heating a measuring cup (in their case, with a blowtorch) and then adding just a drop of water has a similar effect — shattered glass, everywhere. Test tubes in chemistry labs are still made of borosilicate glass to avoid this very problem.
Of course, there are few cases where one is going to expose a Pyrex measuring cup to such extreme temperatures, so, if you do have a soda-lime one in your kitchen (and you probably do), there is little reason to worry — your recipes are almost certainly safe. Even the restaurant and food services industries can use the newer version of Pyrex without much concern. But one industry was struck very hard by the switch: the crack cocaine trade. It turns out that turning cocaine into crack requires bringing the solution of water and powdered cocaine to a very high temperature and then rapidly cooling it. And for years, crack makers would use Pyrex — borosilicate glass ones, that is — to accomplish this step, successfully. The soda-lime glass alternatives cannot withstand the thermal shock.
As a result, the drug trade needed to find another way to obtain borosilicate glass. The unintended consequence of World Kitchen's switch? An uptick in theft from an unlikely place. As PopSci so eloquently notes, "[the crack-making] industry was forced to switch from measuring cups purchased at Walmart to test tubes and beakers stolen from labs."
Bonus Fact:
Fill a bowl with Wesson brand vegetable oil and dip a (borosilicate) Pyrex test tube in it — and the test tube will disappear, as seen in this video. What's going on? The oil and test tube have the same indices of refraction; that is, the speed of light passing through either medium is identical. As light is not refracted nor reflected as it passed from the oil to the test tube, the test tube seems to disappear before our very eyes.
....that contrary to popular belief, Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden not because they ate the forbidden fruit of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, but in order to prevent them from eating from the tree of life (both forbidden trees are in Genesis 2:9) which would have made them eternal. God doesn't like competition! Here is the verse (Genesis 3:22-23): "And he said: Behold Adam is become as one of us, knowing good and evil: now, therefore, lest perhaps he put forth his hand, and take also of the tree of life, and eat, and live for ever. [23] And the Lord God sent him out of the paradise of pleasure, to till the earth from which he was taken."
...that "God helps those who help themselves" – a wise and good quote that everyone knows is from the Bible. But, in fact, it isn't. It was a man, not a god who coined the well known (and overused) proverb. It was Benjamin Franklin in his Poor Richard's almanac.
....that the Bible does not condemn drinking alcohol (remember that Jesus' first public miracle was turning water into wine at a wedding party), or gambling and betting. The closest it comes to the latter is to recommend against get rich quick schemes (Ecclesiastes 5:10) and loving money excessively. Be sure to remember that next time you are sipping your wine at the local casino. Addendum: "The Bible does NOT condemn the drinking of alcohol – that misconception is a holdover from Calvinistic and Purtanical Prtotestantism – which worked its way into Methodism etc; What the Bible DOES say is "Be not DRUNK of the fruit of the vine" – at the same time many gainsayers will claim that the water was turned into grape juice – but the original Gospels clearly use a word which translates from the original Greek as WINE a "fermented grape beverage". [addendum courtesy of carra 23]. Traditionally drunk means "falling down drunk" – in other words, the loss of the will to control oneself.
....that the "Rapture" is not in the Bible! Despite being believed by a large number of protestants (many of whom also believe that only that which is in the Bible can be true) it was actually invented in the 1600s by one Cotton Mather – otherwise famous for murdering women by strangling them to death (by hanging) in the Salem witch trials. The term in the Bible commonly mistranslated to the word "rapture" actually comes from the Greek ἁρπάζω (harpazo) which actually means "caught up" or "taken away" and it refers to one person only (Philip).
This picture is of a green-marked killer T cell from the body's immune system attacking a Cancer Cell under a Microscope:
(http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/images/i/1567/i02/killer-t-cell.jpg?1330614300)
This video below is of a green-marked killer T cell from the body's immune system attacking a cancer cell. The body's killer T cells, also called Cytotoxic cells, identify and destroy infected or cancerous cells without harming healthy cells nearby. The T cell does this by recognizing the infected cell and releasing several toxins that enter the target cell and lead to cell death. Cambridge Institute for Medical Research student Alex Ritter recorded this video using an electron microscope and sped it up 92 times:Uploaded by CambridgeUniversity on Feb 3, 2012
In this video we see a killer T cell of the immune system attacking a cancer cell.
Under the Microscope is a collection of videos that show glimpses of the natural and man-made world in stunning close-up. They are released every Monday and Thursday for the next few weeks and you can see them here: http://bit.ly/A6bwCE
Professor Gillian Griffiths:
"Cells of the immune system protect the body against pathogens. If cells in our bodies are infected by viruses, or become cancerous, then killer cells of the immune system identify and destroy the affected cells. Cytotoxic T cells are very precise and efficient killers. They are able to destroy infected or cancerous cells, without destroying healthy cells surrounding them. The Wellcome Trust funded laboratory of Professor Gillian Griffiths, at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research, investigates just how this is accomplished. By understanding how this works, we can develop ways to control killer cells. This will allow us to find ways to improve cancer therapies, and ameliorate autoimmune diseases caused when killer cells run amok and attack healthy cells in our bodies."
Cytotoxic T cells are just 10 microns in length: approximately one-tenth the width of a human hair. These movies are 92 times real time.
The original footage shown was made by Alex Ritter, a PhD student on the NIH-OxCam programme, in the laboratory of Professor Gillian Griffiths at the Cambridge Institute for Medical Research and the Department of Medicine of the Clinical School of the University of Cambridge. The images were acquired using an Andor Revolution spinning disk system with an Olympus microscope. Professor Griffiths is a Wellcome Trust Principal Research Fellow.
Links for more information:
http://www.cimr.cam.ac.uk
http://www.cimr.cam.ac.uk/investigators/griffiths/index.html
http://www.immunology.cam.ac.uk/about
Music by Intercontinental Music Lab
http://www.intercontinentalmusiclab.com
Find more Cambridge research here:
http://www.cam.ac.uk/research
Great footage! Thanks.
Mayan Apocalypse 12-21-2012 - Just Another Day (According To NASA) ....that Scientists at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory have put out a new video to address false claims about the "Mayan apocalypse," a non-event that some people believe will bring the world to an end on Dec. 21.
In the video, which was posted online Wednesday (Mar. 7), Don Yeomans, head of the Near-Earth Objects Program Office at NASA/JPL, explains away many of the most frequently cited doomsday scenarios.Addressing the belief that the calendar used by the ancient Mayan civilization comes to a sudden end in December 2012, and that this will coincide with a cataclysmic, world-ending event, Yeomans said: "Their calendar does not end on December 21, 2012; it's just the end of the cycle and the beginning of a new one. It's just like on December 31, our calendar comes to an end, but a new calendar begins on January 1."
Yeomans also attempted to allay fears regarding potential causes of a Mayan apocalypse, including Nibiru, an imaginary planet that some people think is swinging in from the outer solar system just in time to collide with Earth in December. "This enormous planet is supposed to be coming toward Earth, but if it were, we would have seen it long ago. And if it were invisible somehow, we would have seen the [gravitational] effects of this planet on neighboring planets. Thousands of astronomers who scan the sky on a daily basis have not seen this," he said.
He added that there is zero possibility of a NASA cover-up. "Can you imagine thousands of astronomers who observe the skies on a daily basis keeping the same secret from the public for several years?"
As for solar flares, Yeomans explained that these do exist — in fact, two massive solar flares erupted just days ago, sending bursts of solar radiation into space — but they are part of the sun's normal 11-year cycle. Radiation from solar flares can damage orbiting satellites, but Earth's magnetosphere shields its inhabitants from the blasts, and the flares are not a health concern.
"Then we have planetary alignments," Yeomans said. Some doomsayers believe the other planets and the sun will align with the Earth in December and cause catastrophic tidal effects. "Well, first of all, there are no planetary alignments in December of 2012, and even if there were, there are no tidal effects on the Earth as a result. The only two bodies in the solar system that can affect the Earth's tides are the moon, which is very close, and the sun, which is massive and also fairly close. But the other planets have a negligible effect on the Earth."
(Incidentally, it is perfectly normal for the sun and moon to align, bolstering each other's gravitational pulls on Earth and generating higher-than-normal ocean tides. This happens twice each month.)
Addressing the claim that Earth's axes are going to shift on Dec. 21, 2012, he said: "The rotation axis can't shift because the orbit of the moon around the Earth stabilizes it and doesn't allow it to shift." He noted that the magnetic field does shift every half-million years or so, but "there's no evidence it's going to happen in December, and even if it were to be shifting, it takes thousands of years to do so. And even if it did shift, it's not going to cause a problem on the Earth apart from the fact that we're going to have to recalibrate our compasses."
Invoking the astronomer Carl Sagan's famous maxim, he said: "Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. Since the beginning of time there have been literally hundreds of thousands of predictions for the end of the world, and we're still here."[/color][/font][/size]
"El Castillo," a Mayan temple on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, with a mysterious "light beam" emerging from the top. (Picture credit: Hector Siliezar)
(http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/images/i/1556/i02/mayan-light-beam.png?1330380916)
When Hector Siliezar visited the ancient Mayan city of Chichen Itza with his wife and kids in 2009, he snapped three iPhone photos of El Castillo, a pyramid that once served as a sacred temple to the Mayan god Kukulkan. A thunderstorm was brewing near the temple, and Siliezar was trying to capture lightning crackling dramatically over the ruins.
In the first two images, dark clouds loom above the pyramid, but nothing is amiss. However, in the third photo, a powerful beam of light appears to shoot up from the pyramid toward the heavens, and a thunderbolt flashes in the background.
Siliezar, who recently shared his photographs with occult investigators, told Earthfiles.com that he and his family didn't see the light beam in person; it appeared only on camera. "It was amazing!" he said. He showed the iPhone photo to his fellow tourists. "No one, not even the tour guide, had ever seen anything like it before."
The photo has surfaced on several Mayan doomsday discussion forums. But was the light beam a sign from the gods... a warning about Dec. 21, 2012, the date that marks the end of the Mayan calendar cycle, and when some people fear the world will end? Or is it simply the result of an iPhone glitch?
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-pyuXDkPVN_Y/T1kTJ562RvI/AAAAAAACRQ8/C81oE1jJHlM/s320/Asteroid-2012-Da14.jpg)
....that Asteroid 2012 DA14 is making headlines this week, despite the fact that the "incoming" space rock, as it has been described, definitely won't hit Earth.
The 150-foot-wide asteroid will pass within 17,000 miles (27,000 kilometers) of us next February 2013. That's nearer than the orbits of some geosynchronous satellites, and the closest shave of a mid-size asteroid ever predicted before the flyby has actually occurred. But even so, NASA assures the world that there is no chance of 2012 DA14 hitting Earth next year. Zero, zip, zilch.
Why, then, all the terror about this unthreatening space rock? And why the recent doom and gloom about another asteroid, called 2011 AG5 — a football-field-size rock that NASA says will almost certainly not collide with the planet in 2040? Don Yeomans, head of the Near-Earth Object Observations Program at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory, blames the upsurge in asteroid panic on two main factors.
"One problem is that the Internet is wide open to anyone to say anything," Yeomans said. In the past, claims about asteroids were written up by scientists and submitted to peer-reviewed journals, a critical process that "would filter out nonsense," he said. "If something was published, it was reliable."
But today, hundreds of scary blurbs about the latest asteroid get written and posted to blogs and tabloid-like sites before NASA scientists can vet the claim and publish their official, less-terrifying statement regarding the asteroid's trajectory. "In the case of this asteroid, you get hundreds of hits on the Internet, and in the case of the 2012 [Mayan calendar] business, millions of hits suggesting disaster. And you get a few folks in the media and at NASA who put out the truth. But people go online and see millions about disasters and a few saying 'no disaster' and they think, well, the majority of these say I should be worried," Yeomans said.
The other half of the problem is that many people do not know how to judge the validity of the pseudo-scientific information they read. "There are millions of people out there who have not been trained in the scientific method, and don't understand that evidence is critical for supporting any new idea — especially any dramatic departure from the current state," he said.
In psychology, this is known as the Dunning-Kruger effect. People who lack knowledge in a given area, such as science, are unable to accurately assess their own abilities in that area, and so they aren't aware that they are coming to blatantly false conclusions. David Dunning, a psychologist at Cornell University who first characterized the phenomenon, recently explained, "Many people don't have training in science, and so they may very well misunderstand the science. But because they don't have the knowledge to evaluate it, they don't realize how off their evaluations might be."
There is no obvious remedy for the one-two punch of widespread misinformation and a scarcity of mental tools for evaluating it, but Yeomans said scientists need to do a better job engaging with the public. He and his group regularly address people's fears regarding near-Earth asteroids by making statements and issuing news releases. "The hope is that people will understand that we are the more trusted sources of information," he said.
And in the case of 2012 DA14, the information is this: There is zero chance of the asteroid hitting Earth next year. The chance of a collision is slightly higher — 1 in 80,000 — when it swings past in 2020, but radar and optical observations of the space rock during next year's flyby will help the scientists nail down its trajectory, which will in all likelihood reduce the 2020 risk estimate to zero.
There are better things to worry about even than the absolute worst-case scenario. If observations next year show that current estimates are way off and the asteroid and Earth are on track to collide in 2020, then NASA would try to deflect it by bumping it with a space probe sometime before then — a move Yeomans says is doable. Even if that failed, any Earthbound asteroid has a 70 percent chance of plunging into the ocean, and a higher chance still of impacting onlyan ocean or an unoccupied land region.
An asteroid this size strikes Earth every 700 years or so, Yeomans said. Humanity has survived innumerable such events.
...that for many years it has been a question that music historians have been fighting over for decades:
What was the first rock 'n' roll song? (http://ts1.mm.bing.net/images/thumbnail.aspx?q=4858720913130088&id=71a693dbe54bfec3fcbed812fd36c174&url=http%3a%2f%2fbingoblog.mailbingo.com%2fwp-content%2fuploads%2f2008%2f10%2frecord.jpg)
"That's All Right, Mama" – Arthur "Big Boy" Crudup (1946)
In 1940, Arthur Crudup was reportedly living in a packing crate near an L train station in Chicago, playing songs on the street for tips. Things got better for him as the decade went on, and he landed a recording contract that led to a career as a well-known blues singer and songwriter. In 1946, Crudup recorded his song "That's All Right, Mama." Though it wasn't a hit at the time, it stands as a convincing front-runner for rock 'n' roll's ground zero. With a tight combo of guitar, upright bass and drums bashing out accompaniment behind Crudup's raw, powerful voice, it sounds a decade ahead of its time. There's even a wild guitar solo, prefaced by Crudup shouting, "Yeah, man." Very rock 'n' roll. And the last thirty seconds of the record pick up steam with the kind of unhinged energy that would become an essential element of all great rock records.
Eight years later, a 19-year old Elvis Presley did a cover record of it for his first single. Soon, Crudup was being called "the Father of Rock 'n' Roll.
Is this the ONE:
...or was it this one from 1948:
"Good Rockin' Tonight" – Wynonie Harris (1948)
"Well, I heard the news, there's good rockin' tonight. . ." How's that for an opening line that could double as a rallying call for rock 'n' roll.
This song was written and recorded in 1947 by R & B artist Roy Brown. Brown had originally offered the tune to raspy-voiced singer Wynonie "Mr. Blues" Harris, but Harris turned it down. After Brown had a hit with it, Harris reconsidered, cutting a version that upped the ante. Bouncing boogie woogie piano, honking tenor sax, drums and handclaps accenting the backbeat, and Harris shouting "Hoy, hoy, hoy!" – it all adds up to a raucous glimpse into the future.
Again, a young Elvis Presley was listening. In 1954, he released his version of the song. He was also watching. Harris's stage moves included pelvic jabs, lip curls and evangelical wavings of his arms and hands. All would become part of Elvis's stage persona.
The first time I heard a Rock & Roll song was in May 1956. I was a senior in high school when our English teacher (Miss Martin, who was fresh out of college and was teaching her first year) brought a record to class one day of Elvis singing "Heartbreak Hotel." Needless to say, the whole class went nuts. We wore it out by graduation. Miss Martin? Oh yeah, baby! All the guys were in love with her, me included... dead ringer for Audrey Hepburn.
...Warph
It was released as a single on January 27, 1956, Elvis Presley's first on his new record label RCA Victor. His first number-one pop record, "Heartbreak Hotel" topped Billboard's Top 100 chart, became his first million-seller, and was the best-selling single of 1956. It was written by Tommy Durden and Mae Boren Axton.
The lyrics were based on a newspaper article about the suicide of a lonely man who jumped from a hotel window. Axton subsequently presented the song to Presley in November 1955 at a country music convention in Nashville. Presley agreed to record it, and did so on January 10, 1956 in a session that featured his band, The Blue Moon Boys, as well as guitarist Chet Atkins and pianist Floyd Cramer.
The single topped Billboard's Top 100 chart for seven weeks, was number one on the Country and Western chart and reached number five on the R&B chart, becoming Presley's first million-seller, and the best-selling single of 1956. It would eventually be certified double platinum by the Recording Industry Association of America. Presley had first performed "Heartbreak Hotel" during a live show in December 1955 during a tour of the Louisiana Hayride, but the song gained strong popularity after his appearance on Stage Show in March 1956. It became a staple of Presley's repertoire in live appearances, last performed by him on May 29, 1977 at the Civic Center in Baltimore, Maryland.
In 1995 "Heartbreak Hotel" was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame, and in 2004 Rolling Stone magazine named it one of the "500 Greatest Songs of All Time". That year it was also included in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's "500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll". A rock and roll standard, since its original release "Heartbreak Hotel" has been covered by several rock and pop acts, including Willie Nelson and Leon Russell, who recorded a duet version that topped the Country charts in 1979. (Wikipedia)[/font][/size]
....that these are actual toilet signs:
(http://www.thatsreallyamazing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Funny-Toilet-Signs-Amazing-Facts1.jpg)
(http://thatsreallyamazing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Funny-Toilet-Signs-Amazing-Facts4.jpg)
(http://thatsreallyamazing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Funny-Toilet-Signs-Amazing-Facts5.jpg)
(http://thatsreallyamazing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Funny-Toilet-Signs-Amazing-Facts7.jpg)
Earths Clock Of Life
(http://thatsreallyamazing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Earths-clock-of-life_amazing_facts.jpg)
....that an illustration from "The Life and Death of Planet Earth" shows the authors' view of the Earth's clock of life. (Image credit: Donald Brownlee/Peter Ward)
In its 4.5 billion years, Earth has evolved from its hot, violent birth to the celebrated watery blue planet that stands out in pictures from space. But in a new book, two noted University of Washington astrobiologists say the planet already has begun the long process of devolving into a burned-out cinder, eventually to be swallowed by the sun.
By their reckoning, Earth's "day in the sun" has reached 4:30 a.m., corresponding to its 4.5 billion-year age. By 5 a.m., the 1 billion-year reign of animals and plants will come to an end. At 8 a.m. the oceans will vaporize. At noon – after 12 billion years – the ever-expanding sun, transformed into a red giant, will engulf the planet, melting away any evidence it ever existed and sending molecules and atoms that once were Earth floating off into space.
"The disappearance of our planet is still 7.5 billion years away, but people really should consider the fate of our world and have a realistic understanding of where we are going," said UW astrophysicist Donald Brownlee. "We live in a fabulous place at a fabulous time. It's a healthy thing for people to realize what a treasure this is in space and time, and fully appreciate and protect their environment as much as possible."
In "The Life and Death of Planet Earth," Brownlee and UW paleontologist Peter Ward use current scientific understanding of planets and stars, as well as the parameters of life, to provide a glimpse of the second half of life on Earth and what comes after.
.....that sleep positions may determine your personality?
(http://www.thatsreallyamazing.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Sleep-Positions-Infographic-facts.jpg)
Warning essay ahead. Read at your own risk.
Did you know that people with Antisocial Personality Disorders, also know as Sociopaths, can be hard to detect because they can be very disarmingly charming and can hide behind that false personality until they think they have made a connection with certain kinds of open accepting people and then will spring a trap?
They can be very narcissistic and are drawn to the internet because they can easily find people who will stoke them and tell them how great they are and will be encouraged by those who feel sorry for their hardships.
They will totally buffalo people for a very long time, but when people finally start to figure out there is something really wrong, they will defend themselves at all costs and may even try to convince the person they THEY are one one with the problem.
They often have run ins with authority of one kind or another; of course the authority figure is always wrong.They will try to avoid answering direct questions and will usually bounce the question back to the questioner.
They are master manipulators and will often choose a subject they are unhappy about and return to it over and over and over, going over the same information as if eventually they will get a different result and will try to line up followers to shore up their complaint. They need that feeling of power.
They have no consideration for the rights of others, can be very arrogant, and never feel shame or remorse for the emotional pain or upset they cause people. Usually they are satisfied that the other person had it coming, so they are justified in whatever and however they say hurtful things.
They are never wrong. In fact they will accuse the person who is starting to see through them with all manner of wrong doing to shift the concern away from themselves. They will not hesitate to resort to outright lies and attempts at defamation of character, or worse, if they think anybody has figured them out. Eventually they will set up an exit plan and will move on the next victim, leaving all manner of human wreckage behind.
Unfortunately a dear child hood friend married one of these people, who charmed her whole family until they married.Then he started with all manner of nastiness. He even threw her down the steps when she was pregnant with their only child. She left him and he went to court to have HER declared an unfit mother and tried to take the daughter. He managed to get unsupervised visitations and the daughter twice tried to commit suicide while with him. He eventually married someone else and moved away. I hope he didn't kill her. The daughter is grown now and has finally been convinced that he was the problem, not she or her mother. She has nothing to do with him.
;D I would say that we have at least two who fit this description here on the Forum. Interesting...And a bit scary, especially given that they have a tendency to influence at least two others and God knows how many others.
Kinda along those lines.....................a true story.......
There is a brother and sister. The sister is older by 22 months. She is the oldest of three children with the brother second and a much younger sister. The brother left home as soon as he was 18, leaving a domineering mother and striking out on his own because he felt confident enough in himself that he didn't need anyone but him. He tried college but that didn't work for him so he got a good job and was able to support himself without anybody's help.
He was close to his older sister because of the closeness of their ages, but he knew in his heart and mind that he was superior in intelligence and ability to take care of himself. This is not to mean that he disliked his sister just that he felt he didn't need her to help him. Having a good job and being single he bought presents, expensive presents, for both his sisters on their birthdays and at Christmas. His suggestions of what brands of which items were the best were thrust upon his sisters as being the only kind to buy. His suggestions of places to go or places to eat were not up for discussion. He became overbearing through the years. This led to occasional "fallouts" that lasted for months without them speaking to each other. They communicated important issues through other family members.
His sister married and had children and he was delighted with them. He showered them with expensive gifts like he did his sisters. He arranged vacations for them to go with him to places he wanted to go. You couldn't ask for a better uncle. Then the sister's children had children and he was overjoyed and lavished them with gifts and clothes. He attended family gatherings on holidays and usually had to be the center of attention at some point during the gathering. Once he had given his gifts and eaten some food, he would say goodbye and leave, usually way earlier than the others.
He became invincible in his mind. As he and his sister approached their sixties, he was almost impossible to be around because of his "holier than thou" attitude. But his family put up with him because he was a member of the family and could be quite impossible to be around if you did or said something he didn't agree with. He walked tall and straight and proud, taking on his daily routine and the problems that arose with ease. Nobody or anything could be as good as he was.
Then, he had another "fallout" with his sister and would not call her. Many months went by and she was just as stubborn as he was and did not call him either. Again, communication was through other members of the family. There would be family gatherings and he would attend. He would be pleasant and dote on the nieces and nephews and their children. But brother and sister did not talk to each other. In short, he would make his appearance, get the attention he required and leave early as usual. As far as he was concerned, his world was perfect and nobody could change that. Nothing could bring him down. He never married mostly because he didn't want to be committed to someone else. There was even some speculation as to his gender preference, but was kept hush hush.
He was secretive, not even telling his family exactly where he lived. But they knew. They had found out, but were afraid to confront him not wanting to drive him even farther away. He never discussed anything about himself such as health or finances, etc. Of course, they knew where he worked. He was still with the same employer he started with after high school, over 40 years on the job.
Then one day, his world crashed. He was diagnosed with cancer. All of a sudden here was a problem that scared him, scared him because things like that didn't happen to someone as good as he was. But there it was.......
With a lot of courage and and realization that this was a problem he could not handle by himself, he went to his sister. He showed up at her house one day and they talked. He told her about the cancer, talking like a brother would to an older sister. He was humble. He was scared. All of a sudden, he needed someone. And, his sister was the only person he could turn to for support. They talked all day and spoke of their feelings and their love for one another.
As he left her house at the end of the day, she noticed that the once proud and confident man that was her brother was now walking with his head bowed..................in defeat.............but knowing that his sister would be there to help him. They made arrangements for her to take him to the hospital when he would have the surgery. He would come the night before and spend the night so she could drive him there.
What happens next is yet to be seen. They are both scared, but the bond of brother and sister is strong and so they will get through this ordeal together.
Larryj
That is sad. As far as I know my friend's ex still has a good job.He travels, selling pharmaceuticals and is very good at it.He too would try to buy people's loyalty, but when he turned on you there was no end to his evilness,
(http://dlewis.net/nik-archives/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/alligator.jpg)
....in 1962, Bernard Waber wrote The House on East 88th Street, a story about the Primms, a family who purchased a townhouse in Manhattan only to find that someone was already living there — Lyle, a crocodile. The book spawned a sequel, Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, published in 1965, as well as a few others in later years.
It's possible that Antoine Yates grew up on the Lyle series. We don't know. But we do know that in 2003, the 31 year old Yates was found making Waber's works of fiction into something of a reality.
According to CNN... http://articles.cnn.com/2003-10-04/us/nyc.tiger_1_antoine-yates-wild-animal-apartment-building?_s=PM:US
....on October 1, 2003, New York City police officers responded to a dog bite complaint at a public housing apartment building in Harlem. Yates, the bite victim, was taken to the hospital and received treatment. The next day, one of his neighbors anonymously tipped off the police to the true nature of the bites — there was some sort of wild animal living in the building. After another tip and interviews of other building residents, the police cut a hole in Yates' door. Inside, they saw Ming, a two year old Bengal tiger.
The apartment was — beyond the fact that there was a 400 to 500 pound Bengal tiger living there — a disheveled mess. So police decided to rappel down the outside of the building and have a sniper, armed with a gun loaded with animal tranquilizers, shoot sedatives at the animal through one of Yates' windows. That weekend, an officer did exactly that, and the tiger apparently jumped toward the window, breaking the glass in the process. But the sniper did his job, unharmed, and the tiger was subdued.
Police entered the apartment soon after and removed the tiger, sending it to an animal shelter. But once inside, another surprise waited — a 280 pound alligator. That animal was also brought to the shelter.
Also per CNN... http://articles.cnn.com/2003-10-13/us/harlem.tiger_1_wild-animal-antoine-yates-tiger-owner?_s=PM:US
...Yates was charged with a felony charge of reckless endangerment and two counts of possession of a wild animal. He claimed that he was building an animal sanctuary and was soon to procure the requisite land for Ming and his alligator friend, Al, to frolic freely upon. The court did not buy his excuse; Yates served a six month prison stint while Ming and Al were relocated to Ohio and New Jersey, respectively. Despite this, Yates did not give up. As Gothamist noted, after his release from prison, he sued the city for $7,000 for wrongfully seizing his roommates and taking cash he allegedly had hidden in his apartment.
http://gothamist.com/2006/08/08/nypd_is_allowed.php
He lost his lawsuit.
Bonus fact: Alligators and crocodiles both are in the same biological order (crocodylia) but belong to different biological families. How can one tell them apart? The San Diego Zoo explains that alligators tend to have U-shaped jaws while crocodiles have sharper, V-shaped ones; the fourth tooth on the lower jaw of crocodiles is exposed when their mouths are closed — this is not so for alligators; and while both have glands on their tongues which allow the beasts to expell excess salt, the crocodiles' work better, so they prefer saltwater environments while alligators prefer freshwater ones. The image above? It's an alligator.
http://www.sandiegozoo.org/animalbytes/t-crocodile.html
The Calendar
(http://www.all-calendar.tk/wp-content/uploads/julian-date-calendar-2.jpg)
...that in September 1752 the Julian calendar was replaced with the Gregorian calendar in Great Britain and its American colonies. The Julian calendar was 11 days behind the Gregorian calendar, so 14 September got to follow 2 September on the day of the change. The result was that between 3 and 13 September, absolutely nothing happened!
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_eMd8xMMApBU/TR7Iy4q7RjI/AAAAAAAAAWI/rmOwuxpRjpM/s1600/1972-Calendar.gif)
The calendar switch also influenced the way George Washington's birthday is celebrated. He was born on 11 February 1731, but the anniversary of his birth is on 22 February because of the 11 days eliminated from the calendar switch. At the same time, New Year's Day was changed from 25 March to 1 January, thus according to the new calendar, Washington was born in 1732.
The first Roman Calendar (introduced in 535BC) had 10 months, with 304 days in a year that began in March. January and February were added only later. In 46BC, Julius Caesar created "The Year of Confusion" by adding 80 days to the year making it 445 days long to bring the calendar back in step with the seasons. The solar year – with the value of 365 days and 6 hours – was made the basis of the calendar. To take care of the 6 hours, every 4th year was made a 366-day year. It was then that Caesar decreed that the year begins with the 1st of January.
In 325AD Constantine the Great, the first Christian Roman emperor, introduced Sunday as a holy day in a new 7-day week. He also introduced movable (Easter) and immovable feasts (Christmas).
In 1545 the Council of Trent authorized Pope Paul III to reform the calendar once more. Advised by astronomer Father Christopher Clavius and physician Aloysius Lilius, Pope Gregory XIII ordered that Thursday, 4 October 1582 was to be the last day of the Julian calendar. The next day was Friday, 15 October. For long-term accuracy, every 4th year was made a leap year unless it is a century year like 1700 or 1800. Century years can be leap years only when they are divisible by 400 (e.g. 1600). This rule eliminates three leap years in four centuries, making the calendar sufficiently correct for all ordinary purposes.
Protestant rulers ignored the new calendar that the Pope ordered. It was not until 1698 that Germany and the Netherlands changed to the Gregorian calendar. As mentioned, Britain made the change only in 1752. Russia adopted the new calendar in 1918, China in 1949.
In spite of the leap year, the Gregorian year is about 26 seconds longer than the earth's orbital period. Thus the beginning of the third millennium should have been celebrated at 9:01pm on 31 December 1999. But considering that the Gregorian calendar starts with Year 1, and not Year 0, adding 2000 years means that the third millennium started at 21h00:34s on 31 December 2000. However, because Dionysis Exeguus – the 6th Century monk whose task it was to pivot the calendar around the birth of Jesus Christ – miscalculated the founding of Rome by about 4 years (and left out the year 0), the true third millennium actually started on 31 December 1995.
The calendars
The first day of the year in the Gregorian calendar is 1 January.
The first month in the Hindu calendar is Chait'r (March/April in the Gregorian calendar).
The Chinese New Year occurs at the second new moon after the beginning of the Northern Hemisphere winter, thus between 20 January and 20 February.
The Jewish calendar begun 3760 years before the beginning of the Christian era. The Jewish New Year, Rosh Hashanah, is celebrated during September or October of the Gregorian calendar.
The 24-hour division of the day was introduced in the 4th Century BC by the Sumero-Babylonians.
In 1905 Einstein showed in his theory of relativity that time is effected by motion so that the faster one goes the slower time does.
In 1972, Atomic time became the world's official time standard, as Co-ordinated Universal Time (UTC)
In the 6th Century, the Roman monk and astronomer named Dionysis Exeguus (Dionysis the Little) reformed the calendar to pivot around the birth of Christ. He dated the Nativity 753 years from the founding of Rome, calculated to the date King Herod died. But Dionysis miscalculated, because Herod died only 749 years after the founding of Rome, thus 4BC. Dionysis also left out the Year 0. He used the Julian calendar.
(http://www.mapsnworld.com/world-population-2011-big.jpg)
....that in 1801, when the first complete world census was carried out, the world's population was 1 billion. China had 295 million people, India 131 million, Russia 33 million, France 27 million, Ottoman Empire 21 million, Germany 14 million, Spain 11 million, Britain 10 million, Ireland and the USA 5 million.
World population landmarks:
2 billion people : 1927
3 billion people : 1960
4 billion people : 1974
5 billion people : 1987
6 billion people : 1999
6.9 billion people : 2010
7 billion people : 2011
As in July 2010, China has a population of 1.3 billion; India 1.2 billion, USA 307 million. Britain has a population of 61 million, Russia 141 million, France 62 million, Germany 82 million.
If Facebook was a country it would be the 3rd largest country in the world, with more 500 million registered profiles... which is almost 100 million less than the number of registered users on QQ.
QQ: http://download.imqq.com/download.shtml
**************************************************************************
The US Census Bureau reported that the 6 billionth person was born at 1.24am on Sunday July 18, 1999. The United Nations however, had set that landmark at October 12, 1999.
Every second 5 people are born and 2 people die, a net gain of 3 people. At this rate, the world population will double every 40 years and would be 12 billion in 40 years, 24 billion in 80 years, and more than 48 billion in 120 years. However the United Nations estimate that world population will stabilize at 12 billion in 120 years, citing that effective family planning will result in a universally low birth rate. Education plays a key role: almost half of the 6 billion people are under age 25.
At the beginning of the second millennium (1000 AD) the world population was 400 million. In 1750 there were about 800 million people in the world. In 1850 there were a billion more, and by 1950, another billion. Then it took just 50 years to double to 6 billion. In another 50 years the world population is expected to be 9 billion, which means that a decrease in growth of the world population is expected.
The recent global population explosion is not only the consequence of increased birth rates but also the result of an unprecedented decrease in death rate. Significant advances in public health and medicine, phenomenal agricultural yields and the expanding global economy contributed to the population explosion as the lifespan average continues to increase.
Only one in ten people lived in cities in 1900. By 1994 the figure had grown to one of every two people, creating megalopolies of millions to tens of millions inhabitants. More than 400 cities have a population of more than a million people. Managing such large cities, and better management of the planet's resources, could become the most difficult problem of this century.
In spite of the population increase and desertification, famines have actually become less frequent in the past 200 years. The famines in Africa seen on TV are due to the political strife and civil wars (see current conflicts between countries) that disorganize the economy, paralyze transportation, and prevent emergency food drops. In fact, out of the 40 poorest and hungriest nations on earth, 36 actually export food to richer countries.
Every day 200 million couples make love, 400,000 babies are born, and
140,000 people die, 25,000 because of starvation
http://peopleandplanet.net/
WHO OWNS THE MOON?????????.....that the only place in the universe where a flag flies all day, never goes up or comes down, never flies half-mast and does not get saluted, is the moon.
It is, of course, the American flag, the only country to have landed people on the moon even though British Interplanetary Society engineers had in 1939 designed a ship to carry people to the moon. Since Apollo 11 landed on moon on July 20, 1969 until 1972, 12 American astronauts walked on the moon, spending 170 hours roaming over 60 miles (100 km), planting 6 flags in total. They brought home 880 pounds (400 kilograms) of soil and rock, and 30,000 photographs.
The six American flags on the moon were planted during the missions of Apollo 11,12,14,15,16,and 17. The flags of the European Union, Russia, and India are also on the moon but they are displayed on equipment or probes.
The first landing of the moon is celebrated in the festival of Evoloterra on July 20th.
Last man on the moon
The Apollo 17 crew were the last men on the moon. With Ronald Evans in the command module, Commander Eugene Cernan and scientist Harrison H. Schmitt drove 34 km (21 miles) in the lunar buggy. On December 11, 1972 they left behind a plaque that reads: "Here Man completed his first exploration of the Moon, December 1972 A.D. May the spirit of peace in which we came be reflected in the lives of all mankind." Cernan was the last man to have set foot on another celestial body.
Last words spoken on the moon
The first words spoken on the moon, by Neil Armstrong, are well known, but what were the last words spoken from the moon?
"America's challenge of today has forged man's destiny of tomorrow." – Commander Eugene Cernan, Apollo 17 Mission, December 11, 1972.
Just in case you forgot Neil Armstrong's words (when he stepped onto the moon surface with his left foot first): "One small step for man. One giant leap for mankind." On returning to Earth, he explained that he thought he had said "one small step for a man."
Who owns the moon?
Planting a flag on the moon does not mean owning it or any part of it. The United Nations Outer Space Treaty (long name: Treaty on Principles Governing the Activities of States in the Exploration and Use of Outer Space, Including the Moon and Other Celestial Bodies) of January 27, 1967 states that "outer space, including the moon and other celestial bodies, is not subject to national appropriation by claim of sovereignty, by means of occupation, or by any other means."
Video : Apollo 17 – Last men on the moon
...that Bill O'Reilly wants to know how the Moon got there?
In this clip O'Reilly defends a statement he made previously about there being no explanation for the tides (other than God's influence), after being told that the moon's gravity causes the tides. O'Reilly: "OK, so how'd the moon get there?" He challenges "pinheads" for an explanation.
Space dot com has the scientific answer:
Okay, We took that to mean us, so we decided to help him out. Bill Hartmann, an astronomer at the Planetary Science Institute in Tuscon, Arizona, proposed "the giant impactor hypothesis" of the moon's formation back in 1975. Computer simulations and lunar samples have since lended a great deal of support for the theory, which is now favored by most planetary astronomers.
The giant impactor theory holds that a Mars-sized asteroid impacted Earth when it was young, making a glancing blow that knocked off mantle debris. That debris eventually coalesced to form the Moon. This theory accounts for the lack of an iron core inside the moon (since it formed from lighter surface material), for its density, and for its chemical composition. The events described by the theory have also been recreated successfully in computer simulations.
O'Reilly is right in the sense that there is not universal consensus on the theory of where the moon came from, since certain aspects of the story of its formation are still not completely understood. However, we don't think the details of the physics are quite what O'Reilly was asking about. Nonetheless, we would like to refer him, and anyone else, to "Where Did the Moon Come From?", a 2005 article by Princeton University astrophysicists Edward Belbruno and J Richard Gott III, for a thorough treatment of the question.[/font][/size]
....that a home-made heroin substitute is having a horrific effect on thousands of Russia's drug addicts?
It is called Krokodil.... the drug that eats junkies.
Oleg glances furtively around him and, confident that nobody is watching, slips inside the entrance to a decaying Soviet-era block of flats, where Sasha is waiting for him. Ensconced in the dingy kitchen of one of the apartments, they empty the contents of a blue carrier bag that Oleg has brought with him – painkillers, iodine, lighter fluid, industrial cleaning oil, and an array of vials, syringes, and cooking implements.
Half an hour later, after much boiling, distilling, mixing and shaking, what remains is a caramel-coloured gunge held in the end of a syringe, and the acrid smell of burnt iodine in the air. Sasha fixes a dirty needle to the syringe and looks for a vein in his bruised forearm. After some time, he finds a suitable place, and hands the syringe to Oleg, telling him to inject the fluid. He closes his eyes, and takes the hit.
Russia has more heroin users than any other country in the world – up to two million, according to unofficial estimates. For most, their lot is a life of crime, stints in prison, probable contraction of HIV and hepatitis C, and an early death. As efforts to stem the flow of Afghan heroin into Russia bring some limited success, and the street price of the drug goes up, for those addicts who can't afford their next hit, an even more terrifying spectre has raised its head.
The home-made drug that Oleg and Sasha inject is known as krokodil, or "crocodile". It is desomorphine, a synthetic opiate many times more powerful than heroin that is created from a complex chain of mixing and chemical reactions, which the addicts perform from memory several times a day. While heroin costs from £20 to £60 per dose, desomorphine can be "cooked" from codeine-based headache pills that cost £2 per pack, and other household ingredients available cheaply from the markets.
It is a drug for the poor, and its effects are horrific. It was given its reptilian name because its poisonous ingredients quickly turn the skin scaly. Worse follows. Oleg and Sasha have not been using for long, but Oleg has rotting sores on the back of his neck.
"If you miss the vein, that's an abscess straight away," says Sasha. Essentially, they are injecting poison directly into their flesh. One of their friends, in a neighbouring apartment block, is further down the line.
"She won't go to hospital, she just keeps injecting. Her flesh is falling off and she can hardly move anymore," says Sasha. Photographs of late-stage krokodil addicts are disturbing in the extreme. Flesh goes grey and peels away to leave bones exposed. People literally rot to death.
Russian heroin addicts first discovered how to make krokodil around four years ago, and there has been a steady rise in consumption, with a sudden peak in recent months. "Over the past five years, sales of codeine-based tablets have grown by dozens of times," says Viktor Ivanov, the head of Russia's Drug Control Agency. "It's pretty obvious that it's not because everyone has suddenly developed headaches."
Heroin addiction kills 30,000 people per year in Russia – a third of global deaths from the drug – but now there is the added problem of krokodil. Mr Ivanov recalled a recent visit to a drug-treatment centre in Western Siberia. "They told me that two years ago almost all their drug users used heroin," said the drugs tsar. "Now, more than half of them are on desomorphine."
He estimates that overall, around 5 per cent of Russian drug users are on krokodil and other home-made drugs, which works out at about 100,000 people. It's a huge, hidden epidemic – worse in the really isolated parts of Russia where supplies of heroin are patchy – but palpable even in cities such as Tver.
It has a population of half a million, and is a couple of hours by train from Moscow, en route to St Petersburg. Its city centre, sat on the River Volga, is lined with pretty, Tsarist-era buildings, but the suburbs are miserable. People sit on cracked wooden benches in a weed-infested "park", gulping cans of Jaguar, an alcoholic energy drink. In the background, there are rows of crumbling apartment blocks. The shops and restaurants of Moscow are a world away; for a treat, people take the bus to the McDonald's by the train station.
In the city's main drug treatment centre, Artyom Yegorov talks of the devastation that krokodil is causing. "Desomorphine causes the strongest levels of addiction, and is the hardest to cure," says the young doctor, sitting in a treatment room in the scruffy clinic, below a picture of Hugh Laurie as Dr House.
"With heroin withdrawal, the main symptoms last for five to 10 days. After that there is still a big danger of relapse but the physical pain will be gone. With krokodil, the pain can last up to a month, and it's unbearable. They have to be injected with extremely strong tranquilisers just to keep them from passing out from the pain."
Dr Yegorov says krokodil users are instantly identifiable because of their smell. "It's that smell of iodine that infuses all their clothes," he says. "There's no way to wash it out, all you can do is burn the clothes. Any flat that has been used as a krokodil cooking house is best forgotten about as a place to live. You'll never get that smell out of the flat."
Addicts in Tver say they never have any problems buying the key ingredient for krokodil – codeine pills, which are sold without prescription. "Once I was trying to buy four packs, and the woman told me they could only sell two to any one person," recalls one, with a laugh. "So I bought two packs, then came back five minutes later and bought another two. Other than that, they never refuse to sell it to us, even though they know what we're going to do with it." The solution, to many, is obvious: ban the sale of codeine tablets, or at least make them prescription-only. But despite the authorities being aware of the problem for well over a year, nothing has been done.
President Dmitry Medvedev has called for websites which explain how to make krokodil to be closed down, but he has not ordered the banning of the pills. Last month, a spokesman for the ministry of health said that there were plans to make codeine-based tablets available only on prescription, but that it was impossible to introduce the measure quickly. Opponents claim lobbying by pharmaceutical companies has caused the inaction.
"A year ago we said that we need to introduce prescriptions," says Mr Ivanov. "These tablets don't cost much but the profit margins are high. Some pharmacies make up to 25 per cent of their profits from the sale of these tablets. It's not in the interests of pharmaceutical companies or pharmacies themselves to stop this, so the government needs to use its power to regulate their sale."
In addition to krokodil, there are reports of drug users injecting other artificial mixes, and the latest street drug is tropicamide. Used as eye drops by ophthalmologists to dilate the pupils during eye examinations, Dr Yegorov says patients have no trouble getting hold of capsules of it for about £2 per vial. Injected, the drug has severe psychiatric effects and brings on suicidal feelings.
"Addicts are being sold drugs by normal Russian women working in pharmacies, who know exactly what they'll be used for," said Yevgeny Roizman, an anti-drugs activist who was one of the first to talk publicly about the krokodil issue earlier this year. "Selling them to boys the same age as their own sons. Russians are killing Russians."
Zhenya, quietly spoken and wearing dark glasses, agrees to tell his story while I sit in the back of his car in a lay-by on the outskirts of Tver. He managed to kick the habit, after spending weeks at a detox clinic ,experiencing horrendous withdrawal symptoms that included seizures, a 40-degree temperature and vomiting. He lost 14 teeth after his gums rotted away, and contracted hepatitis C.
But his fate is essentially a miraculous escape – after all, he's still alive. Zhenya is from a small town outside Tver, and was a heroin addict for a decade before he moved onto krokodil a year ago. Of the ten friends he started injecting heroin with a decade ago, seven are dead.
Unlike heroin, where the hit can last for several hours, a krokodil high only lasts between 90 minutes and two hours, says Zhenya. Given that the "cooking" process takes at least half an hour, being a krokodil addict is basically a full-time job.
"I remember one day, we cooked for three days straight," says one of Zhenya's friends. "You don't sleep much when you're on krokodil, as you need to wake up every couple of hours for another hit. At the time we were cooking it at our place, and loads of people came round and pitched in. For three days we just kept on making it. By the end, we all staggered out yellow, exhausted and stinking of iodine."
In Tver, most krokodil users inject the drug only when they run out of money for heroin. As soon as they earn or steal enough, they go back to heroin. In other more isolated regions of Russia, where heroin is more expensive and people are poorer, the problem is worse. People become full-time krokodil addicts, giving them a life expectancy of less than a year.
Zhenya says every single addict he knows in his town has moved from heroin to krokodil, because it's cheaper and easier to get hold of. "You can feel how disgusting it is when you're doing it," he recalls. "You're dreaming of heroin, of something that feels clean and not like poison. But you can't afford it, so you keep doing the krokodil. Until you die."
...that History can be... ahh.. er... fun? Take for instance, very bizarre World War II happenings:
1. The first German serviceman killed in the war was killed by the Japanese (China, 1937), the first American serviceman killed was killed by the Russians (Finland 1940), the highest ranking American killed was Lt. Gen. Lesley McNair, killed by the US Army Air Corps. So much for allies.
2. The youngest US serviceman was 12 year old Calvin Graham, USN. He was wounded and given a Dishonorable Discharge for
lying about his age. (His benefits were later restored by act of Congress)
3. At the time of Pearl Harbor the top US Navy command was Called CINCUS (pronounced "sink us"), the shoulder patch of the US Army's 45th. Infantry division was the Swastika, and Hitler's private train was named "Amerika." All three were soon changed for PR purposes.
4. More US servicemen died in the Air Corps than the Marine Corps. While completing the required 30 missions your chance
of being killed was 71%.
5. Generally speaking there was no such thing as an average fighter pilot. You were either an ace or a target. For
instance Japanese ace Hiroyoshi Nishizawa shot down over 80 planes. He died while a passenger on a cargo plane.
6. It was a common practice on fighter planes to load every 5th round with a tracer round to aid in aiming. This was a
mistake. Tracers had different ballistics so (at long range) if your tracers were hitting the target 80% of your rounds were missing. Worse yet tracers instantly told your enemy he was under fire and from which direction. Worst of all was the practice of loading a string of tracers at the end of the belt to tell you that you were out of ammo. This was definitely not something you wanted to tell the enemy. Units that stopped using tracers saw their success rate nearly double and their loss rate go down.
7. When allied armies reached the Rhine the first thing men did was pee in it. This was pretty universal from the lowest
private to Winston Churchill (who made a big show of it) and Gen. Patton (who had himself photographed in the act).
8. German Me-264 bombers were capable of bombing New York City but it wasn't worth the effort.
9. German submarine U-120 was sunk by a malfunctioning toilet.
10. Among the first "Germans" captured at Normandy were several Koreans. They had been forced to fight for the Japanese Army
until they were captured by the Russians and forced to fight for the Russian Army until they were captured by the Germans
and forced to fight for the German Army until they were captured by the US Army.
11. Following a massive naval bombardment 35,000 US and Canadian troops stormed ashore at Kiska. 21 troops were killed in the firefight. It would have been worse if there had been any Japanese on the island.
The first person drafted in the United States after the Selective Service law was passed n 1940 was Chinese.
He was from Oakland, Ca.
(http://img.radio.cz/pictures/valka2/havlat_charlesx.jpg)
Pfc Charles Havlat of the 803rd Tank Destroyer Battalion is thought to be the very last American soldier killed in action in the European operations of World War II. The son of Czech immigrants, he took a bullet in the head while on patrol in southern Bohemia; shot by German soldiers who were unaware that a ceasefire had been declared and whose commander later apologised.
Walking to America
By Jeffrey Lord on 7.3.12 @ 6:11AM
A Fourth of July remembrance of one boy's journey to the land of his dreams.
Schmuel knew.
Schmuel was Schmuel Gelbfisz, born in Warsaw, Poland, in July 1879.
He was the eldest child of Hannah and Aaron Gelbfisz, who were Hasidic Jews. The family had lived in Poland for generations. Schmuel was the oldest of six children.
Two years after Schmuel was born, the Russian Czar Alexander II was assassinated and the blame was laid -- falsely -- to Jews. The Russian pogroms began. Tens of thousands of Jews fled to Warsaw, then an outpost of the Russian Empire. While this provided a safe haven of sorts, pretty soon the wave of anti-Semitism that had so murderously swamped Russia itself spread to the Russian-ruled Poland. Polish Jews were subjected to violence, to restrictive laws and higher taxes specifically targeted at Jews.
The impoverished Gelbfisz family of eight lived in two rooms in the Jewish sector of Warsaw, survived on a diet of potatoes, frequently eating nothing but potatoes for an entire week. Schmuel would later remember his Polish childhood as both constantly fearful -- of anti-Jewish violence -- and "poor, poor, poor."
Aaron, the father, died at 43 when Schmuel was 15. Realizing his mother would survive with the support of his brothers and sisters, Schmuel began to nurse what he called a "fantasy."
"When I was a kid," Schmuel said much later in life, "the only place I wanted to go was to America. I had heard them talking about America, about how people were free in America.... Even then America, actually only the name of a faraway country, was a vision of paradise."
And so, at the age of 16, with his mother's blessing and nothing but the clothes on his back and a small amount of coins in his pocket, Schmuel left for America the only way he knew how.
He walked.
First he walked 300 miles to the Oder River. There he used some of his coins to get someone to ferry him across. Schmuel then walked another 200 miles to Hamburg, Germany. There he stayed for a bit, cried off and on, found a meager job through a Warsaw family that had long ago emigrated to Hamburg. Schmuel learned the trade of glove making -- and the head of the Jewish family who employed him canvassed the Jewish community to help raise the eighteen schillings Schmuel needed to afford passage on a boat train to London.
In London, still poor, Schmuel existed by stealing food and eating scraps, sleeping in the bushes of Hyde Park. Finally, he started walking again, this time 120 miles from London to the English Midlands. Finally, exhausted, he walked into Birmingham where he located his mother's sister and her husband. He was welcomed with open arms -- but they had no money to support a boy in his late teens. Scrawny, underweight, Schmuel was hired as a blacksmith's apprentice. He was fired, too weak to do the job. He tried again -- and again and again and again -- at jobs that, in industrial Birmingham, inevitably required backbreaking physical labor. Schmuel was fired from all of them. At night, in his aunt's home, he sobbed at his continued failures.
Not knowing what else to do, the aunt handed him over to another set of relatives, one of whom told him it would be necessary to Anglicize his name if he were to distance himself from his thoroughly Jewish heritage. Schmuel Gelbfisz was now known as Samuel Goldfish, and his relatives began calling him "Sam."
During this period, Great Britain was celebrating Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee -- marking the monarch's 60th year on throne. Just as Queen Elizabeth II's Diamond Jubilee would be celebrated in June of 2012, Britain was awash in pomp and splendor. The impoverished Sam Goldfish, now selling sponges and not doing well with his sales, quietly took note of it all -- the displays of wealth and comfort, of fine clothes, perfect speech, the careful attention to physical appearance and the air of self-confidence from those associated with the British upper classes. He was so close to it all -- yet so far.
While Sam spoke some Polish and could read and write Hebrew, his mother tongue was Yiddish. That had to change, he decided, so he began to study English. He came across one particular quote in his English reader that would stick with him. The quote was from Benjamin Franklin, who had written it in an essay Franklin titled "Information for Those Who Would Remove to America." The quote?
America, where people do not inquire of a stranger, "What is he?" but "What can he do?"
America. A place where people would ask of him not "who are you" but "what can you do."
Sam made up his mind to keep going. In desperation, Sam simply left Birmingham and started walking yet again. To Liverpool, for a boat to America. And, so goes the tale, he took with him the money he had from selling sponges. A polite way of saying that he simply skipped town with the money.
On a passenger list -- "Schedule A --Names and Description of Passengers" -- there is a listing for a 19-year old laborer born in "Russia" -- i.e., Warsaw, Poland. Sam, whose English was rudimentary and handwriting poor, was marked down as "Sam Goldberg," passenger number 90 with the destination of "New York." On November 26, 1898, the Dominion Line's ship Labrador, with Sam Goldfish (Goldberg) on board, slipped away from the Liverpool docks, headed out into the Irish Sea, stopped briefly in Londonderry, Ireland, to pick up more passengers and finally headed due west -- to Canada.
Sam sailed steerage for fifteen dollars, the money giving him either an "iron berth, a hammock or... (a) cot." His clothes were his sheets and blanket. The belly of the Labrador was both airless and badly lit, the combination of little air and light with the storm-tossed North Atlantic in winter making most of the passengers sick.
At three-fifteen in the afternoon of December 4, 1898, the Labrador sailed into the harbor of Halifax, Nova Scotia. Whether "Sam Goldberg" jumped ship that day, or stayed aboard while the Labrador sailed on to St. John, New Brunswick, is unclear. What is clear is that Sam walked the rest of the way to his destination. On January 1, 1899, records his Declaration of Naturalization, he is believed to have crossed the U.S. border somewhere in the vicinity of Milltown, Maine. Yes, it is possible Sam even crossed illegally -- the records are incomplete. But quickly enough, after the requisite time, he made himself known to authorities and became, eventually, an American citizen.
The snow on the ground when Sam crossed the border that January 1st was deep, the air freezing cold. Sam would later recall, writes his biographer, that upon entering America "he literally got down on his hands and knees and kissed the ground. He did not know a soul within four thousand miles."
On he walked, trudging "through more snow than New England had seen in ten years. Sometime in late January 1899, he arrived in Manhattan, his head full of the stuff on which American dreams are made."
Sam had no money. But at last he was on his way to becoming what he had always dreamed of becoming.
An American.
THERE'S MORE to Sam's story. Much more. You might recognize Sam's name today not as Schmuel Gelbfisz or Sam Goldfish or Sam Goldberg but as Samuel Goldwyn. That's right, the Samuel Goldwyn of the legendary Hollywood movie studio MGM -- Metro Goldwyn Mayer. And of Samuel Goldwyn Productions. The Sam Goldwyn who made his way from New York to California to become in the 1930s the King of Hollywood. Author Scott Berg tells Sam's story in his book Goldwyn: A Biography. Out of companies bearing Sam's name poured film after film after film in the Great Depression lionizing America and American values.
It was Sam's company that made Mickey Rooney a star in that classic of American stories, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. It was Sam's company that took Mickey Rooney from Huckleberry Finn to the serial of films immortalizing an American boy who lived with his All-American family in the All-American town of Carvel, Idaho -- Andy Hardy. It was Sam's company that told the tale to Americans of Dorothy (Judy Garland) believing "there's no place like home" in The Wizard of Oz. It was Sam's company that distributed Gone With the Wind.
In 1940, Republican presidential candidate Wendell Willkie, whom Sam was supporting over FDR's third-term bid, saw Sam's film The Pride of the Yankees. The film starred Gary Cooper as the fatally stricken New York Yankee great Lou Gehrig. Instead of simply focusing on Gehrig's baseball career, the film opened with the story of Lou Gehrig's immigrant parents, featuring Lou's mother, a cook who worked at a Columbia University fraternity to pay for her son's education so he could become an engineer. Gehrig became a baseball player instead -- when his mother needed an operation and he accepted an invitation to play for the Yankees, using his signing money to pay for her operation.
Said Willkie to Sam, both acutely aware that Europe was already engulfed in a war that was on the verge of bringing in America: "Sam, you have done something very important here. You help democracy everywhere by showing what opportunities there are in America." Replied the man who had trekked across half of Europe to realize his dream of coming to America:
"Why shouldn't I -- who knows better than I do the opportunities in America?"
The opportunities in America.
In 1971, Sam Goldwyn was awarded the Medal of Freedom by the President of the United States.
Tomorrow will be the 236th Fourth of July since the first in 1776. It will be the 223rd Fourth of July since the United States was formed under the Constitution in 1789.
The appalling decision on Obamacare not withstanding, millions of Americans still understand in their bones not only what America was meant to be -- but what it can be again.
In 1979, my former boss, the late Jack Kemp, wrote a book called An American Renaissance: A Strategy for the 1980's. Billed at the time by his publisher as Kemp's "plan for a return to prosperity," Kemp quoted from his friend the writer and free-market champion George Gilder. Gilder had summed it up this way in a prescient article for Harper's in 1978 entitled "Prometheus Bound." Remember that in 1978 the Jimmy Carter presidency was already marking its depressing mid-point that would set the stage for Ronald Reagan and a rebirth of the American spirit. Neither Kemp nor Gilder, of course, could foresee the election of Reagan and what was to come. But without doubt both men knew their country well, and Gilder's words as cited back in 1979 are worth recalling this Fourth of July in 2012 in the Age of Obama. Wrote Gilder as quoted by Kemp:
"The most dire and fatal hubris for any leader is to cut his people off from providence, from the miraculous prodigality of chance, by substituting a closed system of human planning. Innovation is always unpredictable, and thus an effect of faith and freedom.
"In the United States today we are facing the usual calculus of impossibility, recited by the familiar aspirants to a master plan. It is said we must abandon economic freedom because our frontier is closed: because our biosphere is strained, because our resources are running out, because our technology is perverse, because our population is dense, because our horizons are closing in. We walk, it is said, in a shadow of death, depleted air, poisoned earth and water, a fallout of explosive growth showering from the clouds of our future in a quiet carcinogenic rain. In this extremity, we cannot afford the luxuries of competition and waste and freedom. We have reached the end of the open road; we are beating against the gates of an occluded frontier. We must tax and regulate and plan, redistribute our wealth and ration our consumption, because we have reached the end of openness.
"But quite to the contrary, these problems and crises are in themselves the new frontier, are themselves the mandate for individual and corporate competition and creativity, are themselves the reason why we cannot afford the consolations of planning and stasis.
"...To many people, the past seems inevitable and the future impossible. History is seen to have arisen not from unpredictable flows of genius and heroism, but more or less inevitably, from preordained patterns of natural resources and population. For those who doubt the decisive role of genius, courage, and chance in history, the future always appears impossible; they can see no way for free nations to escape a fate of decline, decay, and coercion, as their growing populations press against a closing frontier."
Jack Kemp picked it up from there, closing by saying:
The truth is, no frontier need be closed for long. Yes, the rich, bountiful earth is limited in what it can provide, but there are no natural bounds to the human spirit and its accomplishments, except insofar as we are cramped by human timidity and fear or by human institutions. In the 1980's, the first decade of the American renaissance, these are the bounds we must pit ourselves against, so it can be said of our nation in our time, "To her, and to her especially, belongs the future."
Jack Kemp and George Gilder presumably never met Sam Goldwyn, who died a wealthy, fabulously successful old man in 1974. At the age of 95.
But both men -- and Kemp's plan was the basis for the success of "Reaganomics" that produced 21 million jobs in the Reagan-era -- surely would have understood the boy Schmuel Gelbfisz had they met him when the sixteen year-old began walking...walking...walking.
Walking out of a past filled with poverty and religious persecution. Walking literally step-by-step-by-step to a dazzling future that would bring a renaissance to his own life -- and through his life's work in movies, wonderfully warm memories to millions. Not to mention jobs to all the thousands of people who made those movies.
Schmuel Gelbfisz was walking because without ever having read the Declaration of Independence he knew -- he knew -- that "all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness."
So Schmuel Gelbfisz would walk to that place.
He would walk to America.
He made it. And, if the master planners of 2012 will only get out of the way, so will the rest of us be able to keep walking to our own American futures.
Happy Fourth of July.
What a wonderful testimony. Here is a great lesson and hopefully or (sadly) there can be another boy dreaming of life in America.!
I say sadly, only because of the struggle our America is going through now.
I know it is history repeating itself....but dreams are able to come true..........with Faith all things are possible.
Thanks Warph, you did it again.
(http://s1.reutersmedia.net/resources/r/?m=02&d=20120709&t=2&i=628264514&w=460&fh=&fw=&ll=&pl=&r=CBRE8681F0C00)
...that, Holy crash landing Batman! The crime-fighting caped crusader could fly but if he did, he would smash into the ground and probably die, a group of British physics students have calculated.
Dashing the dreams of comic fans across the world, four students from the University of Leicester said that while Batman could glide using his cape as he does in the 2005 film "Batman Begins", his landing would almost certainly prove fatal.
The superhero is back in cinemas later this month in "The Dark Knight Rises" and they suggested Batman should go shopping before trying a similar attempt to become airborne over Gotham City.
"If Batman wanted to survive the flight, he would definitely need a bigger cape," said David Marshall, 22, one of the students in the final year of their four-year Master of Physics degree.
"Or if he preferred to keep his style intact he could opt for using active propulsion, such as jets to keep himself aloft."
In a paper titled "Trajectory of a falling Batman", the group argued that if he jumped from a 150-metre (492-foot) high building, the 4.7 meter (15-foot) wingspan of Batman's cape would allow him to glide 350 meters (1148 feet).
However, he would reach a speed of 68 miles per hour (109 km per hour) before hitting the ground at a life-threatening speed of 50 mph.
...that there are Ten things you don't know about the Milky Way Galaxy. So you've lived here all your life — in fact, everyone has — but what do you really know about the Milky Way galaxy? Sure, you know it's a spiral, and it's 100,000 light years across. And of course, BABloggees are smarter, more well-read, and better looking than the average population, but be honest: do you know all ten of these things? Really?
Liar.
So let's see if these really are Ten Things You Don't Know About the Milky Way Galaxy:
(http://www.geek.com/gearlog/NASA_Kepler_Milky_Way.jpg)
1) It's a barred spiral.
You might know that the Milky Way is a spiral galaxy, perhaps the most beautiful galaxy type. You've seen 'em: majestic arms sweeping out from a central hub or bulge of glowing stars. That's us. But a lot of spirals have a weird feature: a rectangular block of stars at the center instead of a sphere, and the arms radiate away from the ends of the block. Astronomers call this block a bar, and, you guessed it: we have one.
Is fact, ours is pretty big. At 27,000 light years end-to-end, it's beefier than most bars. Of course, space is a rough neighborhood. Who wouldn't want a huge bar located right downtown?
By the way, the image above is not a photograph, it's a drawing– there's no way to get outside the galaxy and take a picture like this looking back. It would be a loooong walk home! Click the picture to embiggen and get more details (which is true for all the pictures in this post).
2) There's a supermassive black hole at its heart.
At the very center of the Galaxy, right at its very core, lies a monster: a supermassive black hole.
We know it's there due to the effect of its gravity. Stars very near the center — some only a few dozen billion kilometers out — orbit the center at fantastic speeds. They scream around their orbits at thousands of kilometers per second, and their phenomenal speed betrays the mass of the object to which they're enthralled. Applying some fairly basic math, it's possible to determine that the mass needed to accelerate the stars to those speeds must tip the cosmic scales at four million times the mass of the Sun! Yet in the images, nothing can be seen. So what can be as massive as 4,000,000 Suns and yet not emit any light?
Right. A black hole.
Even though it's huge, bear in mind that the Galaxy itself is something like 200 billion solar masses strong, so in reality the black hole at the center is only a tiny fraction of the total mass of the Galaxy. And we're in no danger of plunging into it: after all, it's 250,000,000,000,000,000 kilometers away.
It's thought now that a supermassive black hole in the center of a galaxy forms along with the galaxy itself, and in facts winds blown outward as material falls in affects the formation of stars in the galaxy. So black holes may be dangerous, but it's entirely possible the Sun's eventual birth — and the Earth's along with it — may have been lent a hand by the four million solar mass killer so far away.
3) It's a cannibal.
Galaxies are big, and have lots of mass. If another, smaller galaxy passes too close by, the bigger galaxy can rip it to shreds and ingest its stars and gas.
The Milky Way is pretty, but it's savage, too. It's currently eating several other galaxies. They've been ripped into long, curving arcs of stars that orbit the center of the Milky Way. Eventually they'll merge completely with us, and we'll be a slightly larger galaxy. Ironically though, the galaxies add their mass to ours, making it more likely we'll feed again. Eating only makes galaxies hungrier.
4) We live in a nice neighborhood...
The Milky Way is not alone in space. We're part of a small group of nearby galaxies called — get ready to be shocked — the Local Group. We're the heaviest guy on the block, and the Andromeda galaxy is maybe a bit less massive, though it's actually spread out more. The Triangulum galaxy is also a spiral, but not terribly big, and there are other assorted galaxies dotted here and there in the Group. All together, there are something like three dozen galaxies in the Local Group, with most being dinky dwarf galaxies that are incredibly faint and difficult to detect.
5) ... and we're in the suburbs.
The Local Group is small and cozy, and everyone makes sure their lawns are mowed and houses painted nicely. That's because if you take the long view, we live in the suburbs. The big city in this picture is the Virgo Cluster, a huge collection of about 2000 galaxies, many of which are as large or larger than the Milky Way. It's the nearest big cluster; the center of it is about 60 million light years away. We appear to be gravitationally bound to it; in other words, we're a part of it, just far-flung. The total mass of the cluster may be as high as a quadrillion times the mass of the Sun.
6) You can only see 0.000003% percent of it.
When you got out on a dark night, you can see thousands of stars. But the Milky Way has two hundred billion stars in it. You're only seeing a tiny tiny fraction of the number of stars tooling around the galaxy. In fact, with only a handful of exceptions, the most distant stars you can readily see are 1000 light years away. Worse, most stars are so faint that they are invisible much closer than that; the Sun is too dim to see from farther than about 60 light years away... and the Sun is pretty bright compared to most stars. So the little bubble of stars we can see around us is just a drop in the ocean of the Milky Way.
7) 90% of it is invisible.
When you look at the motions of the stars in our galaxy, you can apply some math and physics and determine how much mass the galaxy has (more mass means more gravity, which means stars will move faster under its influence). You can also count up the number of stars in the galaxy and figure out how much mass they have. Problem is, the two numbers don't match: stars (and other visible things like gas and dust) make up only 10% of the mass of the galaxy. Where's the other 90%?
Whatever it is, it has mass, but doesn't glow. So we call it Dark Matter, for lack of a better term (and it's actually pretty accurate). We know it's not black holes, dead stars, ejected planets, cold gas — those have all been searched for, and marked off the list — and the candidates that remain get pretty weird (like WIMPs). But we know it's real, and we know it's out there. We just don't know what it is. Smart people are trying to figure that out, and given the findings in recent years, I bet we're less than a decade from their success.
8 ) Spiral arms are an illusion.
Well, they're not an illusion per se, but the number of stars in the spiral arms of our galaxy isn't really very different than the number between the arms! The arms are like cosmic traffic jams, regions where the local density is enhanced. Like a traffic jam on a highway, cars enter and leave the jam, but the jam itself stays. The arms have stars entering and leaving, but the arms themselves persist (that's why they don't wind up like twine on a spindle).
Just like on highways, too, there are fender benders. Giant gas clouds can collide in the arms, which makes them collapse and form stars. The vast majority of these stars are faint, low mass, and very long-lived, so they eventually wander out of the arms. But some rare stars are very massive, hot, and bright, and they illuminate the surrounding gas. These stars don't live very long, and they die (bang!) before they can move out of the arms. Since the gas clouds in the arms light up this way, it makes the spiral arms more obvious.
We see the arms because the light is better there, not because that's where all the stars are.
9) It's seriously warped.
The Milky Way is a flat disk roughly 100,000 light years across and a few thousand light years thick (depending on how you measure it). It has the same proportion as a stack of four DVDs, if that helps.
Have you ever left a DVD out in the Sun? It can warp as it heats up, getting twisted (old vinyl LPs used to be very prone to this). The Milky Way has a similar warp!
The disk is bent, warped, probably due to the gravitational influence of a pair of orbiting satellite galaxies. One side of the disk is bent up, if you will, and the other down. In a sense, it's like a ripple in the plane of the Milky Way. It's not hard to spot in other galaxies; grab an image of the Andromeda galaxy and take a look. At first it's hard to see, but if you cover the inner part you'll suddenly notice the disk is flared up on the left and down on the right. Andromeda has satellite galaxies too, and they warp its disk just like our satellite galaxies warp ours.
As far as I can tell, the warp doesn't really affect us at all. It's just a cool thing you may not know about the Milky Way. Hey, that would make a good blog entry!
10) We're going to get to know the Andromeda galaxy a lot better.
Speaking of Andromeda, have you ever seen it in the sky? It's visible to the naked eye on a clear, dark, moonless night (check your local listings). It's faint, but big; it's four or more degrees across, eight times the apparent size of the Moon on the sky.
If that doesn't seem too big, then give it, oh, say, two billion years. Then you'll have a much better view.
The Andromeda Galaxy and the Milky Way are approaching each other, two cosmic steam engines chugging down the tracks at each other at 200 kilometers per second. Remember when I said big galaxies eat small ones? Well, when two big galaxies smack into each other, you get real fireworks. Stars don't physically collide; they're way too small on this scale. But gas clouds can, and like I said before, when they do they form stars. So you get a burst of star formation, lighting up the two galaxies.
In the meantime, the mutual gravity of the two galaxies draw out long tendrils from the other, making weird, delicate arcs and filaments of stars and gas. It's beautiful, really, but it indicates violence on an epic scale.
Eventually (it takes a few billion years), the two galaxies will merge, and will become, what, Milkomeda? Andromeway? Well, whatever, they form a giant elliptical galaxy when they finally settle down. In fact, the Sun will still be around when this happens; it won't have yet become a red giant. Will our descendants witness the biggest collision in the history of the galaxy?
That's cool to think about. Incidentally, I talk about this event a whole lot more, and in a lot more detail, in my upcoming book Death from the Skies! In case you forgot about that.
Until then, these Ten Things should keep you occupied. And of course, I only wanted to list ten things so I could give this post the cool title. But if there's something you find surprising about the Milky Way, leave a comment! I don't want to hog all the fun.
...that this was written by a dog.
20 Things You Didn't Know About... Dogs The first ones, the ones that share bacteria with people, and the ones that look like Groucho Marx.
1 The sultry "dog days of summer" get their name from ancient astronomers who noticed that those days coincide with the period when Sirius, the Dog Star, rises at the same time as the sun.
2 Bad astronomy: Sirius is the brightest star in the sky, but it is just one 10-billionth as bright as the sun and has no effect on our weather.
3 Nerd. Fido will touch his nose to a computer screen if it has a picture of a dog on it but not if it shows a landscape, University of Vienna researchers have found.
4 Austrian scientists have also demonstrated that a dog seems to feel "inequity aversion" when another dog gets a better treat as a reward. The envious dog plays hard to get.
5 South Korean scientists cloned four beagle puppies with a gene that produces a fluorescent protein that glows red under ultraviolet light. (The red color is visible in the pups' bellies and nails even under normal light, but it doesn't glow.)
6 Maybe they should have offered a Day-Glo option. BioArts, a California company, recently closed its dog-cloning business. One reason: The market was too small.
7 Another problem: "unpredictable results," according to BioArts. In one case, the clone of a black-and-white dog came out looking greenish yellow.
8 The number of dogs worldwide is estimated at 400 million, roughly the human population of the United States and Mexico combined.
9 They really do look like their owners. In a study conducted at England's Bath Spa University, people matching photos of dog owners and dogs chose the right breed (out of three) more than half the time.
10 Half of all owners allow their dogs to lick them on the face, but only 10 percent share E. coli strains with their pets. The real factor in germ transmission may be whether an owner washes his hands after playing fetch.
11 Fighting a hangover by drinking "the hair of the dog that bit you" may have originated in an ancient belief that ingesting the hair of a dog that literally bit you could guard against infection.
12 A 2006 study showed that household dogs with minimal training can smell early- and late-stage lung and breast cancers. Swedish oncologists also found that dogs can distinguish among types of ovarian cancer.
13 A dog's nose has roughly 220 million olfactory receptors, 40 times as many as humans have.
14 Penn State engineers are trying to design an artificial sniffer based on the fluid mechanics and odorant transport of the canine nose.
15 Dogs can hear frequencies up to 45,000 Hz, about twice as high as humans can. But they're not the champs: Porpoises go to 150,000 Hz.
16 A team led by UCLA biologists concluded that small dogs descended from Middle Eastern gray wolves more than 12,000 years ago. The connection was traced through a growth-factor gene mutation not seen in larger dogs.
17 Much older canid remains have been found in Germany, Russia, and Belgium, dating as far back as 31,000 years.
18 The reference genome for doggie DNA studies is the boxer, a breed that has an unusually high degree of genetic uniformity.
19 So that's why schnauzers look like Groucho. According to scientists at the National Human Genome Research Institute, an alteration in one gene, RSPO2, gives dogs wiry eyebrows and mustaches.
20 A variant of another gene, FGF5, produces long, silky coats, and curly hair comes from a mutation in KRT71. All three variants produce a coat like that of the Portuguese water dog adopted by the First Family.
(http://images.wikia.com/superman/images/6/61/Superman_Animated_Series.jpg)
...that the 700th issue of Superman went on sale June 23, 2010. The Man of Steel has incredible superpowers, of course.
Meanwhile, stories of a mother picking up a car to free her trapped child seem to be more urban legend than reality. But the human body is capable of some mind-blowing feats that could cause even Superman to do a double take.
But rather than some strange powers gleaned from Earth's sun, some scientists argue that bursts of adrenaline during stressful situations give people somewhat paranormal, superhuman abilities, also referred to as hysterical strength. Others suspect humans are always capable of these great feats - it just takes a crisis for them to actually perform them.
Some Mind-Blowing Super-Human Feats:
Surviving Freezing Temperatures - Nicknamed the "Iceman," Wim Hof is a Dutch adventurer and daredevil who ran an Arctic marathon at minus 20 degrees Fahrenheit (minus 29 degrees Celsius) – while shirtless. He also holds the world record for being immersed in ice for an hour and 44 minutes.
In 2007, he was able to survive for 72 minutes outdoors at the North Pole while wearing nothing but shorts. Hof says that he is able to control his body temperature by using the Tantric practice of Tummo, which is practiced by Yogi monks in Tibet, and involves the practice of focusing on the body's energies turning them into heat.
Balancing a Car - Think lifting an SUV is impressive? John Evans can actually balance a car on his head! The 6-foot-6-inch (2-meter) tall, 343-pound (155-kilogram) British man managed to balance a 352-pound (159-kg) mini car on top of his head for 33 seconds – without using his hands.
Calling himself a professional "head balancer," Evans has already broken 25 records in 11 Guinness World Records categories. He'd previously balanced motorcycles, boats, washing machines, people and beers kegs, but the car is by far his heaviest – and most dangerous – record-breaking attempt to date. Evans credits his neck, which has an astonishing width of 24 inches (60 cm), with allowing him to achieve his balancing acts.
Lifting a Car - A standard example of superhuman strength, the "lifting a car to free someone" story seems rooted in myth. In fact, comic book artist Jack Kirby once said in an interview that he got the idea for the Incredible Hulk after seeing a mother lift a car off her child, although the legitimacy of his story has been disputed. But there have been reported cases of this phenomenon.
In 2008, Chris Hickman, a Florida firefighter, came to the scene of a car crash in which an older model Chevrolet Blazer had flipped and landed on its side, pinning the driver's arm between the vehicle and the pavement. Hickman then lifted the SUV about 12 inches (30 cm) off the ground, giving the other firefighters the opportunity to rescue trapped driver, officials said in news reports of the incident.
Twisting Metal - Another Guinness World Records holder, Sakinat Khanapiyeva, is the strongest grandma in the world. The 76-year-old from Dagestan, Russia, can lift a 52-pound (24-kg) dumb-bell, break horseshoes and twist 2-inch (5-cm) steel rods. She first discovered her strength when she was 10 years old, after she was able to move a 661-pound (299-kg) container of grain, which is equivalent to the weight of four grown men, according to the Guinness Book of World Records.
50 Marathons in 50 Days - Calling it the 50/50/50, Los Angeles native Dean Karnazes ran 50 marathons in 50 U.S. states in 50 consecutive days, beginning with the Lewis and Clark Marathon in St. Louis on Sept. 17, 2006, and finishing with the New York City Marathon on Nov. 5.
Karnazes also ran 135 miles (217 km) nonstop across Death Valley in the Mojave Desert in temperatures reaching 120 degrees F (48 degrees C), and a marathon to the South Pole at minus 40 degrees F (minus 40 degrees C).
"It hurts so much and your body is saying stop, and you kind of override those mechanisms and force yourself to go on," Karnazes told news sources.
Scaling Buildings - Known as the "the human spider," Alain Robert has climbed most of the tallest skyscrapers in the world without a rope or any climbing equipment. Using only his hands and climbing shoes, Robert scales landmark buildings, including the Eiffel Tower, Sydney Opera House and the Sears Tower. More than once, he was arrested for illegally scaling a building while wearing a Spider-Man costume, causing him to be arrested and expelled from China.
Many of his climbs last for over an hour and provide him no chance to rest until he reaches the top. His training, physical conditioning and technique allow Robert to climb by holding on to the small protrusions of building walls and windows, such as window ledges and frames, he claims.
Surviving a Lightning Strike - Between the ages of 30 and 65, Roy Cleveland Sullivan was struck by lightning seven times - and survived them all. During that time, Sullivan averaged being struck by lightning once every five years, while the average person's odds of being struck by lightning in a given year are one in 750,000. However, Sullivan increased his chances by working as a park ranger at Shenandoah National Park in Virginia, which averages 35 to 45 thunderstorm days per year, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Nicknamed the "Human Lightning Conductor" and the "Human Lightning Rod," Sullivan has been struck by lightning more than any other human being, according to Guinness World Records. He died in 1983 at the age of 71 – not as a result of a final lightning strike, but from a self-inflicted gunshot wound, reportedly over an unrequited love.
A couple out here were walking in a park just this past week.
She is 40 weeks pregnant.
Both were hit by lightning.
They drove themselves to a hospital where both were pronounced in good condition.
Radio Station KOA is sponsoring a best nickname for the newborn whenever it decides to emerge.
One of the suggestions was "Sparky."
Hey Waldo,
Sounds like the couple has already set a world's record-----a 40 month pregnancy--WOW!!!!!!
(http://images.nationalgeographic.com/wpf/media-live/photos/000/012/cache/space-shuttle-atlantis_1223_600x450.jpg)
http://lightyears.blogs.cnn.com/2012/02/10/astronaut-feels-spaces-toll-on-his-body/
....that Astronauts feel space's toll on their bodies.
CNN - It's not really why he signed up to be an astronaut, but like it or not, Mike Barratt and his eyes have become a science project.
The eye charts he reads, the red drops that turn his eyes yellow and the ultrasounds being performed on him could determine whether he or any other astronaut ever journeys into deep space or sets foot on other worlds.
NASA's new priority is how to protect astronauts from going blind on the years-long trip to get wherever they are going.
"I absolutely agree that this is our number one priority," Barratt said.
Why?
Because when Barratt blasted off to the international space station, he needed eyeglasses for distance. When he returned to Earth, his distance vision was fine, but he needed reading glasses. That was more than two years ago. And he's not getting better.
"We really need to understand this. This is a critical point for understanding how humans adapt to spaceflight," he said.
In the past few years, about half of the astronauts aboard the international space station have developed an increasing pressure inside their heads, an intracranial pressure that reshapes their optic nerve, causing a significant shift in the eyesight of male astronauts. Doctors call it papilledema.
Female space travelers have not been affected.
Some of the astronauts slowly recover. Others have not.
Space station astronauts typically spend about six months in orbit.
Barratt is one of 10 male astronauts, all older than 45, who have not recovered. Barratt returned from a six-month stint aboard the station in October 2009 and has experienced a profound change in his sight.
He used to be nearsighted. But now, the space veteran says he's eagle-eyed at long distance but needs glasses for reading. There is no treatment and no answers as to why female space flyers are not affected.
CNN spent part of a day with Barratt, watching as doctors monitored his progress with high-resolution testing as they try to understand how the weightless environment of space is causing half of all space station astronauts to have this vision change. Today, space station astronauts fly with specially designed variable focus glasses to help combat the vision shift.
"The big benefit of these is that they allow us to adjust for significant prescription changes," said Dr. Robert Gibson, a senior vision consultant, who was brought in to help study the problem.
Doctors have found that Barratt's retinas have microscopic folds or wrinkles on them, and the back of his eye, the optic nerve, is no longer round but has flattened.
"I think this is showing that there are physiologic aspects of adaption to spaceflight we weren't seeing before," said Barratt.
This raises a red flag for all of NASA's plans for long-duration human space flight. The space station is supposed to be the test bed for how humans would learn to live in space, but it opens profound questions on whether humans will ever venture to Mars or to an asteroid if they are unable to figure out how the outer-space environment is affecting the eyes.
"This has all of our attention," said Terry Taddeo, the acting chief of space medicine at Johnson Space Center in Houston.
"It is a serious problem and one we are going to have to understand more about before we would be able to send somebody into a long-duration mission away from Earth, where they would be away for years," he said.
Right now, the only data that doctors have are from six-month tours of duty on the space station.
NASA has begun doing extensive preflight and postflight eye exams, including high-resolution MRIs of the eyes. There have been anecdotes from some space shuttle astronauts who also complained about vision change, but it does not appear they had long-lasting effects from the much shorter space flights that typically lasted up to about three weeks.
"What we're seeing appears to occur within the first couple of months of flight and appears to level off, plateau after about four to five months," Gibson said.
"If it's just a matter of giving them a stronger prescription, we can live with that," he said. "But if there is an elevated intracranial pressure as the cause of this, we have to be concerned about other neurologic effects."
That means there could be other effects on the body that haven't become apparent.
This is why a three-year mission to Mars is in question.
It would be humans' next great leap, and NASA is spending almost $18 billion over the next five years to develop a heavy lift rocket that would take astronauts to the Red Planet or even to an asteroid. They would travel in a new spacecraft, Orion.
But right now, a trip to Mars is still more science fiction than fact. No one is calling this vision problem a showstopper, yet the program's price tag begs for a solution to be found fast so NASA won't be building the world's largest, fastest rocket to nowhere.
Dr. Bruce Ehni, a neurosurgeon at the VA Medical Center at the Baylor College of Medicine in Houston, has consulted with NASA and is the only neurosurgeon on their panel.
"If they can't predict who is at risk ... they put his health in jeopardy. They put, possibly, the mission in jeopardy if he can't see or do his job effectively," he said.
But Barratt thinks that any deep space venture to Mars is still 20 years away. He's hoping that spacecraft will be a whole lot faster than anything the space agency can fly now.
"You fly fast, and you don't worry," he said, with a grin.
"I'm still hopeful that in 20 years, we'll have advanced propulsion capabilities that can get us there in a matter of weeks to a few months. Then, a lot of these problems go away," he said.
UFO At 2012 Olympics ???About a billion Earthlings watched the Olympics opening ceremony Friday night. Did an out-of-this-world spectator tune in as well? A dimly lit, disk-shape object was spotted hovering above the stadium in NBC footage of the ceremony, and the Web has since come alive with exhaustive analysis of this "Olympic UFO."
Several people who spotted the object hovering in the corner of their TV screen Friday (July 27) recorded it and posted the footage to YouTube. The disk appears to have a dome rising from its center, giving it the look of a classic flying saucer.
(http://www.lifeslittlemysteries.com/images/i/2070/i02/blimp-2.jpg?1343747140)
"Remember that these photos >
http://badufos.blogspot.com/2012/07/london-olympic-ufo.html
< are taken from the website of the Goodyear Blimp. And I think those people know their own Blimp when they see it," Sheaffer wrote. "The resemblance between this object and the unknown object in the video is obvious."
Final confirmation came from Goodyear itself late last night. "Wow we really seem to have caused a #UFO phenomenon!" @goodyear_uk wrote on Twitter. "Sorry to disappoint guys! We still think a blimp is pretty cool though!"
Still, some UFO believers aren't convinced. One Twitter user replied, "not so sure about that!"
Okay.... what about this one: [/font][/size]
....that this little girl managed to get so many donations that nobody can even lift the buckets full of coins... except her because she's the strongest girl in the world!
...that despite photographic evidence and eyewitness accounts, these tales of TIME TRAVEL were too good to be true.1. Billy Meier and the Plejaren
Not many time travelers have photo albums with snapshots of their journeys. Meet Billy Meier. In the 1970s, the Swiss-born Meier was taken on a few chronological joyrides by a race of extraterrestrials called the Plejaren. They showed him prehistoric earth with dinosaurs, the surface of ancient Mars and even introduced him to Jmmaneul, the real Jesus.
Meier's holiday pics of the Plejarens' spacecraft turned out to be an inventively decorated garbage can lid. The dinosaurs were blurry shots of illustrations from a book called Life Before Man. And the pretty Plejaren girls? Photos that Meier had taken of dancers from The Dean Martin Show on his TV screen.
http://www.billymeierufocase.com/dinosaurphotodeconstruction.html
2. Rudolph Fentz
In 1950, a man with mutton chop sideburns and Victorian-era duds popped up in Times Square. Witnesses said he looked startled, and then a minute later, he was hit by a car and killed. On his person, the police found 19th-century money, a letter dated 1876 and business cards with his name – Rudolph Fentz. None of these items showed signs of aging. A Mrs. Rudolph Fentz was tracked down. She was the widow of Rudolph Fentz, Jr., and the story went that junior's dad disappeared mysteriously in 1876. Weird, right? Eventually it was discovered that this urban legend originated from a 1950 short story written by Jack Finney. Finney would go on to write the classics Invasion of the Body Snatchers and Time and Again.
http://www.security-faqs.com/did-rudolph-fentz-travel-in-time-160-years-before-john-titor-did.html
3. John Titor
How's life in the year 2036? "Food and livestock is grown locally. People spend much more time reading and talking together face to face. Religion is taken seriously and everyone can multiply and divide in their heads." That's an entry from John Titor. Titor, a traveler from the future, first showed up on internet discussion boards in the 2000, making predictions about the years ahead. In 2001, he returned to the year 2036. Most of his predictions did not come true.
http://www.johntitor.com/
4. The Chronovisor***
Not so much time travel as time voyeurism. The Chronovisor, a magic television/camera that could tune into times and places from the past, was invented in the 1950s by a Benedictine monk named Father Pellegrino Ernetti. He used it to film the crucifixion, and that footage, along with the Chronovisor itself, is now reportedly hidden away in the vaults of the Vatican.
5. Henry Fonda
In the 1948 movie Fort Apache, there's a brief moment when Fonda's character appears to be checking his stagecoach route on an iPhone.
Well, notepads can sometimes look like iPhones.6. Andrew CarlssinThe alarm bells went off on Wall Street and with the SEC in 2002 when unknown investor Andrew Carlssin quickly parlayed $800 into $350,000,000 via some high-risk stock trades. Carlssin was arrested. He confessed that he was from the year 2256. It turns out the story originated from that ever-sensational source of fakery, The Weekly World News. Ten years on, the story is still being reprinted and circulated.
http://theedgeofreality.proboards.com/index.cgi?board=phenomenon&action=display&thread=480
7. 1941 HipsterIn the midst of a hat-and-suit crowd shown in a photograph from 1941, there's a young man who seems wildly out of place. He's wearing new wave sunglasses, what appears to be a T-shirt and he's holding a portable camera. Turns out the sunglasses were unusual but not unknown at the time, the Tee was a letter sweater, and the camera was a Kodak Folding Pocket model. Still, that was ten years before the concept of the teenager was born, so give the young dude props for being ahead of his time in self-expression.
(http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/time-traveling-hipster.jpg)
8. John KrasinskiCould Jim from The Office be a time traveler? Or maybe a vampire? When an 1835 portrait painting by Danish artist Christen Købke was noted to bear a striking resemblance to actor John Krasinski, the story went viral. "Wow! Seems a little highbrow for NBC marketing," Krasinski said. "But I like it!"
(http://www.mentalfloss.com/blogs/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/krasinski-time-travel.jpg)
9. 1928 Cell Phone LadyA woman walks through a film premiere crowd in Los Angeles talking on her cell. Not so remarkable. Until you consider the year is 1928. The clip, from bonus material on a DVD of Charlie Chaplin's The Circus, hit the internet in 2010. Never mind the obvious questions about non-existent satellites and cell towers back in the jazz age. The device was most likely an early hearing aid. Still, the clip is mind-teasingly fun to watch.
10. The Philadelphia ExperimentAccording to legend, in a secret experiment done in 1943, the US Navy was able to render the destroyer USS Eldridge invisible, then dematerialize it and transport it from Philadelphia to Norfolk, Virginia, and back again. One account insists the ship went backwards in time by a full 10 seconds (though how that was determined is still sketchy). The experiment reportedly had terrible side effects, such as causing sailors to remain invisible. Secret government projects often foster all kinds of fanciful tales, but this one has endured, and was even the basis of a 1984 movie. http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq21-1.htm
(http://noliesradio.org/images/philadelphiaexperiment.jpg)
11. Hakan NordkvistTalk about pipe dreams. While doing a little DIY plumbing, Nordkvist slipped through a wormhole in time and was suddenly confronted by an older version of himself. The two talked. They compared tattoos. They bonded. And Nordkvist filmed it on his phone. Reportedly, it was all part of an advertising campaign by an insurance company to promote the benefits of pension plans
**********************************************************************************
***The Chronovisor - The Missing Time Machine
An eccentric priest claimed he had a machine that could see into the past. Was his story folly or fancy? In his little 12 by 12 foot monastic cell Father Pellegrino Ernetti greeted Father Francois Brune one afternoon in the early 1960's. The two men had just met for the first time the day before during a ferry ride across Venice's Grand Canal. During their short conversation, Father Ernetti had said something that stuck in Father Brune's mind. The two, who were both experts on ancient languages, were talking about scriptural interpretation when Father Ernetti remarked that there existed a machine that could easily answer all their questions.
Father Brune was puzzled about what kind of machine could do such a thing and resolved to bring it up again with Father Ernetti in that day's meeting. When asked about it, Father Ernetti described a device he called a "chronovisor" that looked a bit like a television. Instead of receiving broadcasts from local transmission stations, however, the chronovisor could tune into the past to allow the viewer to see and hear events that had occurred years or even centuries earlier. Father Ernetti told Brune that the machine worked by detecting all the sights and sounds that humanity had made that still floated through space. Father Brune wanted to know if Father Ernetti and his collaborators had been able to see the crucifixion of Christ. Ernetti replied, "We saw everything. The agony in the garden, the betrayal of Judas, the trial - Calvary."
Everyday Chronovisors What Father Ernetti was describing to Brune, the chronovisor, was a type of time machine. It is unlike the fictional devices found in most popular books, TV shows and movies, however, that transport people into the future or past. This type of time machine would bring pictures and sounds from the past into the present. Time machines that transport people seem far beyond anything our technology can currently build, but what about a device that just deals with images and sounds? Could a machine like Father Ernetti described be built?
A second piece of evidence that Father Ernetti released was a picture of Christ's face while he was on the cross, apparently photographed through the chronovisor. The photo shows the face of a bearded man with upturned eyes. It wasn't long, however, before someone noticed that the picture was identical (except being reversed left-to-right) to one sold at the Sanctuary of Merciful Love in Collevalenza, Italy. The photograph shows a wooden carving of Jesus in the sanctuary by the Spanish artist Cullot Valera.
After this revelation Father Ernetti said little more about the photograph and the chronovisor. He died in 1994.
As for the manuscript of Thyestes that he said he had transcribed from watching the play on the chronovisor, it seems too short - only 120 lines - for it to be the full play. Most plays of this type would have been ten times as long. Dr. Katherine Owen Eldred of Princeton University, an expert on the play who translated the manuscript for the American edition of the book Father Ernetti's Chronovisor, suspects that isn't authentic. Many of the words used in this manuscript didn't appear in the Latin language until over two centuries after the play was first performed. The type of words and the way they are repeated also suggest that the person who composed the manuscript had limited skills in Latin. As Ennius, the playwright, was using his native language this seems very strange. This makes one wonder if the author wasn't Ennius, but Father Ernetti himself.
The Enigma of Father ErnettiWhat can we make of this strange story? It would be easy to dismiss Father Ernetti as a crackpot or compulsive liar. Outside of his entanglement with the chronovisor, however, Father Ernetti was an extremely respected, but quiet, intellectual whose specialty was archaic music. He spent most of his life doing research and teaching on this subject and was the author of such respected books as Words, Music, Rhythm and the multi-volume work General Treatise on Gregrian Chant. Why would such a respected clergyman, academic and author make up such a wild story?
After the Father's death the editors of Father Ernetti's Chronovisor received a document from someone claiming to be a relative of Ernetti but wishing to remain anonymous. The document tells of how this relative was called to Ernetti's deathbed and the priest confessed that he had made up the play and falsified the picture. However, Ernetti continued to insist that the chronovisor actually worked.
Since the document is anonymous it is hard to know how much faith to place in it. Father Brune, Ernetti's long time friend, believes that the chronovisor existed, but Ernetti came under pressure from his superiors in the last years of his life not to talk about it. Brune thinks the resemblance of the picture to the statue can be explained by the artist carving the work under the direction of a nun who had a vision. In the vision she saw Christ hanging on the cross and described it to the artist. The artist translated her vision exactly into the sculpture. The sculpture and the photo look alike because they both are true representations of Christ's face. One coming to us via the chronovisor, the other through the nun's vision, suggested Brune.
We may never be able to prove that the story of Ernetti's chronovisor was false, but with our technical capabilities expanding continually might it be possible to someday build such a device?
PaleoacousticsTrying to gather the remnants of electromagnetic waves left over in the environment and reassemble them into a coherent image seems an overwhelming task, even with the most advanced computers. Some scientists have speculated, however, that we may find past sounds preserved in the environment. They've even given this speculative branch of science a name: Paleoacoustics.
The idea is that sound waves might have been recorded and preserved by accident. One possible way this could happen would be during the creation of pottery. In theory, a clay vessel spun on a potter's wheel and given a spiral pattern with a stylus would act like a primitive phonograph. On early phonographs, sounds were preserved by using a tin (or later wax) cylinder spun with a needle, etching a spiral groove down the surface of the cylinder. The needle would pick up sounds waves and etch the vibrations into the grooves. When the needle traveled down the groove a second time, the effect would reverse itself and the needle would vibrate, playing back the recorded sound.
On the pottery wheel the soft clay of the pot would act as the recording medium and the stylus as the needle. In theory the sound vibrations could be etched into the clay. Given that this method of creating pottery has been around for thousands of years this technique seems to hold out the promise of bringing back sounds from the ancient past.
Though this idea for recovering ancient sounds has been around since it was proposed by Richard G. Woodbridge in a letter to Proceedings of the IEEE in 1969, nobody has yet been successful in recovering ancient sounds (a hoax in 2006 suggesting Belgian researchers had accomplished this with a 2,000 year old piece of pottery fooled a number of people as it made the rounds through various newspapers and across the internet). However, as our instruments become more sensitive and our computers more powerful we may yet see success with this type of investigation.
Still, if these techniques are successful they would still be a far cry from Ernetti's chronovisor which could tune into the past at any place or time.
Will we ever be able to build a machine like he described? Only time will tell.[/font][/size]
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-P9eD35_knAs/UC04y6uiP8I/AAAAAAAAcXA/kLuuQ5RJq6U/s1600/Elvis%2BPresley.jpg)
Elvis the American
By Daniel J. Flynn on 8.16.12 @ 6:10AM
...that he died 35 years ago today.
"The army can do anything it wants with me," remarked Elvis Presley upon leaving for basic training in 1958. "Millions of other guys have been drafted, and I don't want to be different from anyone else." But Elvis was not like anyone else.
He wore sideburns and greasy long hair in the crew-cutted fifties. He played black music in the segregated South. He appeared in foppish fashions -- ascots, satin pants, pink shirts -- in t-shirt-and-jeans Memphis. As a teenage steady remembered, "I knew the first time I met him that he was not like other people."
This did not sit well with other people. Classmates cut the strings to his guitar. Other kids pitched rotten fruit at him. The coach kicked him off the high school football team, and a boss threatened to fire him, for refusing to get a haircut. "I felt really sorry for him," noted a classmate, who had defended Elvis from bullies. "He seemed very lonely and had no real friends. He just didn't seem to be able to fit in."
Elvis never fit in. He stood out. Greatness isn't about meshing with the crowd. Greatness requires the courage to stand apart. In an era derided as conformist, Elvis was an individual. He dared to be different.
One gleans just how much of a pariah the guitar-strumming teenager was from reading Peter Guralnick's Last Train to Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley. If the 20th century's most popular singer appeared as a show-business cliché at his death 35 years ago today, he projected so eccentric an image in his pre-fame Memphis days that the idea of him conquering the entertainment world would seem as bizarre to Memphians as Elvis appeared to them. If Elvis doesn't strike us today as outlandish, it is because we live in the world that Elvis made.
The individual who initially threatens the crowd eventually pleases the crowd. Mockers became imitators. "What he did," Grand Ole Opry member Jimmy "C" Newman told Guralnick, "was he changed it all around. After that we had to go to Texas to work, there wasn't any work anywhere else, because all they wanted was someone to imitate Elvis, to jump up and down on the stage and make a fool of themselves." Thirty-five years after his death, the high school outcast remains the world's most impersonated person.
"I don't sound like nobody," the inner-directed Elvis, to borrow David Riesman's famous fifties phrase, told Sun Records. His unique style extended from his dress to his art. The postwar star defied categorization. Critics labeled his music bebop, hillbilly, folk, country, and r&b, until finally settling on rock 'n' roll. Like his classmates, they sneered like snobs. The New York Times judged, "Mr. Presley has no discernable singing ability."
America disagreed. By late 1956, the phenom sold two-thirds of RCA's 45s. Between "Heartbreak Hotel" hitting #1 in April of 1956 and the induction of recruit #53310761 in March of 1958, the King reigned atop the singles sales charts for more than a year. Only a force as powerful as the U.S. Army could stop him.
Rather than overthrowing the American social order, Elvis was a product of it. Before his singing career, he mowed lawns, served as a theater usher, worked as a machinist, and drove a truck. He repeatedly affirmed his love of God and belief in the Bible. In these early years, he steered clear of drugs, alcohol, and cigarettes -- but not food or practical jokes. And even though girls literally ripped the clothes off his body, he generally stopped short of doing the same with his many dating partners. Above all, he loved his parents, lavishing a pink Cadillac and a mansion upon his mother before her death. The journey from the Lauderdale Courts housing project to Graceland was the American Dream on steroids.
Elvis enthralls 35 years after his death in part because of his contradictions. A mama's boy/rebel, the loner amidst the entourage, and the painfully shy performer who confidently commanded audiences remains an enigma. Thirty-five years from now, the world will still be talking about, imitating, and singing along with the King.
Americans loved Elvis because he was unique. Americans loved Elvis because he was America.
I saw Elvis Presley perform once in 1965. Like a lot of guys of the era, I did not like him--that is until I saw him perform in person. He performed in Wichita around 1976 while I was living in Mulvane and he stayed at the Hilton Hotel at Rock Road and Kellogg. I think that is now a Holiday Inn.
I was in Europe from 67-70, well after Pressley served over there.
There was a famous black singer who had become a multimillionaire from various hit recordings and had been drafted into the Army. He served without complaining also. I cannot recall his name but remember reading about him in a European English language newspaper. As near as I can recall, he was a truck driver in Manheim. That location would probably have put him in the 3rd Armored Division.
A newspaper interviewed him and the reporter, among other things, asked about his small E-5 (buck sergeant) pay, which at the bottom rung was around $230 a month.
"Oh that" he said, "I use it for stamps and miscellaneous."
....that A Scottish monster hunter named George Edwards has claimed to have caught the Loch Ness Monster on film.
(http://abcnews.go.com/images/Technology/ht_loch_ness_creature_inset_nt_120814_wblog.jpg)
Story at: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/howaboutthat/9449489/Has-the-Loch-Ness-monster-finally-been-caught-on-camera.html
I am skeptical about such things, but I get a kick out of cryptozoology... all of those Big Foot stories, Yeti sightings, and other mysterious creatures that allegedly live in the depths of lakes or forests or jungles and are sometimes glimpsed but never found. Do any of you believe in that stuff? Have any of you encountered, first or second or third hand, in person or in an oral tradition, any of the "cryptids" on this list? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_cryptids
Is Puma Punku Evidence of Ancient Aliens?....that at nearly 14,000 years old, the ruins of Puma Punku are the oldest and most baffling on the face of the Earth. No one knows who designed and built this complex of sophisticated inter-locking blocks, and then vanished. Researchers investigate the ruins on-location in Peru and present new computer analyses. Forensic evidence on the ground, together with local myths and legends, suggest this site may have been designed and even once inhabited by a species of extraterrestrials.
Puma Punku is a wondrous set of ruins located in the in the ancient city of Tiahuanaco of Bolivia. Filled with massive, precisely cut stones, these very ancient and mysterious ruins have baffled archaeologists and researchers for years. Ancient alien theorists believe that there may be only one explanation of such amazing workmanship, which dates back thousands of years: Aliens either created the ruins with advanced tools and machinery or they assisted humans in the task.
The mysteries of these ruins are how they were carved and how they were brought to the top of a plateau. The blocks that created the ruins of Puma Punku were made from very hard rocks of granite and diorite, which are both nearly impossible to cut with anything besides diamond, yet there is no trace of diamonds near the site.
In addition to the unknown tools that were used, people are also amazed by the the incisions that were made in the stones. The cuts are extremely fine and perfectly straight, with many pieces stacked or placed together with no spaces or mortar between them. The interlocking of the stones creates a precise puzzle of flawless pieces. Some of the straight grooves are only 1 cm deep, suggesting that a very advanced machine was responsible for creating such precision. Also, the holes that were formed into the stones are perfect, and all of equal depth, suggesting a high-tech drill of some kind was responsible.
The work done on these stones is advanced and would require the most sophisticated of tools, leaving many wondering how it would have been possible for men living in that area thousands of years ago. This work could have been created from 500 B.C. to the ice age. Even today with modern technology, it would be nearly impossible to replicate these ruins. This is why ancient alien theorists hypothesize that only aliens could be responsible for helping such primitive people create this work of art.
In addition to the extraordinary carvings and precise craftsmanship, the maneuvering of these stones is just as baffling. Many of the blocks weigh about 200 tons and some are as heavy as 450 tons and more. The question is, how in the world did these stones get on top of a 13,000 foot plateau and how were they moved into place to form the interlocked puzzles? While there are explanations of stones being rolled on tree trunks in other areas, this theory does not apply to Puma Punku because there are absolutely no trees on the plateau. There has not been an explanation of either the carving or maneuvering of these massive stones.
According to experts, whoever built the ruins of Puma Punku must have known mathematics and astronomy and would have had to draw plans and write. However, there is no evidence that these ancient people were involved with any of this. There are no drawings or writings anywhere on or near the ruins, nor is there any evidence that people of that time were capabale of such knowledge.
There are some who suggest that an advanced civilization of people lived in this area of Bolivia who had writings and plans for this amazing work, but a catastrophic event swept away the remains of the population and created the ruined look of the stones. There is some evidence to suggest that there was a great flood thousands of years ago that might have wiped out these ancient people and their records. However, this is just a theory.
The conclusion is that there is no good explanation for how these ruins were created. It continues to be a great mystery to this day that has many ancient alien supporters believing that Puma Punku is probably the most significant evidence that earth was visited by extraterrestrials in ancient times.
What Are Aliens Team?
"If we know where we come from, we'll know where we're going."
(http://mantoos.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/10/Puma-Punku.jpg)
(http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/59796077.jpg)
(http://mw2.google.com/mw-panoramio/photos/medium/9222743.jpg)[/font][/size]
Interesting of course, but 14,000 years ago the climate could have been much different with trees and different peoples. They are assuming that nothing has changed in 14,000 years. I suspect we may be badly short changing the ability of those people to understand rock and fracture it much as the Egyptians did later. Also, who said the work was really that old, and is it really granite, not sandstone, which is very common there. My nephew and girlfriend went to Machu Picchu not long ago, I'll ask him what he thinks. They researched the entire area before they went.
Quote from: Diane Amberg on August 23, 2012, 11:58:57 AM
Interesting of course, but 14,000 years ago the climate could have been much different with trees and different peoples. They are assuming that nothing has changed in 14,000 years. I suspect we may be badly short changing the ability of those people to understand rock and fracture it much as the Egyptians did later. Also, who said the work was really that old, and is it really granite, not sandstone, which is very common there. My nephew and girlfriend went to Machu Picchu not long ago, I'll ask him what he thinks. They researched the entire area before they went.
My son and his girlfriend were at Machu Picchu a couple of years ago. They climbed this mountain where this tourist ad picture was taken.
(http://www.htmlhelp.com/~liam/Peru/Cusco/MachuPicchu/MachuPicchu.jpg)
They were in S.A. for three weeks and one of those areas they covered was Puma Punku in Bolivia.
They just left tuesday for Cancun and the Mayan Pyramids in the Yucatan. They'll be back Sept. 10th.
As for 14,000 yrs. ago.... maybe ol' Harvey here had something to do in helping to create those ruins you see:(http://www.cruzine.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/336-alien.jpg)
(http://www.royaltyfreeclipartof.com/Images/Free-Clipart-of-Battery.jpg)
No "B" Batteries, What's The Deal?
....that around the time of World War I, American battery manufacturers, the War Industries Board, and a few government agencies got together to develop some nationally uniform specifications for the size of battery cells, their arrangement in batteries, their minimum performance criteria, and other standards.
In 1924, industry and government representatives met again to figure out a naming system for all those cells and batteries they had just standardized. They decided to base it around the alphabet, dubbing the smallest cells and single-cell batteries "A" and went from there to B, C and D. There was also a "No. 6″ battery that was larger than the others and pretty commonly used, so it was grandfathered in without a name change.
As battery technology changed and improved and new sizes of batteries were made, they were added to the naming system. When smaller batteries came along, they were designated AA and AAA. These newer batteries were the right size for the growing consumer electronics industry, so they caught on. C and D batteries also found a nice in medium- and high-drain applications. The mid-size A and B batteries simply didn't have a market and more or less disappeared in the U.S..
While you typically won't see either A or B batteries on American store shelves, they're still out there in the wild. A batteries were used in early-model laptop battery packs and some hobby battery packs. B batteries are still sometimes used in Europe for lanterns and bicycle lamps. According to Energizer, though, their popularity is dwindling there, too, and they might be completely discontinued.
I think Harvey needs a good meal! Uh,vegetarian that is. We enjoyed Chichan itza and Chac mool and all his spooky friends.The dzonot or cenotes were fascinating since all the rivers run underground, yet there is plenty of good water to be had.
Tardigrades or "Water bears" are the only creatures that can survive the extreme conditions in the vacuum of outer space.http://motherboard.vice.com/2012/9/4/motherboard-tv-meet-the-guy-who-hunts-space-bears-in-rural-virginia
(http://m.static.newsvine.com/servista/imagesizer?file=boyleC63AE37A-7C0E-3CF3-3539-A571199CACE7.jpg&width=600)
The flash on Jupiter is visible as a bright spot on the left edge of the planet's
disk, as seen in this photo image
http://cosmiclog.nbcnews.com/_news/2012/09/10/13789057-flash-spotted-on-jupiter-is-it-a-hit?lite
....that Jupiter took a massive hit for us? Did You happen to Thank Jupiter Today? And by Jupiter, I don't mean that goofy Roman god with the awful wife. I mean our friend, the planet. Jupiter took a hit for us today, and we owe it a debt of gratitude. An asteroid or comet clearly meant for Earth crashed into Jupiter instead. It's as if the whole point of the gassy behemoth were to deflect giant flying things from making it into Earth's orbit and possibly disrupting a wedding. Or our ass's... sorry, axis.
"It's kind of a scary proposition to see how often Jupiter gets hit," said George Hall, an amateur astronomer from Dallas who captured the flash on video this morning.
Hall didn't actually see the hit when it happened. Early this morning, he brought out his 12-inch Meade Schmidt-Cassegrain telescope with the Point Grey Flea3 video camera attached, just to capture imagery for a composite picture of Jupiter. "Jupiter happens to be ideally positioned at about 6 o'clock in the morning. It's right overhead." ...
Jupiter impacts are of great interest to astronomers, amateur and professional, because they're part of the orbital billiards game that has shaped our solar system. In some cases, the cosmic interloper is destroyed before it has any visible effect on Jupiter's cloud tops. In weightier cases, the object breaks up and leaves black marks on the planet's atmosphere. The case of Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 in 1994 is the most notable in recent memory. (according to: http://www.dailygalaxy.com/my_weblog/2010/02/is-jupiter-a-shield-protecting-earth-from-impacting-comets-asteroids-maybe-not-experts-say-.html )
Beyond the planetary science, there's the "phew" factor: Astronomers suspect that giant Jupiter's gravitational pull serves as a cosmic shield, sweeping up incoming objects that would have a deadlier effect if they were to slam into our planet. Some scientists say that without Jupiter, life on Earth wouldn't have had much of a chance. (emphasis emphasized by me)
Billiards game? I think not. We all know why Jupiter is where it is. So let's lift a flask of low-carb, nonalcoholic mead in honor of Jupiter. Here's to you, you fat freaking planet.
And hey... you stay classy, Sinope.
Those last two are really very interesting and would be great for discussion.
I wonder how many people would write off those interesting little creatures as something from Industrial Light and Magic. There have been many ,many projects and experiments that went up on the shuttles. I wish we could learn more about them, like that one on the tardigrades. That is so cool. Thank You.
(http://l1.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/h1_zc9ICJ_f8.JEoIkEkeQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7Y2g9MTkyMztjcj0xO2N3PTI5ODc7ZHg9MDtkeT0wO2ZpPXVsY3JvcDtoPTQwNjtxPTg1O3c9NjMw/http://media.zenfs.com/en_us/News/ap_webfeeds/4378301eaa08e2191a0f6a7067003dd0.jpg)
(http://s3-ec.buzzfed.com/static/imagebuzz/terminal01/2009/4/30/14/frozen-woolly-mammoth-baby-23068-1241115613-8.jpg)
(http://a57.foxnews.com/images/299650/450/350/1_21_mammoth_frozen_1.jpg)
http://news.yahoo.com/mammoth-fragments-siberia-raise-cloning-hopes-165221958.html
...that a Woolly mammoth remains found in Siberia may contain living cells
Hair, soft tissues and bone marrow found on Siberian expedition, raising hopes that extinct creature could be cloned
A Russian university says scientists have discovered frozen woolly mammoth fragments that may contain living cells deep in Siberia, bringing closer the possibility of cloning the extinct animal.
The North-Eastern Federal University said in a statement on Tuesday that an international team had discovered mammoth hair, soft tissues and bone marrow at a depth of 328ft (100m) during a summer expedition.
Expedition chief Semyon Grigoryev said a group of Korean scientists with the team had set a goal of finding living cells in the hope of cloning a mammoth. Scientists have previously found bodies and fragments, but not living cells.
Grigoryev told online newspaper Vzglyad it would take months of lab research to determine whether they have indeed found the cells.
Woolly mammoths are thought to have died out 10,000 years ago.
(http://amazingnotes.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/real-star-space.jpg)
So who knew? Had I not gone on John Kennedy's http://blog.beliefnet.com/faithmediaandculture/2012/08/film-asks-cosmic-question-did-god-create-the-universe.html ... blog, I would not have known that Barbara Nicolosi had coproduced with Fr. Robert J. Spitzer, S.J., a new documentary, Cosmic Origins... "mind-expanding film about creation, science, and faith" ...featuring an embarrassment of Christian riches opining on how a close examination of the physics of the universe points to more than just order but order with a purpose.
The documentary is hosted by Stephen Barr of the University of Delaware and teacher Angela Baraquio Grey, and features interviews with Nobel laureate Arno Penzias, Templeton Prize winners John Polkinghorne and Michael Heller, astronomers Jennifer Wiseman and Owen Gingerich, and theoretical particle physicist Lisa Randall (who's from Queens, NY).
Check out the film's website for screenings near you. Then watch the trailer here:
....that this is an homage to a selection of pioneers, engineers, inventors and scientists. There is a choice quote from each of them. They are presented in no particular order, but there is a common theme. Can you work out what it is?
Sir Christopher Cockerell (1910-1999)
Sir Christopher Cockerell invented the Hovercraft in 1953. His first prototype was built using a hair-dryer and a pair of tin cans (one was a coffee can, the other a food can).
"Hovercraft will always be around... you can't un-invent something!"
Charles Babbage (1791-1871)
Charles Babbage was the great-grandfather of the computer.
His Difference Engine was the first programmable mechanical computer. Not a bad achievement for someone whose parents ordered his teachers that his "brain was not to be taxed too much" after suffering a childhood fever. Interestingly, you can still see his brain today; it's sitting in a jar in the London Science Museum.
I like the following quote he once made, "Errors using inadequate data are much less than those using no data at all."
Michael Faraday (1797-1867)
Faraday was a chemist as well a a physicist. He established the basis for the electromagnetic field, discovered Benzene, the Bunsen Burner (though obviously it was not named after him) and built the first electric DC motor. He has been described as the best experimentalist in the history of science.
"The five essential entrepreneurial skills for success are concentration, discrimination, organization, innovation and communication."
R. J. Mitchell (1895-1936)
R. J. Mitchell was the designer of what is, without question, the most beautiful plane every built (with Concorde coming in second). Not only good looking, but also aerodynamically perfect, with elliptically loaded wings.
A prolific engineer with 24 aircraft designs to his name, his S6B was winner of the Schneider Trophy race and later broke the air speed record.
And remember his advice, "If anybody ever tells you anything about an aeroplane which is so bloody complicated you can't understand it, take it from me: it's all balls."
Sir Alexander Flemming (1881-1955)
With his discovery of Penicillin in 1928 (for which he later received the Nobel Prize), Flemming changed the course of history and saved countless millions of lives.
"One sometimes finds what one is not looking for."
George Stephenson (1781-1848)
Father of the Steam Engine, and co-inventor of a miners safety lamp.
Not only did he build the first steam locomotive, but he also built the World's first public railway line. It's his railway line that is the origin of standard gauge (4 ft 8½ in) now used by the majority of the World's railways.
I like standards.
Sir Timothy John "Tim" Berners-Lee (1955- )
Inventor of the web. Without him, you'd not be reading this now.
"Data is a precious thing and will last longer than the systems themselves."
Sir Frank Whittle (1907-1996)
The inventor of the Jet Engine, the device that shrank our planet.
Before the jet, aircraft were propeller driven vehicles; those that could afford to travel would cruise about in "flying boats" with the journey itself being just as important as the destination. With the jet engine came speed, and now aircraft are just the mechanism to get to the destination.
"A nation's ability to fight a modern war is as good as its technological ability."
John MacAdam (1756-1836)
The inventor of a better surface for roadways than soil and mud!
Transportation of everything got easier, and with good roads personal transportation (cars) became more prolific.
"The thickness of the road should only be regulated by the quantity of material necessary to form such impervious covering and never by reference to its own power of carrying weight."
Alan Turing (1912-1954)
A mathematician, cryptanalist, and one of the World's first Computer Scientists.
He was influential in creating the first modern electronic computer and, with his code breaking colleagues, probably shortened WWII by two or three years.
"A computer would deserve to be called intelligent if it could deceive a human into believing that it was human."
Sir Henry Bessemer (1813-1898)
Henry invented the process to mass-produce steel.
Inexpensive and rapid production of steel was essential for the production skyscrapers, factories and, well, pretty much everything made out of steel. Steel is still made the same way today.
"I had an immense advantage over many others dealing with the problem inasmuch as I had no fixed ideas derived from long-established practice to control and bias my mind, and did not suffer from the general belief that whatever is, is right."
Charles MacIntosh (1766-1843)
A chemist, and inventor of waterproof fabrics.
Credited with the invention of the waterproof coat that still bears his family name. (Created by disolving India-rubber in a solvent of naphtha).
Sorry, no interesting quote!
Sir Robert Watson-Watt (1892-1973)
After initial passive experiements to detect lightning (with the aim of enabling pilots to avoid approaching thunderstorms), his idea morphed into the active RADAR invention we know today.
It was another invention that greatly shortned the war and undoubtedly saved many lives.
Ironically, later in life, Watson-Watt was pulled over in Canada for speeding by a policeman toting a radar gun. He is reported as saying:
"Had I known what you were going to do with it I would never have invented it!"
George Cayley (1773-1857)
The first person to define mechanical flight (way back in 1799), and the principles of aerodynamics.
He designed the first glider to (succesfully) carry a human aloft. His tri-plane, built in 1853, was piloted by his coach-driver and flew 900 feet across a small valley to become the first pracitcal heavier-than-air flying machine. This was fifty years before the Wright Brothers mades their first powered flight! He understood that powered flight could not be achieved until a light-weight engine was developed to give the thrust and lift required.
"To make a surface support a given weight by the application of power to the resistance of air"
A forward thinker too, in 1809 he said:
"I may be expediting the attainment of an object that will in time be found of great importance to mankind; so much so, that a new era in society will commence from the moment that aerial navigation is familiarly realised... I feel perfectly confident, however, that this noble art will soon be brought home to man's convenience, and that we shall be able to transport ourselves and our families, and their goods and chattels, more securely by air than by water"
He spoke that over 200 years ago!
In his spare time, he also invented a new type of telescope, artificial limbs and a caterpillar tractor.
Common theme:
(http://datagenetics.com/blog/december22010/uk.jpg)
Did you work out the common theme? That's right, all the above people are British.
Want more?
How about James Hargreaves, the inventor of the Spinning-Jenny which, in 1764, greatly sped up the production of cloth?
Sir John Douglas Cockcroft and Ernest Walton who split the atom? Not forgeting Ernest Rutherford who became known as the "father of physics" for his pioneering work on the atom.
Or Humphry Davy the surgeon who first used laughing gas, and co-invented the safety lamp.
Wilford Sweeney earned 23 patents ranging from acrylonitrile/styrenesulfonic acid, Nomex, carbon fibre, semiconductive fibre, and a new solvent for aromatic polyamides.
There are plenty of prolific engineers and bridge builders too, like Thomas Telford, Joseph Locke, George Bidder, Isambard Kingdom Brunel, William Jessop, Charles Vignoles, Benjamin Baker
(Neville) Barnes Wallice designed airships, WWII bombers, geodesic airframes, earthquake bombs and the famous Bouncing Bombs of the Dambusters Raids.
Sir Joseph Whitworth (the World's Best Mechanician) pioneered the rifled breech loading gun, and the process of fluid-compression to make the steel, and is also responsible for the standard for screw thread angles at 55° with a standard pitch for a given diameter. (Have I mentioned that I like standards?) He also built a knitting machine and horse-drawn mechanical roadsweeper.
I almost forgot about the scientists:
Charles Darwin, Robert Boyle, Richard Dawkins, Francis Crick, Paul Dirac, Robert Hooke, Stephen Hawking. Anyone heard of Isaac Newton?
Edward Jenner discovered the efficacious protection that cowpox gives against smallpox.
Thomas Young partly deciphered the Rosetta Stone, and John Dunlop invented the pneumatic tyre.
The internet is a good place to dive into investigation in the true inventors of the TV, and the first bicycle with foot pedals and chloroform... There is slightly less dispute about Alexander Graham Bell for the telephone, and no dispute about Alexander Bain for the fax machine.
Some people complain about their jobs. I doubt this guy gets paid a ton of money. Warning: this has to do with animal husbandry.
From Warph:
Woolly mammoths are thought to have died out 10,000 years ago.
Warph,
That is something I seriously doubt, but that's just my uneducated opinion. Too many Natives talk about them and the mastodons like the stories were passed from not too many generations ago .
Sometimes I think highly educated scientists come up with crap just to make themselves look like geniuses and get their name in a book.
Kinda like a Sandia point I found, artifact hunting. So ancient it probably pre-dates T-Rex ---oh wait---maybe it doesn't !!!! ;)
I remember hearing a story about some wooly mammoth or mastadon being served in NY City for $500 back in the 80's or 90's. I think it was found IQF (individually quick frozen) in Russia.
http://www.straightdope.com/columns/read/2725/prehistoric-its-whats-for-dinner
It was reported today that some 250,000 (that is a quarter million) people are leaving the state of California every year............
So I did some math.........
Assuming no one would want to move to California, and using the census figures, there were, in 2010, 37,253, 956 people in this state. Now, if a quarter million people are leaving each year, then that figure is now reduced to 36,795,623, or so, by the end of this month.
Which means, that in the year 2159 on or about Christmas Day, I will be the only one left living here.
Scary thought. :'(
Larryj
....that the Hubble Telescope Traveled 13.2 Billion Years into the Past and finds lost episode of 'The Honeymooners' ...amazing, huh?
Okay... just kidding. Actually it was "Leave It To Beaver."
Seriously tho', it's only 450 million years after the Big Bang! To put it into perspective, that's roughly the time it takes for a letter to get from Phoenix to Tucson via the Post Office.(http://asset1.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/09/25/xdf_screen.jpg)
The Hubble eXtreme Deep Field, made up of some 2,000 images taken over a decade, provides a stunning
"time tunnel" capturing light from dim proto galaxies within 500 million years of the big bang.
(Credit: NASA )
http://news.cnet.com/8301-11386_3-57520234-76/hubble-looks-back-13.2-billion-years-in-deepest-view-yet/
"The XDF is the deepest image of the sky ever obtained and reveals the faintest and most distant galaxies ever seen," Garth Illingworth, a Hubble researcher at the University of California at Santa Cruz, said in a NASA statement. "XDF allows us to explore further back in time than ever before."
Earlier observations of pulsating Cepheid variable stars in remote galaxies allowed Hubble astronomers to conclude the universe is roughly 13.7 billion years old. The XDF photograph represents a look back across time from the present to within 450 million years of the big bang, showing the broad spectrum of galactic evolution in a single image.
Mature spiral galaxies that look similar to Earth's Milky Way and nearby Andromeda can be seen, along with spherical ellipticals and smaller, dimmer infant galaxies from much further back in time.
(http://asset0.cbsistatic.com/cnwk.1d/i/tim/2012/09/25/moon_field.jpg)
The Hubble eXtreme Deep Field is made up of images shot
in the same small region of the southern Fornax constellation.
The full moon is shown for comparison.
(Credit: NASA )
"So we [see] a time when the first galaxies were forming, the metals, all the elements that make our bodies, make the Earth and basically our whole solar system were starting to be built up in this time," said Illingworth. "So it was a time...when the universe was being transformed, the first galaxies were being built up, a dramatic time in the life of the universe."
Dramatic, I'll say. What with prom and getting into a good college and preparing that first resume (especially in an economy that was probably pretty bleak).
Soooooo... basically we took a picture of the past from the present, which of course is the past's future. Can we send a copy of the future to the past, so it will know what to expect and maybe think twice about the whole thing?
Quote from: larryJ on September 26, 2012, 10:09:39 AM
It was reported today that some 250,000 (that is a quarter million) people are leaving the state of California every year............
So I did some math.........
Assuming no one would want to move to California, and using the census figures, there were, in 2010, 37,253, 956 people in this state. Now, if a quarter million people are leaving each year, then that figure is now reduced to 36,795,623, or so, by the end of this month.
Which means, that in the year 2159 on or about Christmas Day, I will be the only one left living here.
Scary thought. :'(
Larryj
Yeah... I'd cry too. Let's see, that would make you about 116 years old.
(http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=i.4657295766390065&pid=1.9)
Okay... I also did the numbers: http://www.manhattan-institute.org/html/cr_71.htm#.UGHwe7R7Ws2
...and, by cracky... you're right! ;D
Warph, did you do well in math in school? I think the number here is 216 years old. :laugh:
Larryj
Okay... Warph,
(http://verybadfrog.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/03/Keep-calm-and-do-the-math.jpeg)
(http://wejungo.files.wordpress.com/2011/06/do_the_math.jpg)(http://www.careerrocketeer.com/wp-content/uploads/Do-The-Math.jpg)(http://bookmarkblogs.com/_data/userpics/big_thumb/do-the-math.jpg)(http://www.aroundphilly.com/blog/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/do-the-math.jpeg)(http://www.gagful.com/uploads/2012_8/1345808957_Do_the_math_gag.jpg)(http://www.piggybankblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/do-the-math-hoodie-300x300.gif)(http://weldbham.com/secondfront/files/2012/02/KoronisFest2011Poster2_Do_the_Math.jpg)(http://www.demotivationalposters.org/image/demotivational-poster/small/1101/do-the-math-woman-problem-math-demotivational-posters-1294769017.jpg)(http://www.myhomeamongthehills.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/02/math-poster-240x300.jpg)(http://www.jackanthonyphotography.com/posters/thumbnails/do-the-math-t.jpg)(http://themotivationalposters.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/math-jokes-motivational-poster-314.jpg)(http://www.movieposter.com/posters/archive/main/60/MPW-30260)(http://rlv.zcache.co.uk/science_rules_math_poster-rf861221c4bd5412388282023eef89fc7_w2q_400.jpg)(http://angrymathtchr.files.wordpress.com/2011/01/math-demotivational-poster-1231165554.jpg)(http://www.enasco.com/prod/images/products/BC/VC106435l.jpg)(http://rlv.zcache.ca/math_poster-rb543506a631a46769624164763920c03_w2q_400.jpg)(http://www.mathsquad.com/poster.gif)(http://math.chapman.edu/~jipsen/mathposters/pithumbnail.jpg)
(http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=I.4908194859712512&pid=1.7&w=210&h=137&c=7&rs=1) 216.49793455382679625668773862117498870.13 years old to be precise!
First commercial cargo flight heading to International Space StationBy the CNN Wire Staff
October 8, 2012 -- Updated 0220 GMT (1020 HKT)(http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/120522030723-spacex-04-vertical-gallery.jpg)
....that the SpaceX rocket, the first commercial flight to the International Space Station, lifted off Sunday night carrying an unmanned cargo capsule.
The Falcon 9 rocket with its Dragon capsule launched on schedule at 8:35 p.m. ET from Cape Canaveral, Florida, with an orange blaze against the black night sky. About 10 minutes into the flight, the Dragon separated from the rocket and was on its way to the station.
Mission control called it "a picture-perfect launch and a flawless flight of Falcon."
(http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/121008125024-spacex-launch-horizontal-gallery.jpg)
It is is the first of a dozen NASA-contracted flights to resupply the International Space Station, at a total cost of $1.6 billion.
"It's a great evening," said SpaceX President Gwynne Shotwell after the launch. "It's just awesome."
The launch comes nearly five months after a demonstration mission in which a Dragon capsule successfully berthed at the station and returned to Earth. Shotwell said the Sunday mission isn't "substantially different" from that flight, "with the exception that we got there once."
The unmanned capsule is packed with about 1,000 pounds of cargo -- everything from low-sodium food kits to clothing and computer hard drives. It's scheduled to return in late October with about 2,000 pounds of cargo, including scientific experiments and failed equipment that can be repaired and sent back, ISS Program Manager Mike Suffredini said.
"These flights are critical to the space station's sustainment and to begin full utilization of the space station for research and technology development," he said.
The Dragon spacecraft is supposed to catch up with the space station early Wednesday. Station Commander Sunita Williams and Aki Hoshide from the Japanese Space Agency will use the robotic arm to grab Dragon and berth it to the station.
Much of Dragon's cargo is material to support extensive experimentation aboard the space station. One deals with plant growth. Plants on Earth use about 50% of their energy for support to overcome gravity. Researchers want to understand how the genes that control that process would operate in microgravity -- when objects are in free-fall in space. Down the road, that could benefit food supplies here on the planet.
The spacecraft is also carrying nearly two dozen microgravity experiments designed and being flown through the Student Experiment Spaceflight Program.
SpaceX is not the only commercial company in the spacefaring business. Within the next few months, Orbital Sciences is expected to fly its own demonstration flight to the space station. Instead of using Cape Canaveral as its launch site, the company's rocket will take off from Wallops Island off the coast of Virginia.
Orbital has a nearly $2 billion contract with NASA for station resupply missions.
Shuttle makes final landing
SpaceX founder Elon Musk is looking well beyond just these cargo flights to the station. SpaceX is one of three companies NASA has selected to continue work developing a human-rated spacecraft that would carry astronauts to the International Space Station.
Boeing and Sierra Nevada are the other two companies.
The SpaceX plan is to modify the Dragon capsule to carry people.
NASA Administror Charles Bolden praised Sunday's launch as an example of private industry's capability. By hiring private companies to conduct the resupply missions, he said, NASA can focus on exploring even deeper in the solar system, including missions to an asteroid and to Mars.
Did you know that the stock-ticker symbol for the auction house, Sotheby's, is BID.......appropriate.
George Burn's wife, Gracie Allen, ran for president in 1940 on the "Surprise Party" ticket.
The award for the most expensive suitcase in the world goes to Henk. The Henk suitcase was created by Henk van de Meene, who runs a real estate business. He designed a suitcase for his personal use. The suitcase is custom made in the Netherlands. According to the company website, it is carried by only eight stores in seven countries. It costs over $1,000 and is not found in the U.S.
Larryj
Quote from: larryJ on October 18, 2012, 09:24:15 AM
George Burn's wife, Gracie Allen, ran for president in 1940 on the "Surprise Party" ticket.
Larryj
We have sixteen people on the ballot running for President here in Colorado.
Included is Roseanne Barr and Cindy Lee Sheehan on the Peace and Freedom Party.
(http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/02372/BMBA29_2372236b.jpg)
...that a new theory put forward by Harvard scientists suggests the Moon was once part of the Earth that spun off after a giant collision with another body. :-\
In a paper published on Wednesday in the journal Science, Sarah Stewart and Matija Cuk said their theory would explain why the Earth and Moon have similar composition and chemistry.
The Earth was spinning much faster at the time the Moon was formed, and a day lasted only two to three hours, they said.
With the Earth spinning so quickly, a giant impact could have launched enough of the Earth's material to form a moon, the scientists said in an explanation published on a Harvard website.
According to the new theory, the Earth later reached its current rate of spinning through gravitational interaction between its orbit around the Sun and the Moon's orbit around Earth.
The scientists noted that their proposition differed from the current leading theory, which holds that the Moon was created from material from a giant body that struck the Earth.
Stewart is a professor of earth and planetary sciences at Harvard, and Cuk, an astronomer and an investigator at the SETI Institute, which supports research into the search for extraterrestrial life.
HARVARD?? :P
Why Do Men Have Nipples?
Brace yourselves for a low blow, tough guy. Nipples remind us that gender is anything but clear-cut, especially in utero. Whatever your sex, everyone starts off as a woman in the womb... tho' some experts despute this.
For the first several weeks a developing embryo follows a "female blueprint," from reproductive organs to nipples. Only after about 60 days does the hormone testosterone kick in (for those of us with a Y chromosome), changing the genetic activity of cells in the genitals and brain. But by then those mammary papillae aren't going anywhere.
So the real question is: why do male nipples come equipped with nerves and blood vessels? In many male mammals nipple formation is stunted by hormones, but not in humans. Did prehistoric men nurse their young? The lack of evidence suggests not. More likely, full-grown nipples—being harmless—don't get weeded out by natural selection.
There's a new theory on why men love breasts.
Why do straight men devote so much headspace to those big, bulbous bags of fat drooping from women's chests? Scientists have never satisfactorily explained men's curious breast fixation, but now, a neuroscientist has struck upon an explanation that he says "just makes a lot of sense."
Larry Young, a professor of psychiatry at Emory University who studies the neurological basis of complex social behaviors, thinks human evolution has harnessed an ancient neural circuit that originally evolved to strengthen the mother-infant bond during breast-feeding, and now uses this brain circuitry to strengthen the bond between couples as well. The result? Men, like babies, love breasts.
When a woman's nipples are stimulated during breast-feeding, the neurochemical oxytocin, otherwise known as the "love drug," floods her brain, helping to focus her attention and affection on her baby. But research over the past few years has shown that in humans, this circuitry isn't reserved for exclusive use by infants.
Recent studies have found that nipple stimulation enhances sexual arousal in the great majority of women, and it activates the same brain areas as vaginal and clitoral stimulation. When a sexual partner touches, massages or nibbles a woman's breasts, Young said, this triggers the release of oxytocin in the woman's brain, just like what happens when a baby nurses. But in this context, the oxytocin focuses the woman's attention on her sexual partner, strengthening her desire to bond with this person.
In other words, men can make themselves more desirable by stimulating a woman's breasts during foreplay and sex. Evolution has, in a sense, made men want to do this.
Attraction to breasts "is a brain organization effect that occurs in straight males when they go through puberty," Young told Life's Little Mysteries. "Evolution has selected for this brain organization in men that makes them attracted to the breasts in a sexual context, because the outcome is that it activates the female bonding circuit, making women feel more bonded with him. It's a behavior that males have evolved in order to stimulate the female's maternal bonding circuitry." [Why Do Men Have Nipples?]
So, why did this evolutionary change happen in humans, and not in other breast-feeding mammals? Young thinks it's because we form monogamous relationships, whereas 97 percent of mammals do not. "Secondly, it might have to do with the fact that we are upright and have face-to-face sex, which provides more opportunity for nipple stimulation during sex. In monogamous voles, for example, the nipples are hanging toward the ground and the voles mate from behind, so this didn't evolve," he said. "So, maybe the nature of our sexuality has allowed greater access to the breasts."
Young said competing theories of men's breast fixation don't stand up to scrutiny. For example, the argument that men tend to select full-breasted women because they think these women's breast fat will make them better at nourishing babies falls short when one considers that "sperm is cheap" compared with eggs, and men don't need to be choosy.
But Young's new theory will face scrutiny of its own. Commenting on the theory, Rutgers University anthropologist Fran Mascia-Lees, who has written extensively about the evolutionary role of breasts, said one concern is that not all men are attracted to them. "Always important whenever evolutionary biologists suggest a universal reason for a behavior and emotion: how about the cultural differences?" Mascia-Lees wrote in an email. In some African cultures, for example, women don't cover their breasts, and men don't seem to find them so, shall we say, titillating.
Young says that just because breasts aren't covered in these cultures "doesn't mean that massaging them and stimulating them is not part of the foreplay in these cultures. As of yet, there are not very many studies that look at [breast stimulation during foreplay] in an anthropological context," he said.
Young elaborates on his theory of breast love, and other neurological aspects of human sexuality, in a new book, "The Chemistry Between Us" (Current Hardcover, 2012), co-authored by Brian Alexander.
(http://thebeausejourpulpit.files.wordpress.com/2012/05/end-of-the-world.jpg)
The end of the world (but not as we know It)
A Q&A with Craig Childs, who tells a tale of a slow but steady doomsday
By Rachel Feltman | Posted October 31, 2012
Craig Childs is a modern-day adventurer. A commentator for National Public Radio's Morning Edition and author of several books on the natural sciences, Childs traveled across the globe to write "Apocalyptic Planet: Field Guide to the End of the World." Published in October 2012, the book chronicles Childs' journey to a better understanding, through firsthand exposure, of just how the earth is changing.
In your book, you go looking for different disaster scenarios around the world. How did you choose which locations to visit?
I sat down and looked at the planet and thought about all the ways it could end, from smallest to biggest. I wanted to go as far out as a planet with no more water, but I also wanted to look at more immediate problems like global sea rising and ice melting. I came up with about nine endings, so I just went out into the world to find places to match them. For sea level rise, I went to the last standing remnant of the land bridge at the Bering Strait, and so on.
You have a great way of alternating a personal narrative with very in-depth scientific information. Did you have that knowledge going in, or did you research the climate science behind your observations after visiting your "apocalypses"?
Both. I did a lot of research leading up to each trip, but afterwards I'd say, "Now that I've seen this, now that I've stood there and watched how fast ice can disappear" ... The landscape itself is what generates the questions, so when I finished a trip there'd be tons of research to do. In the end I took a lot of it out, because I didn't want to overload it with so much science that a nonscientist couldn't withstand it. It's a tricky balance!
Who exactly are you trying to reach with this book, and what do you want them to take away from it?
I want this to be read by people who just can't wait for the apocalypse to come. I want them to fall into this book and think, "Oh great, we're going to get all the grizzly details." They will, but not in the way they're thinking. I'm trying to sneak into their folds and say, "Hey apocalypse people, the end is not coming, but there are many changes that you will consider to be end-like, and you've got to do something about that."
You end the book with an analogy of the earth as a seed: We are not gardeners, but part of the seed itself. Is this how you felt going in?
I went in thinking we were stewards, but I realized that we're not in charge of this, we're just a major player. This isn't ours to take care of. We can change the way we play and what we put into it, but we're not in charge of it. I've been afraid that people would see my attitude towards the earth and think, oh, the earth is going to be fine, we don't have to change anything, but I'm trying to say that the planet is unstable. We may just be an effect, but we're a major one, and we're changing the earth and the fate of every species on earth.
(http://breakingtunes.s3.amazonaws.com/profilepictures/906/large/906.jpg?1321720062)
....that here's a thought: How did different skin colors evolve? Evolutionary biologist Nina Jablonski wrote the most widely accepted theory in 2000, saying that it comes down to a practical combination of three things: skin, ultraviolet light and vitamins.
(http://scienceline.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/1.png)
It started with skin...
The story begins in Africa, about two million years ago, when early members of the genus Homo began moving from the cool cover of forests onto sunnier open plains to find food. These early humans were densely covered in hair, which increased their body temperatures and made them slower hunters.
Thanks to genetic variation, some were born with less hair. Since those less-hairy hominids had a survival advantage, natural selection kicked in over thousands of generations, and body hair gave way to bare skin populated by sweat glands. These became the body's escape route for heat and created a further evolutionary advantage for these humans by making them more effective hunters and therefore, more attractive mates.
(http://scienceline.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/2.png)
UV and vitamins:
Moving to a sunnier environment meant greater exposure to ultraviolet light (UV) from the sun. UV breaks down folate, a vitamin that is vital for healthy pregnancies
(http://scienceline.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/3.png)
"When you don't have hair, you have to figure out other ways to protect the skin," explains Jablonski. This was especially important in the African tropics, where ultraviolet, carried in sunlight, hits the equator full-force.
Natural sunscreen:
But just as some early humans got lucky by having less hair, some were also born with better protection from UV. Melanin is an ingredient in the skin that acts like a natural sunscreen, shielding folate from the harmful effects of UV light. The amount of melanin in skin determines its pigmentation: more of it makes darker brown skin, while less melanin makes paler skin. Those of our ancestors lucky enough to have more melanin were at a reproductive advantage, allowing them to spread the genes that encourage the production of darker skin.
(http://scienceline.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/4.png)
But wait, there's more:
We know that our ancestors started moving out of Africa about 80 000 years ago. "They didn't have a travel plan," says Jablonski, "they were just going where the resources went." They migrated north and south of the equator, where light hits the earth at increasingly slanted angles, resulting in weaker UV light. While this low angle made UV less damaging to folate, it also reduced bodily concentrations of Vitamin D, the "sunshine vitamin."
(http://scienceline.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/5.png)
Vitamin D is made naturally in the body when UV in sunlight hits the skin. Just like folate, it is vital for reproduction. But because humans had developed higher melanin levels to protect them from the tropical sun, they left Africa with a powerful melanin buffer that dangerously shut out the delivery of Vitamin D-producing UV.
http://www.worldology.com/Europe/Europe_Articles/out_of_africa.htm
(http://scienceline.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/6.png)
The spread of color:
However, those born with less melanin (and lighter skin) could still produce Vitamin D in environments with less sunlight. Having less melanin was also safe at higher latitudes, because UV there is not strong enough to damage folate. So, once again, natural selection took over: The genetically lucky grew stronger, spreading their light-skinned genes. Wherever direct sunlight was scarce, populations became paler — something Jablonski calls genetic "fine-tuning." She explains: "We think that the transition was actually fairly short", maybe 5,000 years — which is quick in evolutionary terms. The serious health impacts of having darker skin in high latitudes created a powerful evolutionary pressure that sped up the change.
(http://scienceline.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/7-400x122.png)
But does it make sense?
Why then are there indigenous darker-skinned populations in less sunny parts of the world — for example, the Inuit in northern Canada? The answer appears to be that their diets are so loaded with Vitamin D-rich seafood that they get a surplus of the vitamin, making lighter skin unnecessary. This made adaptation equally unnecessary, and so in these populations, it stopped the evolution of skin color in its tracks.
What we have learned:
The links between ultraviolet light and vitamins are an evolutionary balancing act, the consequences of which are so clear that there are maps showing how skin color varies with distance from the equator, creating a sepia rainbow.
http://www.brynmawr.edu/alumnae/bulletin/jablonsk.htm
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_3RTwVkEl65k/TUsnW6gXSlI/AAAAAAAACNM/636kIAI95AM/s1600/skinmap_540.jpg)
(http://scienceline.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/9.png)
Why should we care about skin color? For at least two reasons. The first is that the evolution of skin pigmentation shows the importance of vitamin health. More importantly, understanding the real causes of skin color variation is a powerful way to challenge some deeply entrenched — and false — ideas about race and the acceptability of racial discrimination.
Jablonski's work shows that skin color, an attribute that has been at the center of so much conflict and suffering in human history, really is just skin deep. Our skin might make us look distinct on the outside, but it obscures a simple truth: Race is in fact nothing more than an environmental adaptation. It all boils down to sunlight and vitamins in the end.
Did you know.........
Sports Illustrated, a weekly magazine dedicated to sports was first published on Aug. 16, 1954. The cover was a picture of a nighttime baseball game between the Milwaukee Braves and the New York Giants. The cover featured Eddie Matthews of the Braves batting, Wes Westrum of the Giants catching and umpire Augie Donatelli behind the plate. The single-issue price was 25 cents.
The first Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition was launched on Jan. 20, 1964, with German model Babette March on the cover.
Larryj
How to Devise Passwords That Drive Hackers AwayBy NICOLE PERLROTH(http://www.free-hdwallpapers.com/wallpapers/technology/79816.jpg)
....that not long after I began writing about cybersecurity, I became a paranoid caricature of my former self. It's hard to maintain peace of mind when hackers remind me every day, all day, just how easy it is to steal my personal data.
Within weeks, I set up unique, complex passwords for every Web site, enabled two-step authentication for my e-mail accounts, and even covered up my computer's Web camera with a piece of masking tape — a precaution that invited ridicule from friends and co-workers who suggested it was time to get my head checked.
But recent episodes offered vindication. I removed the webcam tape — after a friend convinced me that it was a little much — only to see its light turn green a few days later, suggesting someone was in my computer and watching. More recently, I received a text message from Google with the two-step verification code for my Gmail account. That's the string of numbers Google sends after you correctly enter the password to your Gmail account, and it serves as a second password. (Do sign up for it.) The only problem was that I was not trying to get into my Gmail account. I was nowhere near a computer. Apparently, somebody else was.
It is absurdly easy to get hacked. All it takes is clicking on one malicious link or attachment. Companies' computer systems are attacked every day by hackers looking for passwords to sell on auctionlike black market sites where a single password can fetch $20. Hackers regularly exploit tools like John the Ripper, a free password-cracking program that use lists of commonly used passwords from breached sites and can test millions of passwords per second.
Chances are, most people will get hacked at some point in their lifetime. The best they can do is delay the inevitable by avoiding suspicious links, even from friends, and manage their passwords. Unfortunately, good password hygiene is like flossing — you know it's important, but it takes effort. How do you possibly come up with different, hard-to-crack passwords for every single news, social network, e-commerce, banking, corporate and e-mail account and still remember them all?
To answer that question, I called two of the most (justifiably) paranoid people I know, Jeremiah Grossman and Paul Kocher, to find out how they keep their information safe. Mr. Grossman was the first hacker to demonstrate how easily somebody can break into a computer's webcam and microphone through a Web browser. He is now chief technology officer at WhiteHat Security, an Internet and network security firm, where he is frequently targeted by cybercriminals. Mr. Kocher, a well-known cryptographer, gained notice for clever hacks on security systems. He now runs Cryptography Research, a security firm that specializes in keeping systems hacker-resistant. Here were their tips:
FORGET THE DICTIONARY If your password can be found in a dictionary, you might as well not have one. "The worst passwords are dictionary words or a small number of insertions or changes to words that are in the dictionary," said Mr. Kocher. Hackers will often test passwords from a dictionary or aggregated from breaches. If your password is not in that set, hackers will typically move on.
NEVER USE THE SAME PASSWORD TWICE People tend to use the same password across multiple sites, a fact hackers regularly exploit. While cracking into someone's professional profile on LinkedIn might not have dire consequences, hackers will use that password to crack into, say, someone's e-mail, bank, or brokerage account where more valuable financial and personal data is stored.
COME UP WITH A PASSPHRASE The longer your password, the longer it will take to crack. A password should ideally be 14 characters or more in length if you want to make it uncrackable by an attacker in less than 24 hours. Because longer passwords tend to be harder to remember, consider a passphrase, such as a favorite movie quote, song lyric, or poem, and string together only the first one or two letters of each word in the sentence.
OR JUST JAM ON YOUR KEYBOARD For sensitive accounts, Mr. Grossman says that instead of a passphrase, he will randomly jam on his keyboard, intermittently hitting the Shift and Alt keys, and copy the result into a text file which he stores on an encrypted, password-protected USB drive. "That way, if someone puts a gun to my head and demands to know my password, I can honestly say I don't know it."
STORE YOUR PASSWORDS SECURELY Do not store your passwords in your in-box or on your desktop. If malware infects your computer, you're toast. Mr. Grossman stores his password file on an encrypted USB drive for which he has a long, complex password that he has memorized. He copies and pastes those passwords into accounts so that, in the event an attacker installs keystroke logging software on his computer, they cannot record the keystrokes to his password. Mr. Kocher takes a more old-fashioned approach: He keeps password hints, not the actual passwords, on a scrap of paper in his wallet. "I try to keep my most sensitive information off the Internet completely," Mr. Kocher said.
A PASSWORD MANAGER? MAYBE Password-protection software lets you store all your usernames and passwords in one place. Some programs will even create strong passwords for you and automatically log you in to sites as long as you provide one master password. LastPass, SplashData and AgileBits offer password management software for Windows, Macs and mobile devices. But consider yourself warned: Mr. Kocher said he did not use the software because even with encryption, it still lived on the computer itself. "If someone steals my computer, I've lost my passwords." Mr. Grossman said he did not trust the software because he didn't write it. Indeed, at a security conference in Amsterdam earlier this year, hackers demonstrated how easily the cryptography used by many popular mobile password managers could be cracked.
IGNORE SECURITY QUESTIONS There is a limited set of answers to questions like "What is your favorite color?" and most answers to questions like "What middle school did you attend?" can be found on the Internet. Hackers use that information to reset your password and take control of your account. Earlier this year, a hacker claimed he was able to crack into Mitt Romney's Hotmail and Dropbox accounts using the name of his favorite pet. A better approach would be to enter a password hint that has nothing to do with the question itself. For example, if the security question asks for the name of the hospital in which you were born, your answer might be: "Your favorite song lyric."
USE DIFFERENT BROWSERS Mr. Grossman makes a point of using different Web browsers for different activities. "Pick one browser for 'promiscuous' browsing: online forums, news sites, blogs — anything you don't consider important," he said. "When you're online banking or checking e-mail, fire up a secondary Web browser, then shut it down." That way, if your browser catches an infection when you accidentally stumble on an X-rated site, your bank account is not necessarily compromised. As for which browser to use for which activities, a study last year by Accuvant Labs of Web browsers — including Mozilla Firefox, Google Chrome and Microsoft Internet Explorer — found that Chrome was the least susceptible to attacks.
SHARE CAUTIOUSLY "You are your e-mail address and your password," Mr. Kocher emphasized. Whenever possible, he will not register for online accounts using his real e-mail address. Instead he will use "throwaway" e-mail addresses, like those offered by 10minutemail.com. Users register and confirm an online account, which self-destructs 10 minutes later. Mr. Grossman said he often warned people to treat anything they typed or shared online as public record.
"At some point, you will get hacked — it's only a matter of time," warned Mr. Grossman. "If that's unacceptable to you, don't put it online."
....that:
(https://sphotos-b.xx.fbcdn.net/hphotos-snc7/602312_10101709627908810_294534009_n.jpg)
Newfound 'super-Earth' could support life
Published: 08 November, 2012
(http://rt.com/files/news/super-earth-habitable-life-272/artists-alien-planet-foreground.n.jpg)
This artist's impression shows the newfound potentially
habitable alien planet HD40307g in the foreground.
(Image from space.com by J. Pinfield, for the RoPACS
network at the University of Hertfordshire)
Astronomers have discovered another potentially habitable planet – and it's at least seven times the mass of Earth. Dwarf star HD 40307g hosts a system of six planets, and one of those is believed have the potential to support human life.
The newfound exoplanet was discovered by a team of astronomers from the University of Hertfordshire and the University of Goettingen.
It's located a mere 44 light-years from Earth. And although that may seem like a far distance, it's actually just around the corner – cosmically speaking. It's so close that researchers say telescopes on Earth may be able to image it directly.
The alien planet has been classified as a Super-Earth, meaning it's larger than Earth but smaller than gas planets such as Neptune.
It orbits at a distance of 55.8 million miles from the sun, which puts it in its host star's habitable zone – the region where liquid water can exist on a planet's surface.
But it's not just the possibility of water that has astronomers thinking the newfound planet could be habitable.
The dwarf star is likely rotating on its own axis instead of having one face permanently turned toward the sun. The result is an Earth-like day and night cycle.
"The longer orbit of the new planet means that its climate and atmosphere may be just right to support life. Just as Goldilocks liked her porridge to be neither too hot nor too cold but just right, this planet – or indeed any moons that it has – lie in an orbit comparable to Earth, increasing the probability of it being habitable," study co-author Hugh Jones said in a statement.
Exploring the exoplanet
Astronomers previously detected three other super-Earths around the same host star – all of which were in orbits too close to their sun to house water.
But in a new study, a research team reanalyzed observations of the HD 40307 system by using the High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher, HARPS.
The tool allows astronomers to pick up tiny gravitational wobbles that an orbiting planet induces in its parent star.
And while the study brought forth a new discovery, astronomers say they're far from knowing all the answers surrounding the exoplanet.
The super-Earth may or may not be a rocky planet like earth, according to lead author Mikko Tuomi. "If I had to guess, I would say 50-50... but the truth at the moment is that we simply do not know whether the planet is a large Earth or a small, warm Neptune without a solid surface," Tuomi told SPACE.com.
The next step for the team will be to use space-based telescopes to get a more direct look at the exoplanet and examine its composition.
...that I, Pencil: The Movie: is one of the most
popular hits with the young school kids today.Follow up and Extended Commentary I, Pencil The Movie:
Quote from: larryJ on November 06, 2012, 10:01:09 AM
Did you know.........
Sports Illustrated, a weekly magazine dedicated to sports was first published on Aug. 16, 1954. The cover was a picture of a nighttime baseball game between the Milwaukee Braves and the New York Giants. The cover featured Eddie Matthews of the Braves batting, Wes Westrum of the Giants catching and umpire Augie Donatelli behind the plate. The single-issue price was 25 cents.
Larryj
(http://i.cdn.turner.com/sivault/si_online/covers/images/1954/0816_large.jpg)
Very interesting, Larry. Eddie could sure hit that ball.
Quote from: larryJ on November 06, 2012, 10:01:09 AM
Did you know.........
The first Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Edition was launched on Jan. 20, 1964, with German model Babette March on the cover.
Larryj
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/en/a/a0/First_SI_Swimsuit_Issue.jpg)
1964 - Babette March - Above.Quite tame today compared to Sport Ill. Kate Upton's October 2012 Cover:
(http://i.cdn.turner.com/si/2012_swimsuit/images/cover.jpg)
....and her SI Video:
....and her.. er.. "Dancing" Video:Has this woman NO SHAME????? Flaunting herself like that!
There oughta be a law (cough) (cough)...and ...and... Hmmmm..... her "T... opl.. es... s" video: ....and (lrg*hususs%qrhjk...) (sputter)...
(sorry, couldn't speak for a few minutes)....and (fj]wejfulzzz...) the 2012 (sweating) Sports Ill. Calendar:(http://www.calendar2012.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/sports-illustrated-swimsuit-calendar-2012-2.jpg)
Sports Illustrated Swimsuit (whew...) Edition 2012 Video:Well, you can see what Larryj started here. Has he NO SHAME?
What????? Videos and pictures of Betty White NEXT???
What would Teresa & Kjell think ... or for that matter... Jarhead, Frank, Patriot, Waldo, and Wilma think...
if they saw larryj's shameful exibition here? Tsk! Tsk! Tsk!
(Wonder if R.A.M.B.O. knows about this). [/font] [/size]
.....that this was the Internets First Photo:
(http://www.komando.com/images/csotds/2012/07-11-first_internet-photo.jpg)
This delightfully cheesy promo image doesn't look all that impressive, but it has a special story. It's the first photo ever uploaded to the Internet.
It's an album cover for "The Cernettes," a comedy band made up of CERN employees and scientists' wives.
They sang songs about particle colliders and the other hi-tech gadgets that CERN used. The members from the left are Angela Higney, Michele de Gennaro, Colette Marx-Neilsen and Lynn Veronneau.
De Gennaro's husband, Silvano, edited the picture in the first version of Photoshop. Tim Berners-Lee - known as the inventor of the Internet - came to Silvano's office needing a photo to use in a Web design. Silvano gave him this, and history was born.
The Cernettes still occasionally sing for CERN employees. They also had what Silvano calls the first band website.
Les Horribles Cernettes are the one and only High Energy Rock Band. They sing about colliders, quarks, microwaves, antiprotons and Internet. They are known and loved by some 20000 High Energy Physicists worldwide. They were born at the same time, and in the office next door to... the World Wide Web. No wonder they were the first band to have their picture posted on the web! This website is kept pretty much in its original shape as it was in 1994. It was originally written by hand in HTML, using a text editor, before Dreamweaver was invented. We decided to leave it in its "vintage look" for you to see what the web looked like back then. http://www.cernettes.com/
...Kim Kommando
LOL :D Well, I know what Jarhead would think......not sure about the others. Except possibly they should take away your Wi-fi priviledges at the nineteenth hole. One too many beers and you come up with some really strange stuff. :o
As for R.A.M.B.O., he is not impressed. Perhaps if it had been a video of a cute French poodle, he would show some interest.
(Please, don't post any pictures of poodles or any other dog, for that matter. I need to monitor his heart rate and can't have him get too excited!) Plus, he needs to be kept busy on the bunker. He is currently installing the bar at the 14th level. 8)
Larryj
I hadn't visited here for a spell, then watched these videos of Miss Upton.
What would Jarhead think ? Oh my !! Oh my !!! She has such a beautiful smile and a care free manner about her. I would like to take her home and play with her---you know--like pick-up sticks and paper dolls and maybe even cars and trucks in the sand pile. Oh my !! Can't believe I missed Vanna White on Wheel while watching these videos.
....that there are ten Sci-Fi Weapons that atctually exist? Sure, the gear may look like it came straight out of Star Wars or Battlestar Galactica. But all of the laser weapons, robots, sonic blasters and puke rays pictured here are real. Some of these weapons have already found their way onto the battlefield. If the rest of this sci-fi arsenal follows, war may soon be unrecognizable.
1.) The XM-25 grenade launcher is equipped with a laser rangefinder and on-board computer. It packs a magazine of four 25mm projectiles, and programs them to detonate as they pass by their targets. That feature will allow soldiers to strike enemies who are taking cover. By 2012, the Army hopes to arm every infantry squad and Special Forces unit with at least one of the big guns.
In August, a lucky soldier got to pull the trigger, and fire off a HEAB, or High Explosive Air Burst, round at the Aberdeen Testing Ground in Maryland. Those projectiles pack quite a punch. They are purportedly 300 percent more effective than normal ammo, and will be able to strike targets as far as 700 meters (2,300 feet) away.
(http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2009/12/sci_fi_weapons_1a.jpg)
2.) Remotely operated weapons are showing up everywhere. Israel is building an automated kill zone. An American firm, More Industries, offers a turret that can aim and fire two automatic shotguns.
Some bots have been defusing bombs for years, but none have seen combat. That's a shame, according to Lt. Gen. Rick Lynch, who believes that 122 men could have been spared if combat bots had been working in their stead.
There was a set of armed robots sent to Iraq. They never fired a shot, however. They weren't allowed to. No one could guarantee that the bots wouldn't go berserk and mow down friendly troops or otherwise malfunction, even though they have lots of safeguards.
Considering how much firepower they pack, safeguards are really important. The Maars system (above) can be equipped with four grenade launchers and a machine gun that packs 400 rounds of 7.62 caliber ammunition.
But its manufacturers like to point out its less-lethal capabilities. Instead of mowing people down, it can stick to the fine print of the first law of robotics and fire tear gas canisters, smoke grenades, smoke bombs and perhaps even Taser's upcoming 40mm people-zapper projectile. Three were deployed to Iraq last year.
(http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2009/12/sci_fi_weapons_2a.jpg)
3.) The Active Denial System fires a beam of millimeter-wave radiation. It make people feel like their skin is burning without causing any permanent damage. Though promising as a nonlethal weapon, the pain ray has some serious limits.
On a rainy day, water droplets will disperse the beam, and it may feel warm and refreshing instead of frightening. On a hot day, the cooling system might give out. The problems don't stop there. Raytheon's baby is bulky, and despite repeated requests to send it into battle, shipments of the energy weapon have been delayed. The military is looking for a stronger, lighter weapon.
(http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2009/12/sci_fi_weapons_3a.jpg)
4.) If troops spot someone suspicious approaching them, they can use the Long Range Acoustic Device to send a warning message. It fires narrow beams of sound waves that can be heard clearly from 300 meters (about a thousand feet) away. Crank up the power, and it can emit a warning tone so loud that anyone in its path would have no choice but to cover their ears and run.
The manufacturer doesn't like to call these devices weapons, even though they've been used to repel pirates. Cops used them to harass protesters at the G20 summit in Pittsburgh this year.
(http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2009/12/sci_fi_weapons_4a.jpg)
5.) Drones are arguably the most controversial weapon in the war on terror. By some accounts, they are deeply feared by the Taliban. They've taken out many Al Qaeda and Taliban leaders, and their sound when flying low is a constant annoyance and a reminder of their menace . But they also kill a lot of civilians.
They are, however, far more cost effective than supersonic fighter jets. Predators can pack two Hellfire missiles. Their big brothers, Reapers, can hold four Hellfires and two 500-pound bombs.
(http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2009/12/sci_fi_weapons_5a.jpg)
(http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2009/12/sci_fi_weapons_5b.jpg)
6.) Flash bang grenades were designed to stun people. But they have a pretty bad safety record. The little bombs have dismembered at least one soldier and caused hearing loss in others.
To remedy that problem, Mark Grubelich and his colleagues at Sandia National Laboratory built the Improved Flash Bang Grenade. It hurls flaming aluminum particles into the air, causing a bright flash without an accompanying shockwave.
(http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2009/12/sci_fi_weapons_6a.jpg)
7.) Even the angriest mobs would probably think twice about trying to pass a Taser Shockwave barrier. It is the less-lethal equivalent of a claymore mine. Push the big red button, and it will fire 24 electrified probes at the same time in a single direction.
(http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2009/12/sci_fi_weapons_7a.jpg)
8.) After learning about an experimental weapon that can make people feel seasick, Limor Fried and Phil Torrone decided to build their own. They did it for less than $250, and wrote step-by-step instructions so that anyone can make one at home.
It can create a nauseating lightshow with 36 pulsating LEDs. Their design has a bonus feature. You can set it to disco mode. Instead of making you sick, the weapon will add life to your next party.
(http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2009/12/sci_fi_weapons_8a.jpg)
9.) If you're worried that someone's about to attack you, but not completely sure of their intent, it's a good idea to give them a warning before pulling the trigger. Green laser pointers are a great way to extend that courtesy. The Marines like to call them "ocular interruption devices."
Shine one in someone's face, and your target should immediately get the message that it's time to back off. The LA-9/P, made by B.E. Meyers, can warn people from up to 4 kilometers (2½ miles) away. It fires a 250-milliwatt beam. That's roughly 1/4,000 the strength of the smallest anti-aircraft lasers.
Even so, you've got to be careful when handling the thing. Over a few months in Iraq, a dozen soldiers were wounded in dazzler "friendly fire." Several troops may have been injured while monkeying around with laser target designators, which are substantially more powerful than the less-lethal devices.
(http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2009/12/sci_fi_weapons_9a.jpg)
10.) Behold the Laser Avenger, a cannon that could be used to take down incoming aircraft. Boeing was able to shoot a drone out of the sky with the hummer-mounted laser, even though it's not particularly high-powered. It cooked the remote-controlled aircraft using a somewhat feeble 1-kilowatt beam.
More recently, the company shot down another UAV using a low-power laser paired with its Mobile Active Targeting Resource for Integrated eXperiments, or Matrix, system during a test in White Sands, New Mexico.
Northrop Grumman is hard at work on a 100-kilowatt laser weapon, which could do far more damage, but it's not quite ready for prime time. It's fully operational, but looks like a refrigerator.
Boeing announced in late December that the Avenger has been used to destroy 50 different improvised explosive devices, during tests at Redstone Aresenal in Huntsville, Alabama.
(http://www.wired.com/images_blogs/dangerroom/2009/12/sci_fi_weapons_10a.jpg)
Quote from: jarhead on November 21, 2012, 06:57:54 PM
I hadn't visited here for a spell, then watched these videos of Miss Upton.
What would Jarhead think ? Oh my !! Oh my !!! She has such a beautiful smile and a care free manner about her. I would like to take her home and play with her---you know--like pick-up sticks and paper dolls and maybe even cars and trucks in the sand pile. Oh my !! Can't believe I missed Vanna White on Wheel while watching these videos.
Come on.... is that the best response a Marine can come up with, Miss Pussy-Foot'en-Around??? And all the ol' Army Medic was worried about was his Dogs reaction. Here R.A.M.B.O., a picture you can hang on the bunker wall... Miss Fancy Nancy. It would look good over the bar...(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-9KtHD-LIChw/TVdZKDQZdtI/AAAAAAAAARY/TiLfmKXaxBo/s1600/Cute%2BStandard%2BPoodle%2B02.jpg)
Man... you'se guys are getting OLD!
I bet you don't know what this is, do yeh. You probably saw a many of them in Nam.
(http://desibbrg.org/images/73700984541358478461.jpg)
Well... you're WRONG.
Its not, you know...
Sorry, wrong guess.
Would you believe me if I told you it was a Vietnamese gourd or pumpkin?
Here... have a couple. Hell... take three
(http://desibbrg.org/images/00033625238885012275.jpg)
(http://desibbrg.org/images/81189115231601866546.jpg)
(http://desibbrg.org/images/82866449842091671808.jpg)
I like that double one... don't mess with that. I call it "Marilyn."
Warph,
I damn sure didn't see anything like that in Nam---but napalm has a way of changing how things looked. Wonder if them gourds could be hollowed out and made into a drinking vessel ?
Dang it, Warph!!!!!!! I asked you not to post any pictures of dogs and you went and did it anyway. When I got home today, R.A.M.B.O. was sitting in my recliner, panting, all excited. He had turned on the computer and was looking at the Forum and up pops this poodle. It's gonna take me days to calm him down. Sir Charles is nowhere to be found. He has gone into hiding until this passes over.
Thanks for nothing. ::)
Larryj
The Mysterious Death of Gen. George S. Patton
By Robert K. Wilcox
http://www.americanthinker.com/2012/11/the_mysterious_death_of_gen_george_s_patton.html#ixzz2DCY9ODUC
....that Sixty-seven years ago, on a cold December 9th in 1945 Germany, legendary American general George S. Patton was injured in a strange auto "accident" on a road outside Mannheim, near the Rhine River. The opinionated anticommunist died twelve days later. Today, the evidence that he was murdered -- the first in a line of postwar political assassinations including that of President John F. Kennedy -- is mounting.
My book about Patton's mysterious death, "Target: Patton", was published by Regnery with the core evidence, including:
● Patton was the only passenger hurt that cold day in what essentially was described as a "fender-bender." Two others in the car with him were uninjured, as were those in the truck that suddenly turned and caused the crash.
● The truck and its occupants were suspiciously waiting for the Patton car on the side of the road, according to a witness. It didn't start up until Patton's Cadillac was sighted. The truck's driver, a soldier and black marketeer who had stolen the army vehicle, did not signal when he suddenly wheeled the two-and-a-half-ton hauler into Patton's path. The truck's driver and his passengers mysteriously disappeared -- as did the sergeant in a jeep who was leading the Patton Cadillac.
● Numerous shadowy figures, including a general and other officers, quickly descended on the remote crash site, taking charge. It was a quiet Sunday morning. How were so many so high up alerted so fast? Where are the records of their visit -- and of the accident itself? All reports and investigations have inexplicably disappeared.
Patton, who suffered a broken neck and head wounds, wasn't taken to a nearby Mannheim hospital. Instead, although in need of immediate help, he was driven 20 miles to a hospital in Heidelberg, a half hour away. Gravely injured, he was expected to die. But a tough man, he unexpectedly rallied and was preparing to go home to the U.S. when he had a sudden embolism attack and died literally with his bags packed. Years later, a Soviet officer told a Patton family member that they had poisoned him.
At the time of his accident, Patton was the lone high-level Allied voice arguing to fight the Soviets, who had been American allies. He knew their treachery that would develop into the Cold War and was preparing to go back to the U.S. and campaign against them -- a move the American and Soviet governments feared. The U.S., in meetings with Soviet leader Stalin, had basically signed over Eastern Europe to the Russians in return for Stalin's help in establishing the United Nations, a dream of President Franklin D. Roosevelt, who had died in early 1945, and liberal Democrats who, under new President Harry Truman, were continuing Roosevelt's pro-Soviet policies.
I had always accepted the standard story of accident until my cousin, a private investigator with an international firm, told me he knew a former World War II clandestine who said Patton had been murdered. The clandestine was Douglas Bazata, a former OSS Jedburgh, the US's first special forces unit. I checked at the National Archives and Bazata's record was sterling. He had been an OSS assassin. He was awarded the Bronze Star and Purple Heart for valor behind German lines. He had stayed in Europe after the war as a clandestine working for various organizations, including the CIA.
As it turned out Bazata, who had suffered a stroke and was, after a professional lifetime of silence, willing to talk, told me to my surprise that it was he who had been ordered to kill Patton. The order had come from OSS head, "Wild Bill" Donovan, and he had set up the accident with an NKVD agent, the Soviet spy agency. Since, Patton had not died at the scene, the NKVD finished the job in the hospital. Donovan gave the order? OSS collusion with the NKVD? It seemed outlandish until more research revealed the following:
Early in the war, Donovan had flown to Moscow and solicited cooperation with the NKVD. The Russians had close proximity to Germany and had already penetrated its intelligence services. The collusion could help the OSS.
Another clandestine, Stephen J. Skubik, a Counter Intelligence Corp (CIC) agent attached to Patton's armies, independently found out about the plot on the NKVD side. Right after the war ended, Skubik was sent to liaison with Ukrainian agents to spy on the Soviets. Ukraine favored the Allies and the top level Ukrainians Skubik talked with told him Patton was on the NKVD hit list to be murdered. He informed Donovan who, instead of acting on the intelligence, threw him in jail as a Soviet spy.
Skubik, who later became an Eastern European advisor to US presidents from Eisenhower to Reagan, feared for his life for many years and finally wrote a private book titled The Murder of General Patton. It detailed his unsuccessful effort to save the general just prior to the "accident." Bazata went on to become an aide to Secretary of the Navy John Lehman, who served under Reagan. He and Skubik are, very credible witnesses.
Now a third credible witness has emerged.
Bert C. Roosen, a former German and today a naturalized Canadian businessman, says as a youth in war-torn Germany working for Eisenhower he heard the general and his aides discussing Patton's elimination. "I lived with this all my life," says Roosen of Vancouver. Eighty-three now, he was barely 17 and an interpreter for Eisenhower on the general's special train in Germany during the occupation. One day, Patton came to see Eisenhower at the train station, testifies Roosen. He watched from a train window. "I could see them arguing. They were on the platform in heated debate."
Finally, Patton, obviously frustrated, abruptly left. Eisenhower entered the train car Roosen was in. "He [Eisenhower] was very mad. He said, 'That guy is going to screw things up.'" The general went into a portion of the car set up for meetings. Several high-ranking American officers were waiting for him. Roosen isn't positive who they were, but believes among them were Gen. Omar Bradley and General Bedell "Beatle" Smith, Eisenhower's aide. The area where they were sitting had a light partition for privacy. But Roosen, whose duties included cleaning the car, stayed nearby and could hear everything. "Ike said, 'We've got to stop him' [meaning Patton]. Another said, 'How? We can't shoot him.' A third said, 'Don't worry. I'll take care of it.'"
Three weeks later, said Roosen, he was shocked to see Patton brought to the train in a casket. "They killed him!" he remembers shockingly thinking.
In fact, Patton's body, after his death at Heidelberg was taken to Luxembourg in Eisenhower's train where he was buried in a cemetery among his fallen men. "The train was full of dignitaries for the funeral," recalls Roosen, but Eisenhower did not attend, which Roosen, at the time, thought was very strange and, in his mind, proof that the conversation he'd overheard had resulted in Patton's death.
Roosen, a founder and cofounder of several prosperous Canadian companies and former president of the Vancouver Kiwanis Club, said he was "scared to death" after the train experience and "never said a word about it" for fear he would be killed. He worked in Germany with the U.S. Army until 1952 when he immigrated to Canada and began a new life. "Everyone is dead now so I no longer have that fear."
Roosen's witness is among other new pieces of information and leads that have come to me in the growing mystery of Patton's death. Motives to kill Patton are numerous. He wanted to start World War III by fighting the Russians. He knew secrets about the conduct of the war that would have stifled post-war careers -- such as Eisenhower's. Several times during the war, Eisenhower had made decisions that in Patton's opinion prolonged the war and cost American lives. Patton was going to tell how the Soviets, contrary to Allied agreements, had slaughtered Allied-returned Russian prisoners and was still secretly holding American POWs. It infuriated Patton but that Allied leaders knew this yet did nothing. Gold caches and German technological and scientific secrets, both of which Patton was involved with, are also possible motives.
And there are still other indications of foul play:
There appear to have been at least three other attempts to kill him -- twice in vehicles and once while he was flying in a light plane. In the air attempt, Spitfires under Russian control "mistook" his Piper Cub-like aircraft for a German fighter and tried to shoot it down.
The car advertised by the Patton Museum as that in which Patton was injured turns out to be a fake. In other words, the car which could give a modern-day investigator, like myself, scene-of-the-crime information can't. I don't think the museum was aware of this until I and a Cadillac specialist from Detroit examined the car and proved it was a different year model than the one Patton was injured in. The real car has vanished, probably, I believe, as part of an effort to hide clues.
It's becoming increasingly clear that the truth about Patton's death has been covered up. Until what really happened is investigated by official bodies with unlimited access, the rumors about his accident and death will continue, crucial American history may be lost, and an enormous crime may go unpunished. Patton, who more than any other fighting general was responsible for victory in World War II Europe, deserves better.
....that "Deadly Superbugs" are invading U.S. health care facilities across the USA... Deadly bacteria that defy drugs of 'last resort.'
A new family of antibiotic-resistant bacteria, known as CRE, is raising concerns across the medical community because of its ability to cause infections that defy even the strongest antibiotics. The antibiotic resistance is spread by mobile pieces of DNA that can move between different species of bacteria, creating new, drug-defying bugs.
(http://i.usatoday.net/_common/_notches/72b247a8-3d65-4264-8a71-c147a07f22a6-panel1-01.jpg)
Source: University of Virginia Health System
By Frank Pompa, USA TODAY
A USA TODAY review finds that deadly CRE bacteria are showing up in hospitals and other health care facilities across the country and there is virtually nothing to stop these "superbugs" at this point.
• CRE infections already are endemic in several major U.S. population centers, including New York, Los Angeles and Chicago, which account for hundreds of confirmed cases. Smaller pockets of cases have been reported across much of the country, including Oregon, Wisconsin, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Maryland, Virginia and South Carolina.
• There is no reliable national data on the scope of the CRE problem. The CDC has urged states to track cases, but only a handful do so -- and they're just getting going. "We don't have enough ... data to tell what the trend looks like," says Stephen Ostroff, director of epidemiology at the Pennsylvania Department of Health. "All we know is that it is here."
• There is little chance that an effective drug to kill CRE bacteria will be produced in the coming years. Manufacturers have no new antibiotics in development that show promise, according to federal officials and industry experts, and there's little financial incentive because the bacteria adapt quickly to resist new drugs.
• Many hospitals -- and an even greater percentage of nursing homes -- lack the capacity, such as lab capability, to identify CRE, or the resources to effectively screen and isolate patients carrying the bacteria. And even when screening is possible, there's a lack of consensus on whom to target.
Rest of story at: http://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nation/2012/11/29/bacteria-deadly-hospital-infection/1727667/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+UsatodaycomNation-TopStories+%28News+-+Nation+-+Top+Stories%29
Thank you for posting this. CRE really could be bad news, much like SARS is/was. Most hospitals are cracking down on visitor hand washing before and after visiting ,wearing disposable gowns while visiting patients and being very careful about patients who already have compromised immune systems. Some people can be carriers with no symptoms at all, and it can be fatal once it gets into a susceptible person's body. Carbapenem Resistant Enterobacteriaceae. This situation bears close watching.
....that there's a video about our history? It was done by a high school student and it only takes a couple of minutes to watch.
Now that was interesting; thanks Warph.
Good one. Thank goodness for the wonderful artists, photographers and animators without whom these records wouldn't be possible.
....that the "12 Days of Christmas" list is for the birds? Shopping online for all the birds in the classic "The 12 Days of Christmas" can be an exercise in patience and frustration. Plus it can be darned expensive.
(http://msnbcmedia.msn.com/j/MSNBC/Components/Photo/_new/121129-biz-pnc.photoblog500.jpg)
We're sure you heard the big news: It now costs over $107,000 if you were to buy all the items listed in the "12 Days of Christmas" song, according to PNC Wealth Management's annual "Christmas Price Index," or "CPI" as it's so very cleverly referred to. But that's not the whole story, because six of the items in the list are birds.
What if you really want to buy all those birds for your "true love," and you wanted to buy them them online?
PNC got their numbers for the birds from the National Aviary in Pittsburgh, and they, of course, don't have an online retail store. And where do you get a "French Hen," or a "Calling Bird," let alone four of them?
Shopping for all the birds in the song online is a real budget buster, especially when you consider shipping. After all, you can't exactly get the supplies for shipping a live goose "a-laying" at Kinko's.
Many of the providers are small farms that have their own websites, and are listed here for example, and for humorous purposes. OK, mainly the latter. Another big caveat is that most hatcheries require you to place your order in advance for the next round of breeding and are already sold out for 2012. It's also a lot easier and cheaper to buy birds as chicks or eggs, and then grow them to size, rather than trying to buy and then having breeders ship an adult bird. For that you're better off driving up to a few farms to fill your order. So, start planning ahead for Christmas 2013!
Also, yes, PNC provides an index showing the online cost of buying these items that's costlier than the main index that gets reported. But it doesn't receive as much attention and we wanted to go check out the online prices ourselves and compare them to the central Christmas Price Index.
Last, owning another living creature is a right and a privilege and you shouldn't place any real orders, let alone as a joke, unless the recipient can truly care for it as long as they own it.
That said, ho ho ho and fa la la la la, let's dive in.
7 Swans-a-Swimming
Swans mate for life, so to get seven you're going to need to buy eight. Maybe you can use the extra as backup in case one of the swans is a poor swimmer. Purelypoultry.com is a site for a small farm in Fremont, Wis., that also subcontracts orders to other hatcheries and breeders. It's like drop shipping for cygnets instead of cellphones. They sell pairs of black-necked swans directly online for $4,500, with a $400 shipping cost. Not to your doorstep, however, but to your local post office. It's not exactly the kind of item you can leave next to the newspaper and stable boy statue.
Let's not forget either that the swans are supposed to be "a-swimming." For that, you can get four kiddie pools on Amazon for $79.96. You need four because swans are very territorial. The National Aviary quoted $7,000, an 11.1 percent increase from last year, but our online shopping cart total came to $19,679.96.
The cost of this one item alone means you'll be well over $107,000 if you were to buy up all the items in the "12 days of Christmas" song.
6 Geese-A-Laying
There's a big problem with this part of the tune. Geese usually lay their eggs in the spring, and Christmas is usually in December. And by usually I mean always. So tell your true love that these geese will be "a-laying" in a few months from now.
Another note of discord is that in order to get six geese making goslings, you'll need a dozen geese in all. Six females, and six male partners, as geese are monogamous. At metzerfarms.com, they're sold out for 2012, so you might as well place an order for twelve goslings and grow them to size in time for the next holiday season. Prices for 2013 aren't set yet, but in 2012 it was twelve Roman Tufted goslings for $16.09 each, plus free shipping! That beats the National Aviary quoted price of $210 -- a 29.6 percent increase from last year, by the way, reflecting this year's drought and the ensuing skyrocketing price of grain. Total: $193.08
4 Calling Birds
What the heck is a "calling bird?" In the oldest extant written version of the song, the items in this verse were listed as "canary birds." Later versions switched it to "colly birds," "colly" being a term for "coal-covered," i.e. "blackbirds." That's sort of a weird holiday gift, so let's stick with those cute little chirpers.
It was hard to find a reputable-looking online store selling canaries but there are a slew of private breeders. Caveat emptor in this dodgy world full of shady characters, so check out their selling history and ask for references. The cost range was $60-$100 per bird, plus around $40 shipping. Total: $280-$560, which means the National Aviary's price of $519.96 came in at the high end.
Their price was the same last year, perhaps reflecting stability and low costs in the domestic coal market.
3 French Hens
Hens? We got those. What makes a French hen? Does it wear a beret? Well how about the "Houdan," a breed of hen native to France, boasting an eye-catching mottled plumage, a large crest that makes it look like it's going to a masquerade ball, and five toes instead of the usual four. The French, always on the avante-garde of fashion.
Billing itself as "The Web's Source for Waterfowl, Chickens, and Game Birds," eFowl.com sells a minimum order of fifteen chicks for $2.59 each, plus a $9.99 small order charge for being under 26 chicks. Like the geese, you'll need to acquire these for the spring and raise them for your true love's holiday package by winter. Rearing them yourself and absorbing the corn costs handily saves you $116.16 off the Christmas Price Index. Total: $48.44
2 Turtle Doves
Turtle doves are a bit harder to come by. Strombergschickens.com listed pairs for $215 shipped, a bit pricier than the CPI listing of $125, but their farm isn't selling them anymore. However, a nationwide search of Craigslist turned up a guy in Michigan selling the deuce for $12. He didn't respond to inquiries about shipping, so we're left to assume you have to pick them up yourself. Total: $12, plus cost of plane ticket and car rental.
And a partridge...
If you want to order partridges online, you'll have to get them as a chick or an egg, and you can't get just one. Every site we saw had a minimum of 30-50 partridges. Cacklehatchery had 30 at $2.67 each for $80.10, plus $23.10 shipped at 1 day of age and a guaranteed 2-3 day delivery. Total: $103.20, a bit more dear than the the CPI's $15.
...in a pear tree.
One 6-7 ft Ayers Pear Tree, large enough to support the weight of a partridge, could be had at The Nursery at Ty Ty for $59.75 plus $20 shipping. The CPI's cost listing was $189.99. Our Total: $79.75.
Religious symbolism of The Twelve Days of Christmas
1 True Love refers to God
2 Turtle Doves refers to the Old and New Testaments
3 French Hens refers to Faith, Hope and Charity, the Theological Virtues
4 Calling Birds refers to the Four Gospels and/or the Four Evangelists
5 Golden Rings refers to the first Five Books of the Old Testament, the "Pentateuch", which gives the history of man's fall from grace.
6 Geese A-laying refers to the six days of creation
7 Swans A-swimming refers to the seven gifts of the Holy Spirit, the seven sacraments
8 Maids A-milking refers to the eight beatitudes
9 Ladies Dancing refers to the nine Fruits of the Holy Spirit
10 Lords A-leaping refers to the ten commandments
11 Pipers Piping refers to the eleven faithful apostles
12 Drummers Drumming refers to the twelve points of doctrine in the Apostle's Creed
Did you know the Edgar Waldo "Billy" Ingram opened his first White Castle restaurant in Wichita? In 1921, Ingram partnered with short-order cook, Walter Anderson, who invented the hamburge bun in 1916, to start the business. The miniburgers had five holes in them. The holes came in 1942 -- not to save meat as is often thought, but to make sure the patty is evenly cooked. In time, the small greasy burger with onions became known as a slider, and the fries were known as spikes.
Larryj
....that Jazz Legend Pianist & Composer Dave Brubeck Has Died of Heart Failure at Age 91 Today.
(http://www.frugal-cafe.com/public_html/frugal-blog/frugal-cafe-blogzone/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/dave-brubeck-time-magazine-cover-nov-8-1954.jpg)
Another music legend has left us... American jazz pianist and composer Dave Brubeck, famous for his hugely successful jazz classic "Take Five," passed away from heart failure this morning, just one day before his 92nd birthday.
Among his many awards, in September 2009, the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts announced Brubeck as a Kennedy Center Honoree for exhibiting excellence in performance arts. The Kennedy Center Honors Gala took place on December 6, 2009 on Brubeck's 89th birthday, and was broadcast nationwide on CBS. The year before, Brubeck was inducted into the California Hall of Fame.
He was also a respected composer of orchestral and sacred music, and from his Wikipedia bio, wrote soundtracks for television such as "Mr. Broadway" and the animated miniseries "This Is America, Charlie Brown." In February 1960, Brubeck was honored with a star on Hollywood's Walk of Fame (his star is located at 1716 Vine Street).I would see Dave & the group play at the "Cellar Door Jazz Club" in Wash. DC when he was in town. It was his music that got me hooked on progressive jazz. Rest in peace, Dave and thank you for the beautiful, innovative music you gave us all these years.
....Warph
Paul Desmond - Died May 30, 1977 lung cancer) was an American jazz alto saxophonist and composer, born in San Francisco, best known for the work he did in the Dave Brubeck Quartet and for penning that group's greatest hit, "Take Five". He was not only one of the most popular musicians to come out of the West Coast's "cool jazz" scene, but also the possessor of a legendary and idiosyncratic wit.
Eugene Wright - Bassist - May 29, 1923 (age 89 and still kicking)
Joe Morello - Drums - Died 03/13/11 at age 82
The jazz musician, known for his odd time signature, played on such classic recordings as "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo a la Turk."
Check out "Take Five" and "Blue Rondo à la Turk"
and "Dave Brubeck - Take The 'A' Train - 1966":
and last, but not least, "Brubeck At Carnegie Hall (1963)"
[/color][/font][/size][/b]
Rest in peace, Dave.
When I heard about this I sat at the computer last night and listened to "Take Five" a few times. A memory came back of when a high school friend and I sat around in his parent's house and listened to Dave for hours. Being involved with music most of my younger years, I was used to standard 2, 3, or 4 beats to the bar. When "Take Five" came out, it was 5 beats to the bar and totally different and that is what made it so wonderful.
His music will always live on to the delight of jazz lovers everywhere.
Larryj
....that Nikola Tesla (10 July 1856 7 January 1943) was an inventor and a mechanical and electrical engineer. He is frequently cited as one of the most important contributors to the birth of commercial electricity and is best known for his many revolutionary developments in the field of electromagnetism in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Tesla's patents and theoretical work formed the basis of modern alternating current (AC) electric power systems, including the polyphase system of electrical distribution and the AC motor, with which he helped usher in the Second Industrial Revolution.
Born an ethnic Serb in the village of Smiljan, Croatian Military Frontier, in the territory of today's Croatia, he was a subject of the Austrian Empire by birth and later became an American citizen. After his demonstration of wireless communication through radio in 1894 and after being the victor in the "War of Currents", he was widely respected as one of the greatest electrical engineers who worked in America. Much of his early work pioneered modern electrical engineering and many of his discoveries were of groundbreaking importance. During this period, in the United States, Tesla's fame rivaled that of any other inventor or scientist in history or popular culture, but due to his eccentric personality and his seemingly unbelievable and sometimes bizarre claims about possible scientific and technological developments, Tesla was ultimately ostracized and regarded as a mad scientist. Tesla never put much focus on his finances. It is said he died impoverished, at the age of 86.
....that THRIVE is an unconventional documentary that lifts the veil on what's REALLY going on in our world by following the money upstream -- uncovering the global consolidation of power in nearly every aspect of our lives. Weaving together breakthroughs in science, consciousness and activism, THRIVE offers real solutions, empowering us with unprecedented and bold strategies for reclaiming our lives and our future. http://www.thrivemovement.com/
(Official Movie) THRIVE: What On Earth Will It Take?
Lost For 200 Years – Issac Newton, Apocalypse 2060: The Final Battle Between Good And EvilIsaac Newton - Age 46:(http://patdollard.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/Sir-Isaac-Newton-aged-46-001.jpg)
(http://patdollard.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/2-387x500.jpg)
(http://patdollard.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/NewtonPapers2AP_800x1041-384x500.jpg)
The final battle between good and evil is the battle between the armies of God, being Christians, Jews, and their allies, on one side, and the armies of the devil, being Islam, the Left, and their allies, on the other. And with the way things are going, it's hard to argue with Isaac Newton's fascinatingly calculated date of 2060 as being as viable as it gets. Newton, the founder of physics and the creator of calculus, is probably the only human being considered to be a greater genius than Albert Einsten. Outside of the Bible, all we know of how the universe works, is based on what we know from Newton. He kept these papers hidden for fear of persecution for heresy by the Church of England, even though they were deeply religious and anything but anti-Christian. After the release and examination of these papers, in fact, Newton is now considered to be the first Christian Zionist.(http://patdollard.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/12/PA-12792675.jpg)
Part One:Part Two:Part Three:Part Four:Part Five:Or If You Wish, Watch The Full Version:
Very graphic pictures of the JFK assassination. You might not want to watch.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Fatal_Shot_to_Kill_Kennedy.png)
(http://www.gotwaldo.com/ww/wp-content/uploads/2008/06/jfk-moter.jpg)
(http://www.chilling-tales.com/headwound.jpg)
(http://laura-knight-jadczyk.com/images/jfk_colou_%20autopsy_sm.jpeg)
(http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4817824512542565&pid=1.9)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-NQxoNITal74/ULwResXipKI/AAAAAAAANqY/XGZvQ3XqBG8/s1600/HSCA.jpg)
House Select Committee on Assassination
...that next year will be the 50th anniversary of the assassination of John Fitzgerald Kennedy and the city of Dallas is worried that some might try to memorialize Kennedy on their own. They want to control what you hear and see.
What most do not know is that the United States House of Representatives Select Committee on Assassinations found that the Kennedy assassination was the result of a conspiracy and that more than one shooter was involved. It also reveals that shots came from the infamous 'grassy knoll.'
Another revelation from hours and hours of film show numerous men in hats and coats in the windows of the Texas Book Depository. Numerous. We were told the opposite.
Everyone except George H. W. Bush recalls where they were when President Kennedy was murdered.(It has become a joke in Washington)
Bush was a CIA operative before becoming the CIA civilian head of the same organization. He was also a life long close pal of George de Mohrenschildt, the Soviet agent who was a close personal pal of Lee Harvey Oswald.
6 degrees of separation?
George de Mohrenschildt's testimony to the Warren Commission was the longest and most secretive of any testimony.
The records are sealed (50,000 documents) because of the sensitivity of the subject and, most believe, the shocking revelations that would be shown to the public.
When will truth prevail?
Manhunt: Tracing the Escape Route of John Wilkes Booth
....that just after 4:00 in the morning of April 15th, 1865 two men appeared on horseback at the home of Dr. Samuel Mudd near present day Waldorf, Maryland. One man was suffering a broken leg and needed help. Dr. Mudd helped the injured man into his home, cut away his boot and set the leg. The two men then spent the rest of the night and most of the next day in Mudd's house.
But when federal troops arrived later to question Dr. Mudd about the assassin who had killed President Lincoln and taken refuge in his home, Mudd insisted he had not recognized John Wilkes Booth, this in spite of the fact that he had met Booth four months earlier and spent the better part of two days with him. Was he lying?
Implausible as it may seem, descendants of Dr. Mudd, who still own the home and have opened it for tours, have spent the better part of the last 150 years trying to clear his name. As you are shown around the home, the docent is at pains to impress on you Mudd's innocence. You can see the room where Wilkes Booth and his accomplice slept that night, and, most remarkably, you can see the actual settee where Booth lay to have his leg set, but courtesy restrains you from expressing skepticism about their claim.
Booth's assassination of Lincoln was not well planned. He basically threw the plot together at the last minute after his original plans had fallen through.
Whether or not Booth was in disguise, as his ancestor's claim, it's hard to fathom how the doctor could have been in such close contact with his patient and not recognized him; and the fact remains, after Booth and his accomplice left the house the next day, Dr. Mudd did not immediately report the incident to authorities in spite of the fact that the whole countryside was aroused with news of the assassination and the flight of the murderer.
The sensitivity of Mudd's descendants on this issue is testimony to how close to the surface these matters still are to an event that happened a century and a half ago. Part of the reason may be that the Lincoln assassination was the final act in a bloody drama that started with our politicians' refusal to compromise and ended with a war that claimed 620,000 American lives.
John Wilkes Booth escape route. Click the map for greater detail and to zoom and shift over territory. Map:
http://www.communitywalk.com/john_wilkes_booth_escape_route_tour/map/1527327#10190010738.1h<68-76.3`q;0
Another reason may be that the landscape and locations of Booth's flight remain largely unchanged from that time, lending an air of immediacy to the events. With a few notable exceptions, you can see almost every spot on Booth's escape route from Ford's Theatre in Washington to his assassination site near Port Royal, Virginia pretty much as Booth saw them.
If you're in Washington DC and you have a day to spare, it's a fascinating and worthwhile trek to follow Booth's escape route down through Maryland and into Virginia, and if you want the perfect companion to help fill in the blank spots and add color to the picture, take along James L. Swanson's absolutely compelling book, "Manhunt, the 12 Day Chase for Lincoln's Killer."
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/John_Wilkes_Booth-243x300.jpg)
John Wilkes Booth was the Brad Pitt of his day, a handsome, wealthy celebrity who could make the ladies swoon.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Lincoln_Assassination.jpg)
Booth's assassination of Lincoln was not well planned. He basically threw the plot together at the last minute after his original plans had fallen through.
John Wilkes Booth Escape Route Tour
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Surrat_Boarding_House_1865.jpg)
Mary Surratt's boarding house as it appeared in 1865.
1.) Mary Surratt's Boarding House
Start the tour here
Begin your tour of John Wilkes Booth's escape route in an unlikely place, the Wok n' Roll restaurant in Washington DC's Chinatown. The Chinese restaurant is housed in the actual building that was Mary Surratt's boarding house in 1865, and was the frequent meeting place of Booth and his co-conspirators in their plot to kidnap Lincoln.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Surrat_Boarding_House_2012.jpg)
Mary Surratt's boarding house as it appears today. It's the Wok n' Roll restaurant.
Yes, that's right. Booth's assassination of Lincoln was Plan B. The original plan, conceived before the war's end, was to kidnap the president and hold him for an exchange of confederate prisoners. But when the war ended Booth's plans fell apart. In an act of desperation he cobbled together the assassination scheme at the last minute, dragging along a few half-hearted co-conspirators.
After the assassination, one of the first places federal troops descended on was Mary Surratt's boarding house. Mary was arrested and convicted, becoming the first woman to be executed by the federal government. But Booth was not there. He had escaped to Maryland.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Alley_Behind_Fords_Theatre_1865.jpg)
The alley behind Ford's Theater as it appeared in 1865.
2.) Ford's Theater
Walking time from the previous stop: 10 minutes
Ford's Theater in Washington has been restored to the original condition it was in on the night of the assassination on April 14th, 1865. An interesting museum detailing the events of the assassination is housed on the lower level but the highlight is the National Park Service lecture about the assassination given from the stage as you sit in the theater seats, gazing up at the box where the assassination occurred.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Alley_Behind_Fords_Theatre_2012.jpg)
The alley behind Ford's Theater as it appears today. Booth was nearly captured here, but got away.
The theater lecture is usually thronged with tourists but another spot where few tourists go is the alley behind the theater where, on the night of the murder, Booth struggled up onto his horse after breaking his leg when leaping from the box after killing Lincoln, shouting in Latin, "Thus, always to tyrants!" The horse had been held by a young peanut vendor who handed it over to Booth as soon as he hobbled out the back door, and it was lucky for Booth he did, for Booth was pursued by a concerned citizen named John B. Stewart who tried to drag Booth from the horse but was fended off. Booth escaped Stewart and galloped away up the alley. Today, the alley looks much as it did in 1865.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Surrat_Tavern.jpg)
At Surrratt's Tavern Booth and Herold stopped to pick up a pair of rifles they'd secreted there.
3.) Surratt's Tavern
Driving time from previous stop: 25 minutes
Booth rode hard for the Potomac River bridge near present day Anacostia. Once at the bridge, he used his skills as an actor to persuade the watchman to let him through. Once over the bridge, Booth rode off into the open isolated country of southern Maryland.
It is a testament to Booth's charm and prowess as an actor that he was able to persuade the watchman to let him by; the watchman had firm orders not to let anyone through. But Booth was a consummate thespian and matinee idol. Far from being unknown to the people of Washington, Booth was the Brad Pitt of his day, a handsome, wealthy celebrity who could make the ladies swoon.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/David_Herold.jpg)
Booth's accomplice, David Herold, was star struck by Booth and remained with him through most of the ordeal.
On entering Maryland, Booth made first for Surratt's Tavern near present day Clinton, MD about 12 miles south of Anacostia. The tavern had been a safe house for the confederate underground and home to John Surratt, son of Mary Surratt and part of Booth's original conspiracy to kidnap the president.
Today the Surratt's Tavern is fully restored and presided over by a docent in period dress. A tour of the boarding house shows you the rooms where the boarders stayed, the kitchen and the dining room, and the place where Booth had hidden a pair of rifles between the walls in anticipation of his flight.
It was fortunate that two rifles had been stashed there because in his flight south from the river Booth picked up a traveling companion, David Herold, a co-conspirator whose role would be to act as a guide for the assassin through Maryland.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Dr._Mudd_House.jpg)The home of Dr. Samuel Mudd is still flying the confederate flag. Was Mudd an accomplice or a dupe as his ancestors claim?
Booth and Herold only lingered at Surratt's Tavern long enough to pick up the rifles and bolt down a bottle of whiskey. While there Booth couldn't resist the urge to boast that he had killed the president. Maryland was a hot bed of secession and had only been kept in the Union through hook and crook. Booth might've suspected that the news would be met with congratulations, but as he would find out throughout his ordeal, the end of the war and cessation of hostilities made many former confederates uneasy with his manic act of aggression.
4.) Samuel Mudd House and Museum
Driving time from previous stop: 20 minutes
This was no less true of Dr. Samuel Mudd who, by some accounts, angrily ordered Booth and Herold to leave his home as soon as he discovered what they had been involved in. But of course this would assume that Mudd knew who Booth was, an assertion firmly rejected by the Mudd family who oversee the Dr. Mudd House Museum near Waldorf, MD, about 15 miles south of Surratt's Tavern.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/John_Wilkes_Booth_Escape_Route-300x225.jpg)
The dirt road leading away from the back of the Mudd house is the same road Booth and Herold traveled in 1865. It's amazing how many things remain unchanged from that time.
The Samuel Mudd house is almost exactly as it was a century and a half ago. As part of the tour you are shown pictures of Ft. Jefferson, a prison island in the Gulf of Mexico, 70 miles west of Key West, where Mudd spent four years in prison for his complicity in Booth's escape. Mudd was pardoned by then president Andrew Johnson in 1869 after he courageously helped stem a yellow fever outbreak on the island. He died fourteen years later at age 49, by most accounts an exemplary citizen.
Since then the Mudd family has petitioned several successive presidents, requesting the conviction be set aside. So far to no avail. It appears that forever after Dr. Mudd will wear the stain of his association with John Wilkes Booth that April night in 1865. But he is not the only one. Others had their brushes with the fleeing assassin and some, like Samuel Cox, were not ashamed to admit it.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Rich_Hill2.jpg)
Rich Hill was the home of Samuel Cox. Booth and Herold showed up here seeking shelter.
5.) Rich Hill and The Pine Thicket
Driving time from previous stop: 27 minutes
After leaving Mudd's house, Booth and Herold showed up on the doorstep of Cox at his home Rich Hill, near present day Bel Alton, about 18 miles southwest of Mudd's farm. Today, the house still stands, nestled back among the trees and surrounded by a clump of vegetation. It is a private residence and is not open for tours but can be viewed from the roadside.
Whether or not Booth and Herold ever actually entered the house is a matter of some dispute but what is known is that Cox, fearful of their presence, directed them down the road about a quarter mile to a pine thicket where they lay in hiding for the better part of a week. The pine thicket is still there today, although, one suspects, vastly diminished from its original size.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/The_Pine_Thicket.jpg)
Booth and Herold camped out in this pine thicket for the better part of a week while federal troops mounted the largest manhunt in the nation's history.
Nevertheless, one can get a sense of the setting where Booth and Herold remained, holed up and shivering, desperate and hungry, Booth suffering from the pain of his shattered leg, while thousands of troops pushed south out of Washington in pursuit of the fugitives. They had been advised to lay low in that spot by the foster brother of Samuel Cox, a confederate agent who knew the surrounding countryside like the back of his hand. Cox had enlisted Thomas A. Jones to get Booth and Herold across the river to Virginia where it was assumed they would be safe.
6.) Huckleberry and the Potomac
Drive time from the previous stop: 7 minutes
Jones lived on a nearby farm called Huckleberry. His home still stands, although today it is a Jesuit retreat house and can only be visited by appointment. The surrounding countryside is as tranquil and bucolic as it was in 1865.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Huckleberry2.jpg)
The countryside near Thomas A. Jones farm, known as "Huckleberry", is as tranquil and bucolic today as it was in 1865.
After five days, Jones returned to the pine thicket and advised the fugitives that it was time to go. He urged them to leave their horses behind, to be less conspicuous. They traveled on foot, by night, three and a half miles down a series of hidden paths and public roads to a marshy area near the outlet of Port Tobacco creek on the Potomac River where Jones had a row boat tied up and waiting.
The exact spot of Booth's launch site is hard to pin down. There are some lively discussions about it on line. But it makes sense that it would be directly west of Jones' property near Huckleberry. About as close as you can get by car today is on Pope's Creek Rd near the historical marker about a hundred yards past Captain Billy's Crab House, which is an ideal place to stop and have a bite before carrying on with the escape route.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/The_Potomac.jpg)
Thomas A. Jones led Booth and Herold to a secluded place on the Potomac River where he had a boat tied up and waiting.
In any case, you can get a sense of the wide expanse of the river and what Booth and Herold were up against in trying to cross it at night with no lights.
Behind them, the countryside was filling up with federal troops (Dr. Samuel Mudd had already been confronted and questioned). When Booth and Herold shoved off, the night was as dark as India ink and the two men became disoriented while rowing. After more than an hour, they ended up back on the east bank of the Potomac in Maryland.
David Herold sought out the home of a friend, who refused to let them stay in his home; it was just too dangerous. They were banished to the woods. After two more days of hiding out, Booth and Herold again attempted the crossing and finally landed in Virginia on the morning of April 23rd, nine days after the assassination.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Cleydael.png)
Cleydael. Booth and Herold were rudely turned away from Dr. Richard Stuart's home.
7.) Cleydael
Driving time from previous stop: 25 minutes
Herold sought out the home of confederate signal agent, Elizabeth Queensberry, who arranged for Booth and Herold to be escorted to a Virginia plantation house 12 miles inland. The house was called Cleydael after the ancestral Scottish home of its occupants, Dr. and Mrs. Richard Stuart, and it still stands today, although it is a private residence. Once there, however, Booth and Herold got a chilly reception.
Dr. Stuart grudgingly allowed them to eat dinner in his home but then sent them on their way, refusing to treat Booth's leg. Booth was stunned at the way he was being treated. He had expected to be celebrated as a hero in Virginia but instead was being shunted off as a pariah.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Sharecroppers_Cabin.png)
Instead of being welcomed into stately Cleydael, the fugitives were sent to the cabin of a freed black man, which infuriated Booth.
To add insult to injury, Stuart arranged for the fugitives to hole up for the night with a black man named John Lucas. John Wilkes Booth was a rabid racist and resented being relegated to the home of a black man. He forced Lucas and his family to sleep outside while he and Herold spent the night in their cabin.
In the morning, Lucas's son Charlie transported the fugitives by wagon to the town of Port Conway on the Rappahannock River. He left them in the company of William Rollins, a fisherman who agreed to ferry them across, but not until he put out his fishing nets. While they were waiting for Rollins, Booth and Herold were spotted by three mounted soldiers. Fortunately, for them they were confederate soldiers on their way home after the war. Booth and Herold fell in with the soldiers and they all crossed the river together.
8.) The Peyton House
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Brockenbrough-Peyton-House.jpg)
Driving time from previous stop: 15 minutes
Once on the other side of the river, in the town of Port Royal, one of the soldiers, William Jett, escorted the fugitives to the home of Randolph Peyton whom he thought would be willing to provide them shelter. But Peyton was not at home and his two spinster sisters thought it would be unseemly to have a pair strange men residing with them, this time due to the sensibilities of the ladies who resided there. Once again, Booth and Herold were refused admittance to a Virginia home.
The Peyton house still stands on a side street in Port Royal, boarded up and sagging with age. A century and a half ago, Booth and Herold stood in its front yard and were informed that they would have to move on. They were advised to seek refuge at the farm of Richard H. Garrett three and a half miles to the south. Unbeknownst to Booth and Herold, this would be their last stop.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Port_Royal_Booth_Died_Sign.jpg)
"Where Booth Died" reads the marker, but the marker is wrong. Booth actually died two miles south of here in a hard to reach spot between a divided highway.
9.) Where Booth Died
Driving time from previous stop: 3 minutes
Garrett's two eldest sons had just returned from the war and Richard Garrett was in an expansive mood. When Booth and Herold were presented to him as returning confederate soldiers, Garrett welcomed them with open arms. Finally, Booth was getting the reception he felt he deserved. But things were about to change.
On Tuesday April 25th, one day after Booth and Herold passed through Port Conway, federal detective and manhunter Luther Baker arrived on the scene and questioned William Rollins, the fisherman who had offered to ferry the fugitives across the Rappahannock. Rollins was forthcoming, describing the fugitives in detail. Baker felt sure he was hot on their trail, but to confirm it he wanted to question the soldiers that had reportedly been with Booth and Herold during the crossing.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Garretts_Farm_in_1865.png)
Garrett's farm as it appeared in 1865.
Baker and members of the Sixteenth New York Cavalry tracked down William Jett in Bowling Green and, under threat of violence, persuaded him to reveal where Booth and Herold were hiding. Jett not only told them where the fugitives were, he offered to take them there.
Meanwhile, the former hospitality shown by Richard Garrett toward the two supposed soldiers in his midst had soured when it became clear that Booth and Herold had been lying; they weren't returning veterans at all but had taken advantage of the Garrett's kindliness under false pretenses. Garrett's oldest son, William, on discovering this, refused to let them sleep in the house. Once again, John Wilkes Booth, who had expected to be celebrated by the people of Virginia was being spurned. That night Booth and Herold slept in the tobacco barn.
After the rest of the tour, the Garrett Farm site is a bit of a letdown. It's just a well trodden clearing in the woods with a sign warning against taking artifacts.
Today, finding the site of Garrett's farm is tricky. The state has erected a historical marker just south of Port Royal, near the intersection of Route 301 and Route 17 that says Where Booth Died. But on reading the marker you learn "Booth died two miles south of here at Garrett's farm." So where exactly did Booth die?
10.) Garrett Farm Site
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Garrett_Farmhouse_Site2.jpg)
Driving time from previous stop: 8 minutes
The former site of Garrett's farm sits in a heavily forested median between a divided 4-lane parkway that cuts through Fort AP Hill, a 76,000 acre military base. All along the way there are signs prohibiting motorists from stopping or parking. What's more, even though every stop on the escape route requires the traveler to go further south, to reach the Garrett farm site, the traveler must go several miles south on Route 301 out of Port Royal, and then turn around and head back north on the other side of the divided parkway.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/The_Murderer.jpg)
The manhunt raged for twelve days. In the end the reward money was distributed among the 26 cavalrymen that surrounded and killed Booth.
A lawn sign planted at the side of the road points the way up a path into the woods to the site of Garrett's farm. It is difficult to park here as there is little or no shoulder and traffic is moving at a furious clip. The best you can do is get your vehicle over into the grass and leave it idling as you scurry up the path to take a quick look.
There's really not much to see, just a clearing in the woods and a sign that warns against taking artifacts from the site. If there were any artifacts to be taken, they are long gone now. Of all the places along the escape route that are virtually unchanged from 1865, this place is so completely different it's hard to imagine what it must've looked like that April morning so long ago when Booth and Herold woke up to find themselves surrounded by federal troops.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/Hangings_of_Lincoln_conspirators1.jpg)
David Herold surrendered at Garrett's Farm but was hanged three months later alongside Mary Surratt and two other conspirators.
Twenty-six cavalrymen took aim at the barn as detective Luther Baker ordered Booth and Herold to come out. David Herold emerged with his hands up but Booth refused to surrender. After attempting to negotiate with the assassin, the troops set fire to the barn. Booth covered his mouth against the smoke and prepared to come out firing, but a young sergeant by the name of Boston Corbett, having crept up close to the barn, peered in through a chink and saw Booth's intention. Drawing his pistol, he took aim through the chink and before Booth could play out his daring final act, Corbett shot him.
Booth was carried, dying, from the barn and laid under a locust tree. He had been shot through the neck. A local doctor pronounced the wound mortal. As the sun rose over Garrett's farm on the morning of April 26th, 1865, John Wilkes Booth died.
David Herold was tried along with Mary Surratt and two other conspirators and hanged three months later.
Abraham Lincoln, vilified through most of his presidency by friend and foe, attained in death a martyrdom that helped him become the most popular president in US history. It is ironic that the man who shot him had, throughout his life, enjoyed the honor and admiration of most everyone who knew him, but in death acquired an ignominy so complete it even destroyed the lives of those who came into contact with him.
John Wilkes Booth achieved exactly the opposite of what he had intended. He cemented in glory the man he'd intended to destroy and plunged into disrepute a reputation he'd hoped would be raised in glory, his own.
John F. Kennedy: 11/22/63 Revisted
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Kennedy_Motorcade_11-22-63.png)
Single Gun Theory.... that in the parking lot of the Sixth Floor Museum at Dealey Plaza in Dallas, Texas, freelance tour guides wrangle tourists onto the grassy knoll and make wild claims about the Kennedy assassination. "51 people saw two gunmen shoot the president from this spot!"
The obvious question. "And none of them went to the police?"
"Some did, but their testimony was suppressed. Others were intimidated into silence. At least one was killed."
On the wooden palisade fence that tops the knoll, the graffiti artists have scrawled their opinions, one reads: "About this spot. Bang! Bang!"
Really? People still believe this? After all these years?
Some people just will not get with the program.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Texas_School_Book_Depository.jpg)
From the Sixth Floor corner window of the Texas School Book Depository came the shot that changed the nation.
If You Want to Run with the Crowd
The Kennedy assassination is one of the most fascinating events in American history. The national consensus of opinion changes from generation to generation. Right after the event, as we rode the last waves of post-World War II optimism, we were willing to believe what they were telling us, that a single gunman was responsible.
But as the upbeat attitude of the late 50's and early 60's gave way to the cynicism of the 70's, conspiracy theories abounded. In the early 80's a new investigation released findings that supported a conspiracy. But by the late 80's we were growing weary of all the cynicism, eager to the return to a more positive view of the nation and ourselves, and by the late 90's that evidence was refuted.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Assassins_Perch-11.jpg)
This is the view from the Sixth Floor window. This is the angle Oswald had. He surely shot JFK from here. But was he alone?
Today, the prevailing opinion is that a single gunman killed Kennedy. If you want to run with the crowd, this is what you believe. Stephen King, in his 2011 bestseller, 11/22/63, revisits the controversy in fiction and comes to the same conclusion, stating, "It is very, very difficult for a reasonable person to believe otherwise." Yet as you explore the exhibits in the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas you are reminded of all the bizarre anomalies that surround the assassination, and you can't help wondering.
A Pristine Bullet, Mysterious Recordings, and Swapped Photos
Among the oddities is "the pristine bullet", the bullet that allegedly killed the president and struck Texas governor John Connelly, a bullet which would have had to pass through 15 layers of clothing, 7 layers of skin, and approximately 15 inches of tissue, struck a necktie knot, removed 4 inches of rib, and shattered a radius bone, yet somehow came to rest on the gurney of the wounded Connelly intact, neither blunted or dented.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Fatal_Shot_to_Kill_Kennedy.png)
This frame from the Zabruder film shows the bullet slamming into Kennedy's head. Question: Is that the back of his head, or the front?
The Warren Commission, tasked with getting to the bottom of the assassination back in 1964, insisted that this fatal bullet was one of three fired from Oswald's gun, which were the only shots fired. But there is ample evidence suggesting otherwise.
There is acoustical evidence of shots fired from the grassy knoll, as well as the testimony of three credible eyewitnesses who reported hearing shots fired from that area. (A good deal fewer than the 51 eyewitnesses claimed by the conspiracy freaks, but how many do you need really?)
What's more, the location of the fatal wound is in dispute. The Warren Commission concluded that the bullet struck Kennedy above the right shoulder and passed through his neck, a trajectory that aligns with Oswald's perch. But Robert McClelland, a doctor at Parkland Hospital where the autopsy was performed, testified that the back part of Kennedy's head was blown out, with tissue missing, a finding consistent with an exit wound, suggesting that the fatal bullet was fired from the front, in the direction of the grassy knoll.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Kennedy_Autopsy_Entrance_Wound-223x300.jpg)
According to analysts, there is a "95% chance" that the autopsy photos of Kennedy's fatal wound have been switched.
In the 1990's the Assassination Records Review Board's chief analyst for military records said he was "95% certain" that the autopsy photos in the National Archives, the ones showing the wound at the back of the neck, had been switched.
Everywhere you look, there are suspicious anomalies. And then there are the weird coincidences.
A Friend of the Family
Here's one for you. Lee Harvey Oswald, by all accounts a nobody, a loser with few friends and absolutely zero influence, was a palling around, in the days leading up to the assassination, with George de Mohrenschildt, a wealthy Russian ex-pat. Who is George de Mohrenschildt, you ask. Well, among other things, a close friend of the Bouvier family. So close, in fact, that he used to bounce a 3-year old Jackie on his knee. That's right, that Jackie, the one who grew up to become first lady, wife of JFK.
Mohrenschildt eventually cracked up and committed suicide, but before he did, he managed to confess that he had been directed by a CIA operative to meet with Oswald in the days before the assassination. Then, according to a government led investigation, he succumbed to despair and shot himself – less than 48 hours after his explosive confession.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Lee_Harvey_Oswald-272x300.png)
In this famous picture of Oswald holding the murder weapon he is seen holding up a newspaper, which fixes him in place and time, a peculiar thing for an aspiring assassin to do.
Oswald himself claimed he had been nothing more than a patsy. It was one of the few things he was able to say before he was gunned down a little more than 48 hours after the assassination by a disgruntled nightclub owner named Jack Ruby.
Improbable Deaths
Ruby was not expecting what he got. Thinking he would get off with a relatively light charge of "murder without malice", Ruby instead had the book thrown at him and was convicted of first degree murder and given the death penalty. No long after, imprisoned and desperate, Ruby told reporters, "Everything pertaining to what's happening has never come to the surface. The world will never know the true facts of what occurred." In a later interview with psychiatrist Werner Teuter, he said, "I was framed to kill Oswald." Ruby died in prison of cancer. He claimed his enemies, who were trying to silence him, had injected him with cancer cells. He died a mere three years after killing Oswald, taking his secrets with him.
Untimely deaths cluster around the Kennedy assassination, so many that the House Select Committee on Assassinations set out in 1978 to investigate what they called the "statistically improbable number" of deaths of people associated with the event.
(http://imgc.allpostersimages.com/images/P-473-488-90/64/6478/VWG6100Z/posters/lee-harvey-oswald-being-shot-by-jack-ruby-archival-photo-poster-print.jpg)
Jack Ruby shooting Lee Harvey Oswald. Ruby later told a pyschiatrist, "I was framed to kill Oswald."
Among those who perished within a few years of the assassination were Lee Bowers, one of the eyewitnesses who testified he heard shots coming from the grassy knoll; he died in a car crash. Then there was John Garrett Underhill, a former CIA agent who expressed his conviction that Kennedy had been killed by a small clique in the CIA, killed by a gunshot wound to the head, death ruled a suicide. Finally, there was Rose Cherami, a stripper in Jack Ruby's club who tried to warn authorities, in advance of the assassination, that Kennedy was about to be killed. She was struck by a car, supposedly while hitchhiking.
Strange Coincidences and Questionable Evidence
All of this is explored and detailed at the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas. Housed on the sixth floor of the former Texas School Book Depository in the same place where Oswald fired his fateful shots, the museum is surprisingly frank and balanced in laying out the history and controversy of the assassination.
Arranged in roughly chronological order, beginning with the rise of Kennedy as a candidate, his election to the presidency, his early days in office, proceeding through the politics of the time and into the events leading up to the moment when the President's motorcade entered Dealey Plaza, the museum incorporates a fascinating combination of photos, video, artifacts and static exhibits to paint a comprehensive picture of the assassination and its aftermath. It draws no conclusions of its own but leaves it up to each visitor to draw his own conclusions.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Oswalds_Hiding_Places-1.jpg)
At the Sixth Floor Museum in Dallas, a museum goer ponders the glassed off corner where Lee Harvey Oswald hid among stacks of boxes to shoot the president.
And after 50 years of digging and speculating by a legion of assiduous investigators, the ascendant conclusion is that Oswald did it all by himself. No conspiracy. Case closed.
Really?
I am just cynical enough to believe otherwise.
The Turning Point
Given the strange coincidences, the lost and tampered with evidence, the suppressed and strangled testimony, to arrive unequivocally at the conclusion that a single nitwit loser, acting alone, assassinated JFK is a little like saying that nobody on Wall Street was responsible for the financial shenanigans that led to the biggest economic meltdown since the Great Depression.
Really?
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Pristine_bullet.png)
The pristine bullet. The Sixth Floor Museum doesn't shy away from examining controversial aspects of the assassination.
Wow, that's amazing. And they wonder why the vast majority of the American people have lost faith in government.
From a historical perspective, what's interesting about the Kennedy assassination is that it stands as the pivotal moment in history when the American people went from trusting their government to suspecting it of things dark and shady. Most historians mark that moment as Watergate, but Watergate was just the confirmation of a gathering cynicism that started when the Warren Commission released its dubious findings.
Kennedy's Bitterest Enemies
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Captured_Cuban_exiles_at_the_Bay_of_Pigs.png)
Kennedy's refusal to provide air support resulted in the killing and capture of Cuban exiles at the Bay of Pigs.
So who did pull the strings on the Kennedy assassination? Conspiracy theories offer up everyone from the Soviets to LBJ, but the most plausible hypothesis is that the CIA, working in concert with anti-Castro Cubans and the mob, offed the president.
The reasons are manifest. First, Kennedy made bitter enemies of anti-Castro Cubans and the CIA when he refused to provide air support to bail out the botched Bay of Pigs invasion. Kennedy was never wholeheartedly behind the invasion, having inherited it from the previous administration, so when it went sour, he was not about to call in air strikes, which would've led to an all out war with Cuba and most likely, by extension, the Soviets, thereby kicking off World War III.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Grassy_Knoll_Perspective-1.jpg)
View from the grassy knoll. The second car is approximately where Kennedy was when the shots were fired.
Kennedy was having none of it, so the anti-Castro invasion force was killed and captured, giving a black eye to the CIA, who had advocated for the invasion, and to the anti-Castro Cuban community in South Florida, who despised Kennedy for betraying them.
Second, the Kennedy administration was in hot water with the mob, who had supported JFK's run for the presidency, just as they had supported his father, Joe Kennedy, throughout his rise to power. Joe Kennedy was a bootlegger. The Kennedy fortune was made on the basis of illegal activities, specifically on the smuggling and distribution of alcohol during prohibition. The Kennedys were tight with the mob, and the mob went to the mat for Kennedy during the election, bringing in the labor vote for JFK and tipping the election in his favor.
So how did he repay them? By declaring an all out war against organized crime.
(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/Dealey_Plaza.jpg)
Dealey Plaza today, a quiet place to stop and contemplate what happened here, and what it means.
In the CIA and the mafia, Kennedy had made enemies of the people most capable of committing murder and covering it up. Then came November 22nd, 1963.
A shot rang out in Dallas and America became a different country, a country forever divided between people who want desperately to believe that these kinds of things don't happen, and people like me, who fear a powerful, influential elite only too willing to destroy the hopes and dreams of the nation to suit their own self-serving agendas, an elite emboldened by the public's willingness to bury their heads in the sand.
The Sixth Floor Museum is worth a visit if for no other reason than it makes you stop and think.
Then again, maybe it doesn't, because doing so might be just a little too scary.
But, really?
NOVA: Finding Life Beyond Earth ....that scientists are on the verge of answering one of the greatest questions in history: Are we alone? Combining the latest telescope images with dazzling CGI, "Finding Life Beyond Earth" immerses audiences in the sights and sounds of alien worlds, while top astrobiologists explain how these places are changing how we think about the potential for life in our solar system. We used to think our neighboring planets and moons were fairly boring — mostly cold, dead rocks where life could never take hold. Today, however, the solar system looks wilder than we ever imagined. Powerful telescopes and unmanned space missions have revealed a wide range of dynamic environments — atmospheres thick with organic molecules, active volcanoes and vast saltwater oceans. This ongoing revolution is forcing scientists to expand their ideas about what kinds of worlds could support life. If we do find primitive life forms elsewhere in the solar system, it may well be that life is common in the universe — the rule, and not the exception.
Uploaded on Feb 13, 2012 NOVA: Finding Life Beyond Earth
.... that Albert Einstein said, "If the honey bee ever disappeared, man will only have four years left to live." Illuminati 2012 End of the World Conspiracy Predictions
....that, according to the government's NASA... if you are preparing for a certain fictional apocalypse this month, forget it. (sounds like the government, huh?)
The idea that the world is ending on December 21, 2012, comes from a misinterpretation of the Mayan calendar. Because their calendar ends on the 21st, some believe the world must be ending, as well.
This idea has become so widespread in popular culture that NASA Science has made repeated efforts to debunk it. They've now even gone so far as to produce a video for the 22nd of December, explaining (again) why the world didn't end:
The video should ease any fears you might have that all of humanity is headed for its demise this month. (so they say)
Other doomsday theories for the 21st include the idea that a planet called Nibiru is on a collision course with Earth, a total blackout for the planet due to the "alignment of the universe," solar storms and meteor strikes. NASA says none of these events is actually a possibility and does a case-by-case debunking. (but it could happen... could happen... could hap....)[/font][/size]
Railroad Tracks
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rPTZCtw6ups/UNSidLsl1EI/AAAAAAAApig/Xj1FYBZDTyE/s1600/1.bmp)
....that the US standard railroad gauge (distance between the rails) is 4 feet, 8.5 inches. That's an exceedingly odd number.
Why was that gauge used? Because that's the way they built them in England, and English expatriates designed the US railroads.
Why did the English build them like that? Because the first rail lines were built by the same people who built the pre-railroad tramways, and that's the gauge they used.
Why did 'they' use that gauge then?
Because the people who built the tramways used the same jigs and tools that they had used for building wagons, which used that wheel spacing.
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-ujc6pnod4P0/UNSizIkgQ_I/AAAAAAAApis/Fves9KeunTA/s1600/2.bmp)
Why did the wagons have that particular odd wheel spacing?
Well, if they tried to use any other spacing, the wagon wheels would break on some of the old, long distance roads in England , because that's the spacing of the wheel ruts.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-C8UJP0JSKpo/UNSjM3vzWeI/AAAAAAAApi4/2QIkMn14kTo/s1600/3.bmp)
So who built those old rutted roads?
Imperial Rome built the first long distance roads in Europe (including England) for their legions. Those roads have been used ever since.
And the ruts in the roads? Roman war chariots formed the initial ruts, which everyone else had to match for fear of destroying their wagon wheels.
(http://var.furniturenote.net/photo/roman-soldier-chariot-with-horse-wagon-statue-15-inches-h-l.jpg)
Since the chariots were made for Imperial Rome , they were all alike in the matter of wheel spacing. Therefore, the United States standard railroad gauge of 4 feet, 8.5 inches is derived from the original specifications for an Imperial Roman war chariot. In other words, bureaucracies live forever.
So the next time you are handed a specification/procedure/process, and wonder, 'What horse's ass came up with this?', you may be exactly right.
Imperial Roman army chariots were made just wide enough to accommodate the rear ends of two war horses.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-I1ykpJtHh4E/UNSj6Kxd7yI/AAAAAAAApjQ/H8WdstnBES4/s1600/5.bmp)
Now, the twist to the story:
When you see a Space Shuttle sitting on its launch pad, you will notice that there are two big booster rockets attached to the sides of the main fuel tank. These are solid rocket boosters, or SRBs. The SRBs are made by Thiokol at their factory in Utah.
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-MuiLn3LKdFE/UNSkQK4FjjI/AAAAAAAApjc/rGcDpVE-9Cw/s1600/6.bmp)
The engineers who designed the SRBs would have preferred to make them a bit larger, but the SRBs had to be shipped by train from the factory to the launch site. The railroad line from the factory happens to run through a tunnel in the mountains, and the SRBs had to fit through that tunnel. The tunnel is slightly wider than the railroad track, and the railroad track, as you now know, is about as wide as two horses' behinds.
(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-irx6kZoeHp8/UNSkkkW5M4I/AAAAAAAApjo/JCDcFk6dRZ8/s1600/7.bmp)
So, a major Space Shuttle design feature of what is arguably the world's most advanced transportation system was determined over two thousand years ago by the width of a horse's ass.
...that former pop star Frankie Valens becomes pastor of small church in western Kansas
SYRACUSE, Kan. – Pop star of the 60s and 70s, Frankie Valens, has a new gig — as a preacher at a small church in western Kansas.
The Garden City Telegram reports (http://bit.ly/Wm4Q7y ) that the singer, who had hits with "Smoke Gets in Your Eyes," and "The Lion Sleeps Tonight," became the pastor of First Christian Church in Syracuse, KS., about a month ago.
Valens' father pastored the same church in 1978 and 1979.
After his recording career ended, Valens and his wife, Phyllis, toured the country performing gospel songs and skits at various functions.
The 70-year-old Valens says he's never preached from a pulpit but that he says he's been testifying about his faith for years, so he is ready for the new challenge.
A class photo of the 110th United States Senate.
(http://www-tc.pbs.org/wnet/need-to-know/files/2010/10/Senate.jpg)
...that we wonder if some of the first-time candidates running for Senate this year had visions of taking to the floor and delivering old-fashioned barn burners to their colleagues, making passionate, moving and persuasive speeches that ended in thunderous applause and praise from a grateful nation.(http://myamericanodyssey.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/08/Internal_Conflict_Washington_DC-289x300.jpg)
If so, some of those winners may be in for a disappointment.
Because when you're watching C-SPAN — yes, we know some of you do — and you see a senator giving an emotional speech about some urgent matter, he or she is very likely speaking to an empty room. "Speechifying," that is, just for the benefit of the TV camera.
If you had no idea that's what they do, you're not alone. Neither did the New Yorker's George Packer, a longtime Senate watcher — and enthusiast — who earlier this year went to Washington to examine the institution he loves. He arrived just as the health care bill reconciliation debate was in full swing. And while the senators tried to reconcile the bill, George Packer tried to reconcile the Senate of his childhood with what he believes the Senate has become.
There are those who like the Senate the way it is — who really do prefer government by gridlock. But for those who share George Packer's frustrations, we can tell you that there are remedies possible, even with a new, more divided senate. In addition to Packer, Need to Know's Jon Meacham spoke with Sen. Tom Udall of New Mexico about new rule changes he'll be proposing in the next Senate.
....that the first truly Earth-like alien planet is likely to be spotted next year, an epic discovery that would cause humanity to reassess its place in the universe.
While astronomers have found a number of exoplanets over the last few years that share one or two key traits with our own world — such as size or inferred surface temperature — they have yet to bag a bona fide "alien Earth." But that should change in 2013, scientists say.
"I'm very positive that the first Earth twin will be discovered next year," said Abel Mendez, who runs the Planetary Habitability Laboratory at the University of Puerto Rico at Arecibo.
Planets piling up
Astronomers discovered the first exoplanet orbiting a sunlike star in 1995. Since they, they've spotted more than 800 worlds beyond our own solar system, and many more candidates await confirmation by follow-up observations. [The Strangest Alien Planets (Gallery)]
http://www.space.com/159-strangest-alien-planets.html
NASA's prolific Kepler Space Telescope, for example, has flagged more than 2,300 potential planets since its March 2009 launch. Only 100 or so have been confirmed to date, but mission scientists estimate that at least 80 percent will end up being the real deal.
The first exoplanet finds were scorching-hot Jupiter-like worlds that orbit close to their parent stars, because they were the easiest to detect. But over time, new instruments came online and planet hunters honed their techniques, enabling the discovery of smaller and more distantly orbiting planets — places more like Earth.
Last December, for instance, Kepler found a planet 2.4 times larger than Earth orbiting in its star's habitable zone — that just-right range of distances where liquid water, and perhaps life as we know it, can exist.
The Kepler team and other research groups have detected several other worlds like that one (which is known as Kepler-22b), bringing the current tally of potentially habitable exoplanets to nine by Mendez' reckoning.
http://www.space.com/15716-alien-life-search-solar-system.html
Zeroing in on Earth's twin
None of the worlds in Mendez' Habitable Exoplanets Catalog are small enough to be true Earth twins. The handful of Earth-size planets spotted to date all orbit too close to their stars to be suitable for life. [Gallery: 9 Potentially Habitable Exoplanets]
http://www.space.com/18790-habitable-exoplanets-catalog-photos.html
But it's only a matter of time before a small, rocky planet is spotted in the habitable zone — and Mendez isn't the only researcher who thinks that time is coming soon.
"The first planet with a measured size, orbit and incident stellar flux that is suitable for life is likely to be announced in 2013," said Geoff Marcy, a veteran planet hunter at the University of California, Berkeley, and a member of the Kepler team.
Mendez and Marcy both think this watershed find will be made by Kepler, which spots planets by flagging the telltale brightness dips caused when they pass in front of their parent stars from the instrument's perspective.
Kepler needs to witness three of these"transits" to detect a planet, so its early discoveries were tilted toward close-orbiting worlds (which transit more frequently). But over time, the telescope has been spotting more and more distantly orbiting planets — including some in the habitable zone.
An instrument called HARPS (short for High Accuracy Radial velocity Planet Searcher) is also a top contender, having already spotted a number of potentially habitable worlds. HARPS, which sits on the European Southern Observatory's 3.6-meter telescope in Chile, allows researchers to detect the tiny gravitational wobbles that orbiting planets induce in their parent stars.
"HARPS should be able to find the most interesting and closer Earth twins," Mendez told SPACE.com via email, noting that many Kepler planets are too far away to characterize in detail. "A combination of its sensitivity and long-term observations is now paying off."
And there are probably many alien Earths out there to be found in our Milky Way galaxy, researchers say.
"Estimating carefully, there are 200 billion stars that host at least 50 billion planets, if not more," Mikko Tuomi, of the University of Hertfordshire in England, told SPACE.com via email.
"Assuming that 1:10,000 are similar to the Earth would give us 5,000,000 such planets," added Tuomi, who led teams reporting the discovery of several potentially habitable planet candidates this year, including an exoplanet orbiting the star Tau Ceti just 11.9 light-years from Earth. "So I would say we are talking about at least thousands of such planets."
http://www.space.com/18967-nearby-habitable-alien-planet-tau-ceti.html
What it would mean
Whenever the first Earth twin is confirmed, the discovery will likely have a profound effect on humanity.
"We humans will look up into the night sky, much as we gaze across a large ocean," Marcy told SPACE.com via email. "We will know that the cosmic ocean contains islands and continents by the billions, able to support both primitive life and entire civilizations."
Marcy hopes such a find will prod our species to take its first real steps beyond its native solar system.
"Humanity will close its collective eyes, and set sail for Alpha Centauri," Marcy said, referring to the closest star system to our own, where an Earth-size planet was discovered earlier this year.
http://www.space.com/18097-alpha-centauri-stars-planet-explained-infographic.html
(http://i.space.com/images/i/22888/i02/alpha-centauri-system-planet-121017a-02.jpg?1350490231)
"The small steps for humanity will be a giant leap for our species. Sending robotic probes to the nearest stars will constitute the greatest adventure we Homo sapiens have ever attempted," Marcy added. "This massive undertaking will require the cooperation and contribution from all major nations around world. In so doing, we will take our first tentative steps into the cosmic ocean and enhance our shared sense of purpose on this terrestrial shore."
Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/science/2012/12/28/first-alien-earth-will-be-found-in-2013/?intcmp=obnetwork#ixzz2H6sVvChA
....that the largest star ever discovered, compared to our Sun, is...
...that scientists observing a new star 450 light years from Earth say they have caught early glimpses of planets forming around it.
The fledgling star, HD 142527, may be 2 million years old, but it remains a newborn by the universe's standards. Scientists using the ALMA telescope captured a first-of-its-kind look at planetary development, as newly forming gas giants begin to clear out the disk surrounding it.
So far, the international team has determined that at least two young planets have sprouted up around the star.
The novel sighting also confirmed an earlier theoretical concept of gravity-fueled bridges between outer and inner portions of the star's disk that help the star grow. HD 142527 is already about twice as massive as the sun and is still expanding.[/font][/size]
Published on Dec 31, 2012
...that although as far as planets are concerned Earth is relatively moderate (good thing too!), there are places even in our own world that may surprise you with their level of extremeness. Whether it's the coldest place on Earth or the deepest trench in the sea, get ready to have your mind blown by 25 of Earth's most incredible extremes!
Check out the text version too! - http://list25.com/25-of-earths-most-incredible-extremes/
Published on Jan 8, 2013
...that as violent as we can be towards one another, throughout history the biggest executioner of the human race has been deadly disease. Whether it was the Black Death in 14th century Europe or Malaria in present day Africa, the loss of human life and cost to society has been astronomical. These are the 25 deadliest diseases in human history.
....that with more and more people becoming proficient at using image editing software like Photoshop it can be hard to tell whether what you see on the internet is real or fake. While most of the time your skepticism is probably going to serve you well, every once in a while you may be in for a bit of a shock. These 25 images you won't believe weren't Photoshopped will probably do just that.
From forgotten languages to lost civilizations, here are 10 historical mysteries that remain unsolved.
Tired of always running out of printers ink?
Now there's a secret the ink companies don't want you to know!
....that these are Top Ten Lists
of the most screwy ..... whatever video's
known to man... or women...
and yes, Wilma, you too.
Warning - may contain otters, cheese, chopstick bra's
and watermelon head-butting.
Lord, this could go on all day if you let it!!!
Phobia's:
More... did you say MORE???????????
Conspiracy:
You got it...
MORE!Sci-Fi:
History:
Medical:
Science:
Crime:
Military:
Comedy:
Geography:
Good Luck... this ought to keep y'all busy for the
next week... month.... maybe the rest of the YEAR! ;D[/font][/size][/b][/color]
The Men Who Killed Kennedy: Part 1 The Coup d'Etat
....The Men Who Killed Kennedy: Part 2 - The Forces of Darkness ....The Men Who Killed Kennedy: Part 3 - The Cover Up
....The Men Who Killed Kennedy: Part 4 -
The Patsy....The Men Who Killed Kennedy: Part 5 -
The Witnesses....The Men Who Killed Kennedy: Part 6 -
The Truth Will Set You Free
....The Men Who Killed Kennedy: Part 7 -
The Smoking Guns ....The Men Who Killed Kennedy: Part 8 -
The Love Affair....The Men Who Killed Kennedy: Part 9 of 9 -
The Guilty Men
...that St. Valentine was beheaded?
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-q39HgbW2kTQ/UR1PvtollxI/AAAAAAAAwZk/PYobYlBJmOA/s1600/2-14-13+1.jpg)
On February 14 around the year 278 A.D., Valentine, a holy priest in Rome in the days of Emperor Claudius II, was executed.
Under the rule of Claudius the Cruel, Rome was involved in many unpopular and bloody campaigns. The emperor had to maintain a strong army, but was having a difficult time getting soldiers to join his military leagues. Claudius believed that Roman men were unwilling to join the army because of their strong attachment to their wives and families.
To get rid of the problem, Claudius banned all marriages and engagements in Rome. Valentine, realizing the injustice of the decree, defied Claudius and continued to perform marriages for young lovers in secret.
When Valentine's actions were discovered, Claudius ordered that he be put to death. Valentine was arrested and dragged before the Prefect of Rome, who condemned him to be beaten to death with clubs and to have his head cut off. The sentence was carried out on February 14, on or about the year 270.
Legend also has it that while in jail, St. Valentine left a farewell note for the jailer's daughter, who had become his friend, and signed it "From Your Valentine."
For his great service, Valentine was named a saint after his death.
In truth, the exact origins and identity of St. Valentine are unclear. According to the Catholic Encyclopedia, "At least three different Saint Valentines, all of them martyrs, are mentioned in the early martyrologies under the date of 14 February." One was a priest in Rome, the second one was a bishop of Interamna (now Terni, Italy) and the third St. Valentine was a martyr in the Roman province of Africa.
Legends vary on how the martyr's name became connected with romance. The date of his death may have become mingled with the Feast of Lupercalia, a pagan festival of love.
On these occasions, the names of young women were placed in a box, from which they were drawn by the men as chance directed. In 496 AD, Pope Gelasius decided to put an end to the Feast of Lupercalia, and he declared that February 14 be celebrated as St Valentine's Day.
Gradually, February 14 became a date for exchanging love messages, poems and simple gifts such as flowers.
(http://www.actiondevelopment.eu/images/klant/SOCIAL%20WELFARE%20OF%20CHILDREN%20DEPARTMENT_html_45437c04.jpg)
....that a woman walks into the downtown welfare office in Howard,KS, trailed by 37 kids.
Wow, the social worker exclaims, are they all yours?
Yep, they are all mine, the poor flustered momma sighs, having heard that question a thousand times before.
She says, "sit down Terry." All the children rush to find seats.
Well, says the social worker, then you must be here to sign up. I'll need your children's names.
Well, to keep it simple, the boys are all named Terry and the girls are all named Terri.
In disbelief, the case worker says, "are you serious? They're all named Terry?"
Their momma replied, "well, yes - it makes it easier. When it's time to get them out of bed and ready for school, I yell Terry! When it's time for dinner, I just yell Terry! And they all come running. And if I need to stop the kid who's running into the street, I just yell Terry! And all of them stop. It's the smartest idea I ever had, naming them all Terry."
The social worker thinks this over for a bit, then wrinkles her forehead and says tentatively, "but what if you want just one kid to come, and not the whole bunch?"
The Momma replied, "then I just call them by their last names."
...that The Social Media Revolution 2012-13 will blow your mind...
.... that NASA plans to capture an asteroid and start sending astronauts aloft again by 2017, even with a tighter budget, the U.S. space agency announced Wednesday.
(http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130214132407-asteroid-near-miss-horizontal-gallery.jpg)
Asteroid 2012 DA14 made a record-close pass -- 17,100 miles -- by Earth on February 15. Most asteroids are made of rocks, but some are metal. They orbit mostly between Jupiter and Mars in the main asteroid belt. Scientists estimate there are tens of thousands of asteroids and when they get close to our planet, they are called near-Earth objects.
(http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130207133417-asteroid-2012-da14-graphic-horizontal-gallery.jpg)
This graphic shows Asteroid 2012 DA14's predicted path as it passes closest to Earth on February 15 at 2:24 p.m. ET. It will fly 17,200 miles (27,700 kilometers) above Earth's surface and inside the ring of weather and communications satellites. The asteroid is about 150 feet (45 meters) in diameter. It is heading toward Earth at 17,450 mph.
(http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130207135106-asteroid-shower-horizontal-gallery.jpg)
What else is up there? Is anyone watching? NASA's Near-Earth Object Program is trying to track down all asteroids and comets that could threaten Earth. NASA says 9,672 near-Earth objects have been discovered as of February 5, 2013. Of these, 1,374 have been classified as Potentially Hazardous Asteroids, or objects that could one day threaten Earth.
The Obama administration is asking Congress for just over $17.7 billion in 2014, down a little more than 1% from the nearly $17.9 billion currently devoted to space exploration, aeronautics and other science.
The request includes $105 million to boost the study of asteroids, both to reduce the risk of one hitting Earth and to start planning for a mission to "identify, capture, redirect, and sample" a small one. The plan is to send an unmanned probe out to seize the asteroid and tow it into orbit around the moon, where astronauts would study it.
"This mission allows us to better develop our technology and systems to explore farther than we ever have before ... to places humanity has dreamed of for as long as I've been alive," NASA Administrator Charles Bolden told reporters.
The Obama administration has said before that it wants to send astronauts to explore an asteroid by 2025 and to Mars by 2030.
Forget falling stars: NASA plans to catch an asteroidWednesday's budget request would include another $20 billion to study near-Earth asteroids -- doubling the current spending on that effort. The funding is aimed not only at finding a suitable asteroid to explore, but also at "protecting the planet," Bolden said.
That concern got new attention after February, when a nearly 150-foot asteroid passed within 18,000 miles of Earth. That one was expected -- but the same day, an unrelated, 45-foot space rock plunged into the atmosphere and exploded high over southwestern Russia, injuring an estimated 1,200 people.
White House science adviser John Holdren told a congressional committee in March that as few as 10% of asteroids more than 150 yards wide -- which he called "potential city killers" -- have been detected.
NASA's budget request includes $822 million for the agency's Commercial Crew Program, its push to resume U.S. space flights through private companies by 2017. Bolden called that the "bottom-line" figure, warning that any cuts would mean delays. NASA has already hired the unmanned SpaceX Dragon to deliver cargo to the International Space Station, though no commercial manned missions are currently under way.
While putting money into renewed human space flight efforts, the proposal cuts scientific research, particularly the study of the other planets in our solar system. Planetary science takes a nearly $300 million hit compared to 2012, the last year detailed figures were available.
NASA officials defended the cut, saying major projects like the Mars rover Curiosity and the upcoming MAVEN probe to study the Martian upper atmosphere are already past their most expensive phases.
"But of course we'll be ramping up again as we approach 2020 and the next Mars rover," said Beth Robinson, the agency's chief financial officer.
Bolden said NASA's Mars research is the biggest part of the planetary science budget.
(http://i2.cdn.turner.com/cnn/dam/assets/130207135808-armageddon-horizontal-gallery.jpg)
Asteroids and comets are popular fodder for Earth-ending science fiction movies. Two of the biggest blockbusters came out in 1998: "Deep Impact" and "Armageddon." (Walt Disney Studios) Others include "Meteorites!" (1998), "Doomsday Rock" (1997), "Asteroid" (1997), "Meteor" (1979), and "A Fire in the Sky" (1978). Can you name others?
[...](http://www.weirdwarp.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/space-debris.jpg)
SPACE JUNK
Did you ever walk around town, getting annoyed at all the rubbish? It's quite easy to pick it up and put it in a bin, although you wouldn't think so looking at the state of some areas. In space, unfortunately, there are no litter bins are no floating cleanup people with a long stick happily prodding away at the rubbish. If there was there would need to be a very large rubbish bin in orbit around the Earth.
At the end of 2003, there were some 10 000 catalogued debris objects around Earth, comprising:
operational spacecraft — 7%
old spacecraft — 22%
rocket bodies — 17%
mission-related objects — 13%
miscellaneous fragments — 41%
Artificial debris includes spent satellites, cast off Yo-Yo de-spinners (used to de-spin spacecraft after launch), tools dropped during spacewalks, discarded rocket upper stages and the fragmentary remains of craft that have exploded or otherwise broken up.
There are around 50 000 more uncatalogued objects larger than 1 cm floating around waiting for a satellite or spacecraft to hit. Uncatalogued objects include nuts and bolts, gloves, bits of aluminium slag from solid rocket motor propellant and droplets of Sodium-Potassium coolant that escaped from Russian nuclear-powered reconnaissance satellites when they ejected their reactor cores.
The really dangerous bits are intermediate in size, between 1 and 10 cm. These are hard to detect yet pack a kinetic energy punch sufficient to cause catastrophic damage. One cm is also the maximum size of debris that can be defeated by modern shielding technology; Space Shuttle windscreens have been damaged by flecks of paint as small as 0.3 mm in size travelling at a mere 14 400 kph. The fastest debris, at 50 000 kph, are travelling about 17 times faster than a machine gun bullet.
Do you still fancy that joyride into orbit? Well, luckily enough, it's not as dangerous as it sounds. Preventative measures have been taken so that being in orbit isn't a death sentence. Paint flakes and solid rocket propellant causes erosive damage similar to sandblasting. Most of the damage can be stopped through the use of a technique originally developed to protect spacecraft from micrometeorites, by adding a thin layer of metal foil outside of the main spacecraft body.
Impacts take place at such high velocities that the debris is vaporized when it collides with the foil, and the resulting plasma spreads out quickly enough that it does not cause serious damage to the inner wall. Many satellites cannot be protected this way, the solar panels and windows for instance, and they receive constant wear by debris and micrometeorites. So don't look at the view for too long and take some spare batteries for your CD player for when the solar panels are damaged.
(http://www.weirdwarp.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/11/Orbital-debris-in-Saudi-Arabia.jpg)
Orbital debris in Saudi Arabia
The only way to stop damage from larger bits and pieces is to move the satellite or spacecraft. This means that you must be able to see the space debris. The NASA orbital debris program office observes the debris in various ways. Ground-based optical telescopes and radars provide a lot of information and to supplement this impacts are measured on spacecraft or satellites that have returned to the Earth.
The international space station can change its orbit, but if the space junk isn't seen early enough then it is too late to move the station and the crew retreats to a safe area, in this case the Soyuz capsule. This happened quite recently in March 12th 2009.
Of course, something hitting a spacecraft, space station or satellite will cause more space junk as bits will be broken off or the whole of the satellite made into junk.
If you're thinking that this doesn't affect you , then you are wrong. This is not just confined to space as the debris's orbit can decay and rain down on the Earth. One spectacular piece of space junk was the Skylab. The Skylab couldn't maintain its orbit long enough for the space shuttle to rescue it and therefore its orbit decayed.
http://www-pao.ksc.nasa.gov/history/skylab/skylab.htm
There has only been one recorded incident of a person being hit by human-made space debris. In 1997 an Oklahoma woman named Lottie Williams was hit in the shoulder by a 10 x 13 centimetre piece of blackened, woven metallic material that was later confirmed to be part of the fuel tank of a Delta II rocket which had launched a U.S. Air Force satellite in 1996. She was not injured
Really, space is a great place and we marvel at its beauty. It should be treated as a national park, or the orbit of Earth anyway (to make the whole of space a national park would be a rather large undertaking). Debris produced today is being limited at the moment, and that is fine, but what about all the junk already there? A few ideas have come up, such as junk-zapping lasers and garbage-collecting rockets. The most well-known of these projects is the Orion Project, a major study which began in the late 1970s, and which continues to undergo development with help from NASA and other government agencies. The focus of Orion has been to look at the possibility of using high-powered laser-light beams to actually deflect orbital debris out of the way of spacecraft and into the Earths atmosphere where it can burn up out of harms way.
There is probably some quite historical space junk flying around the Earth , and perhaps one day it will be captured, sorted through and put into a museum. But for now "duck" may become an astronaut's favorite word.[...]NASA's Idea
What do you do with 6,000 tons of space junk traveling at thousands of miles an hour?
Harpoon it of course.
(CNN) -- It might sound like a scenario straight off the pages of a science fiction novel but it is a suggested solution to an increasing and potentially costly problem in space -- that of debris littering low earth orbit.
The harpoon plan is one of a range of options being discussed by scientists at a forum in Germany next week, and aimed at finding a way of tackling space debris that threatens commercial operations.
Engineer Jaime Reed, who is leading the harpoon project for the space technology company Astrium, explains that if a rogue satellite hits another, not only does it ruin the mission but it creates more debris and propagates the problem. This run-away scenario is often called the Kessler Syndrome, named after NASA's Don Kessler who first highlighted the risk.
"There's a lot of space debris -- 6,000 tons in orbit -- that could pose a threat," said Reed.
"Perhaps unwittingly, the average person relies a lot on space -- GPS in their phones, telecoms, TV, weather forecasts -- they are things people expect to have," he said.
Dangers of debris in Space: "Space debris could very easily take out some of those satellites -- it would have a real impact on people's lives."
Astrium's plan to tackle defunct satellites is to use an unmanned chase spacecraft to get in range, fire a barbed harpoon into the body of the rogue hardware and then use a smaller propulsion unit attached to a tether to tow it back towards the atmosphere where it will burn up safely on re-entry.
"Because the harpoon we are using is very light and the chase satellite more than a ton, momentum is very tiny... it's a small recoil," said Reed.
The harpoon system has been tested in the laboratory in the UK and Reed will present findings at the conference on Wednesday.
Reed estimates that the system could tackle 10 targets per mission and says simulations show that if five to 10 objects were removed each year then that would "stabilize the debris population."
He said he hoped the next step would be a demonstration mission to capture something small.
So how big is the problem? Reed warns that if space junk is not removed it could mean that low-earth orbit might eventually become unusable.
According to NASA there are about 20,000 pieces of space junk bigger than 10cm (3.9 inches) and its chief scientist for orbital debris Nicholas L. Johnson says most robotic satellite missions are vulnerable to particles as small as 5mm (0.2 inches) -- there are thought to be millions of those in orbit.
"A 5mm (0.2 inches) particle striking a large solar array is likely to have a very little long-lasting effect, but such an object hitting the main body of a satellite could cause a vital component to fail," he said.
"Normally, it takes the impact of an object about 10cm (3.9 inches) or larger to cause the satellite to suffer a severe fragmentation in which large numbers of new debris would be created.
"Collision speeds can vary from less than 1km per second (2,236mph) to 16km per second (35,790mph)."
He explained that ground-based radars are able to track objects of about 10cm (3.9 inches) and sometimes smaller, depending on altitude above the earth, while other sensors can detect particles down to about 5mm (0.2 inches) in low earth orbit.
"Space debris poses real threats to both human space flight and robotic missions. However, today those threats are largely handled by spacecraft design and operation techniques," said Johnson. "Since the 1980s considerable efforts have been made to curtail the creation of new space debris."
The NASA scientist said the odds of an operational satellite being disabled by space debris remain quite small, though he points out that two have been lost after being hit by man-made debris -- a French satellite in 1996 and an American craft in 2009.
Last month, CNN reported that space debris left over from a 2007 Chinese missile test had collided with a Russian satellite, according to a researcher at the Center for Space Standards & Innovation.
And in 2012 the crew of the space station were ordered into escape capsules as a precaution after a piece of debris passed close by.
Both Reed and Johnson say the focus over the last 30 years has been on mitigation but NASA and other space agencies are looking at ways to remove large derelict spacecraft and rocket launch stages for low earth orbit.
The harpoon is clearly aimed at capturing the larger objects but many other solutions have been proposed, including the use of lasers to nudge space junk out of the way, or using giant nets and space tugs.
"It's a very active area," said Reed. "Lots of people are coming up with ideas."
The Worst Natural Disasters Ever
(http://www.dirtyammo.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/natural-disasters.jpg)
....when Nature unleashes her fury, humanity can seem instantly frail and subordinate. Cyclones, tsunamis, earthquakes and volcanoes can kill thousands in moments. Often the final death tolls are never truly known.
It is impossible to compare modern and historical disasters and develop any objective list of the worst, yet a subjective list can prove instructive. Here are the challenges:
•Loss of life can be the most traumatic aspect of one terrible event, such as the catastrophic Cyclone Nargis in Myanmar this week, whereas financial cost and remarkable devastation can be the more notable signatures left by another, as was the case with Hurricane Andrew in 1992.
•The world's population has increased dramatically in the past century and a far higher percentage of people live near dangerous coastlines, so coastal storms and tsunamis stand to kill more people nowadays than in the past.
•Finally, records of events long ago are typically much less accurate.
All that in mind, here we present 15 of the worst disasters of all time in reverse chronological order, with no attempt to rate one in comparison to another. We recognize the list is weighted heavily with modern events and that other disasters — both in modern times and in the distant past — could arguably supplant some of these based on individual perspective and interpretation.May 2008 - The death toll from Cyclone Nargis remains uncertain but has been put at 140,000 or more. Caught with nowhere to run, residents of low-lying rice fields in Maynmar were simply swept away.
Oct. 8, 2005 - Magnitude-7.6 earthquake in Pakistan killed more than 40,000 people. The destruction was due in part to the quake's shallow origin.
August 2005 - Hurricane Katrina killed more than 1,800 people and is the costliest hurricane in U.S. history. More so than any U.S. disaster in recent decades, its effects linger even today as New Orleans and many coastal communities still struggle to get back on their feet.
Dec. 26, 2004 - The magnitude-9.3 Indian Ocean earthquake and resulting Sumatran tsunami is estimated to have killed more than 225,000 people. It affected a broader region and more people than any modern disaster.
1992 - Hurricane Andrew killed 26, but property damage was $25 billion -- most expensive natural disaster in U.S. history at the time.
1985 - Nevado del Ruiz (Columbia) volcano killed 25,000 people, most caught in a massive mudflow.
1976 - Tangshan earthquake in China, a magnitude-8 event, killed somewhere between 255,000 and 655,000.
1931 - Yellow River flood, estimated to have killed 1 million to 3.7 million people via drowning, disease, ensuing famines and droughts. The river also had flooded catastrophically in 1887, killing nearly as many.
1815 - Tambora, Indonesia, volcano of 1815. 80,000 people died of subsequent famine.
1811-12 - Three New Madrid earthquakes in Missouri represent some of the strongest earthquakes in the contiguous United States in recorded history. With magnitudes estimated as high as 7.8 or so, they were felt as far away as Boston. Damage was relatively light due to sparse population, but the quakes serve as a frightening reminder of how fickle nature can be and they are also alarmingly predictive of what could happen in the future now that the area is far more populous.
1737 - Calcutta, India, event killed 300,000. Once thought to have been an earthquake, scientists now lean toward typhoon.
1556 - Shaanzi, China, earthquake killed 830,000. Nobody knows the seismic magnitude.
1330-1351 - The Black Death or Bubonic Plague, a pandemic caused by a bacterium called Yersinia pestis, killed an estimated 75 million people, wiping out somewhere between 30 to 60 percent of Europe's population.
1138 - Aleppo earthquake in Syria, killed about 230,000. It is listed by the U.S. Geological Survey as the fourth deadliest earthquake of all time.
1500 B.C., or so - The Mediterranean Stroggli island blew up. A tsunami virtually wiped out Minoan civilization. Area now called Santorini; Plato called it the site where Atlantis disappeared.
GIANT ASTEROID HEADING FOR EARTH 2014!
(http://weeklyworldnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/asteroid_eartha.jpg?w=563&h=300)
....that a a gigantic asteroid is heading for earth and may make a... deep impact! It's the biggest threat to Earth in a millenium.
The space rock, which is called 2014 AZ5, is about 960 feet wide, shaped like a giant potato. It may hit Earth in late 2013 and there are urgent meetings going on among scientists on how deflect it.
(http://weeklyworldnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/asteroid_earthb.jpg?w=585&h=329)
Talk about the asteroid was on the agenda during the 49th session of the Scientific and Technical Subcommittee of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space ( COPUOS), held earlier this month in Vienna.
A UN Action Team on near-Earth objects noted the asteroid's repeat approaches to Earth and the possibility, that 2014 AZ5 might hit us in twelve months.
The object was discovered in January 2011 by Mount Lemmon Survey observers in Tucson, Ariz. While scientists have a good bead on the space rock's size, its mass and compositional makeup are unknown at present.
"2014 AZ5 is the object which currently has the highest chance of impacting Earth in March of 2013," said Quami Lochmo of the European Space Agency's Solar System Missions Division in the Dutch city of Noordwijk.
"We are currently also in the process of making governments around the world aware of the situation," Lochmo said. "
The near-Earth asteroid 2014 Az5 has an impact probability of 1 in 125 for March 17, 2013, said Donald Lochmo.
This impact probability isn't set in stone, however. It can be changed slightly.
(http://weeklyworldnews.files.wordpress.com/2012/02/asteroid_earthe.jpg?w=570&h=386)
It's not clear what part of Earth the asteroid will hit first, but some are speculating that California in the United States may get the biggest impact
Obama Seeks $17.7 Billion for NASA to Lasso Asteroid, Explore Space by Tariq Malik, SPACE.com Managing Editorhttp://www.space.com/20605-nasa-budget-asteroid-lasso-2014.html
[...]Then there is this article:2014 AZ5: The Fake Asteroid that Won't Hit EarthRead more: http://www.universetoday.com/100570/2014-az5-the-fake-asteroid-that-wont-hit-earth/#ixzz2SxYAHGm9
Be careful where you get your news. Some websites have headlines that are screaming "GIANT ASTEROID HEADING TO EARTH!" or "2014 END OF THE WORLD!" It's been billed as the largest threat to Earth in a millennium, and this supposed nearly 300 meter (1,000 ft.) -wide asteroid is spurring "urgent meetings going on among scientists on how deflect it."
This asteroid can't hit Earth because it doesn't exist. Or at the very least, it doesn't exist yet. The first clue this asteroid is a fake is its name: 2014 AZ5. Asteroids are named for the year they are discovered, and since it is only 2013.... well, you see the issue.
Nah, my sources tell me that is a fake asteroid drummed up for the nay sayers.
It really is a huge potato that escaped from the gravity of the Vegeron galaxy. If the dairy industry can get it's act together in time they will be producing the butter and sour cream. California has offered parsley. Great for their economy.
NASA is going to try to nudge it down in Bullfrog County Nevada. They figure by the time it enters our atmosphere it will be well baked and ready to serve. When they know for sure when it will land, tickets for dinner will be available from the NV Chamber of Commerce. Price to be announced. Music will be provided by the group "Loco Talentt."
....that there's 10 Things You Didn't Know About You:
1. Your Stomach Secretes Corrosive Acid - There's one dangerous liquid no airport security can confiscate from you: It's in your gut. Your stomach cells secrete hydrochloric acid, a corrosive compound used to treat metals in the industrial world. It can pickle steel, but mucous lining the stomach wall keeps this poisonous liquid safely in the digestive system, breaking down lunch.
2. Body Position Affects Your Memory - Can't remember your anniversary, hubby? Try getting down on one knee. Memories are highly embodied in our senses. A scent or sound may evoke a distant episode from one's childhood. The connections can be obvious (a bicycle bell makes you remember your old paper route) or inscrutable. A recent study helps decipher some of this embodiment. An article in the January 2007 issue of Cognition reports that episodes from your past are remembered faster and better while in a body position similar to the pose struck during the event.
3. Bones Break (Down) to Balance Minerals - In addition to supporting the bag of organs and muscles that is our body, bones help regulate our calcium levels. Bones contain both phosphorus and calcium, the latter of which is needed by muscles and nerves. If the element is in short supply, certain hormones will cause bones to break down�upping calcium levels in the body�until the appropriate extracellular concentration is reached.
4. Much of a Meal is Food For Thought - Though it makes up only 2 percent of our total body weight, the brain demands 20 percent of the body's oxygen and calories. To keep our noggin well-stocked with resources, three major cerebral arteries are constantly pumping in oxygen. A blockage or break in one of them starves brain cells of the energy they require to function, impairing the functions controlled by that region. This is a stroke.
5. Thousands of Eggs Unused by Ovaries - When a woman reaches her late 40s or early 50s, the monthly menstrual cycle that controls her hormone levels and readies ova for insemination ceases. Her ovaries have been producing less and less estrogen, inciting physical and emotional changes across her body. Her underdeveloped egg follicles begin to fail to release ova as regularly as before. The average adolescent girl has 34,000 underdeveloped egg follicles, although only 350 or so mature during her life (at the rate of about one per month). The unused egg follicles then deteriorate. With no potential pregnancy on the horizon, the brain can stop managing the release of ova.
6. Puberty Reshapes Brain Structure, Makes for Missed Curfews - We know that hormone-fueled changes in the body are necessary to encourage growth and ready the body for reproduction. But why is adolescence so emotionally unpleasant? Hormones like testosterone actually influence the development of neurons in the brain, and the changes made to brain structure have many behavioral consequences. Expect emotional awkwardness, apathy and poor decision-making skills as regions in the frontal cortex mature.
7. Cell Hairs Move Mucus - Most cells in our bodies sport hair-like organelles called cilia that help out with a variety of functions, from digestion to hearing. In the nose, cilia help to drain mucus from the nasal cavity down to the throat. Cold weather slows down the draining process, causing a mucus backup that can leave you with snotty sleeves. Swollen nasal membranes or condensation can also cause a stuffed schnozzle.
8. Big Brains Cause Cramped Mouths - Evolution isn't perfect. If it were, we might have wings instead of wisdom teeth. Sometimes useless features stick around in a species simply because they're not doing much harm. But wisdom teeth weren't always a cash crop for oral surgeons. Long ago, they served as a useful third set of meat-mashing molars. But as our brains grew our jawbone structure changed, leaving us with expensively overcrowded mouths.
9. The World Laughs With You - Just as watching someone yawn can induce the behavior in yourself, recent evidence suggests that laughter is a social cue for mimicry. Hearing a laugh actually stimulates the brain region associated with facial movements. Mimicry plays an important role in social interaction. Cues like sneezing, laughing, crying and yawning may be ways of creating strong social bonds within a group.
10. Your Skin Has Four Colors - All skin, without coloring, would appear creamy white. Near-surface blood vessels add a blush of red. A yellow pigment also tints the canvas. Lastly, sepia-toned melanin, created in response to ultraviolet rays, appears black in large amounts. These four hues mix in different proportions to create the skin colors of all the peoples of Earth.
The Humble Pencil
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/_Zxch9AaF7Lk/TOmuL-KN0TI/AAAAAAAAAAc/nL96EIufUYQ/s1600/first%2Bwooden%2Bpencil.png)
.... that with the pencil increasingly marginalized by technology, we reflect on its relatively recent origin in the army of Napoleon Bonaparte. At least by the reckoning of one scientist, a single pencil can draw a line 731 miles (1178 kilometers) long: (http://blocs.xtec.cat/2004santaanna/files/2011/11/conte.26093455_std-11-237x300.jpg)
Nicholas-Jacques Conte
"The modern pencil was invented in 1795 by Nicholas-Jacques Conte, a scientist serving in the army of Napoleon Bonaparte.
The magic material that was so appropriate for the purpose was the form of pure carbon that we call graphite. It was first discovered in Europe, in Bavaria at the start of the fifteenth century; although the Aztecs had used it as a marker several hundred years earlier. Initially it was believed to be a form of lead and was called 'plumbago' or black lead (hence the 'plumbers' who mend our lead water-carrying pipes), a misnomer that still echoes in our talk of pencil 'leads'. It was called graphite only in 1789, using the Greek word 'graphein' meaning 'to write'. Pencil is an older word, derived from the Latin 'pencillus', meaning 'little tail', to describe the small ink brushes used for writing in the Middle Ages.
"The purest deposits of lump graphite were found in Borrowdale near Keswick [England] in the Lake District in 1564 and spawned quite a smuggling industry and associated black economy in the area. During the nineteenth century a major pencil manufacturing industry developed around Keswick in order to exploit the high quality of the graphite. The first factory opened in 1832, and the Cumberland Pencil Company has just celebrated its 175th anniversary; although the local mines have long been closed and supplies of the graphite used now come from Sri Lanka and other far away places. Cumberland pencils were those of the highest quality because the graphite used shed no dust and marked the paper very well. Conte's original process for manufacturing pencils involved roasting a mixture of water, clay and graphite in a kiln at 1,900 degrees Fahrenheit before encasing the resulting soft solid in a wooden surround. The shape of that surround can be square, polygonal or round, depending on the pencil's intended use -- carpenters don't want round pencils that are going to roll off the workbench. The hardness or softness of the final pencil 'lead' can be determined by adjusting the relative fractions of clay and graphite in the roasting mixture. Commercial pencil manufacturers typically market 20 grades of pencil, from the softest, 9B, to the hardest 9H, with the most popular intermediate value, HB, lying midway between H and B. 'H' means hard and 'B' means black. The higher the B number, the more graphite gets left on the paper. There is also an 'F', or Fine point, which is a hard pencil for writing rather than drawing.
"The strange thing about graphite is that it is a form of pure carbon that is one of the softest solids known, and one of the best lubricants because the six carbon atoms that link to form a ring can slide easily over adjacent rings. Yet, if the atomic structure is changed, there is another crystalline form of pure carbon, diamond, that is one of the hardest solids known.
"An interesting question is to ask how long a straight line could be drawn with a typical HB pencil before the lead was exhausted. The thickness of graphite left on a sheet of paper by a soft 2B pencil is about 20 nanometres and a carbon atom has a diameter of 0.14 nanometres, so the pencil line is only about 143 atoms thick. The pencil lead is about 1 mm in radius and therefore π square mm in area. If the length of the pencil is 15 cm, then the volume of graphite to be spread out on a straight line is 150π cubic mm. If we draw a line of thickness 20 nanometres and width 2 mm, then there will be enough lead to continue for a distance L = 150π / 4 X 10-7 mm = 1,178 kilometres. But I haven't tested this prediction!"
Where Did The Alphabet Come From
(http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4732947580979442&pid=1.7)
...that the invention of the first alphabet -- a much simpler system of writing using only 20 to 30 characters as compared to the thousands required in a hieroglyphic system -- unleashed an era in which broad literacy and abstract ideas were possible to an unprecedented degree. Though it is popularly believed the alphabet came from the Phoenicians, this invention pre-dated them and may have come from the Egyptians:"In February, 1905, after exploring the Middle East for more than two decades, [British archeologist Flinders] Petrie and his wife arrived at an old turquoise formation in the western Sinai at Serabit el-Khadim, which had been mined as recently as fifty years before by a retired English major and his family. There, although he and others did not realize it for years, Petrie made the most important discovery of his career.
"At the mine the Petries came upon a large collection of statues and inscriptions. Most were expertly carved and bore standard hieroglyphic or hieratic writing, almost certainly produced by the mine's Egyptian overseers.
"His observant wife Hilda also found some rocks bearing cruder inscriptions. On closer inspection, they noted that this writing included only about thirty or so different symbols that were not recognizably hieroglyphic or hieratic -- both hieroglyphic and hieratic writing used about a thousand symbols. Further, these simpler inscriptions always coincided with primitive, non-Egyptian statues; the writing appeared to flow from left to right, also unlike the well-known hieroglyphic, hieratic, or later Phoenician and Hebrew alphabets.
"Petrie dated the inscriptions to approximately 1400 BC. He clearly recognized them as an alphabet, and one that preceded by about five hundred years the earliest known Phoenician writing, heretofore felt to be the first alphabet. ...
"It fell to an Egyptologist, Alan Gardiner, to realize that the Petries had actually stumbled across the origin of the alphabet, or something very close to it. Linguists had long known that Latin script -- the everyday alphabet of today's Western world -- evolved from Greek letters, which had themselves derived from Phoenician, as did Hebrew. ...
"Over the millennium following the alphabet's invention around 1500 BC, the simple phonemic lettering system Petrie discovered made possible the first stirrings of mass literacy that would unleash much of the subsequent political and social ferment of human history.
"On the basis of archaeological and linguistic evidence, most authorities believe that the proto-Semitic inscriptions the Petries first found at Serabit derived from Egyptian hieratic or hieroglyphic writing. While the precise origin of the proto-Semitic alphabet will never be known, the Serabit inscriptions suggest that it was probably invented somewhere in the Sinai or Canaan by non-Egyptian Semites who had come there from somewhere in the Levant to work as miners for the Egyptians.
"Did the first simplified alphabetic script really originate in the mines at Serabit? After Flinders' excavations there, archaeologists uncovered, at several other sites in Palestine, more primitive inscriptions that look alphabetic and possibly predate the Serabit inscriptions by as much as a century or two. More recently, an American research team has uncovered proto-Semitic inscriptions at Wadi el-Hol, several hundred miles south of Serabit el-Khadim, on the Nile; they suggest that the Egyptians may have in fact invented the script to better communicate with their Semitic workers/slaves.
(http://www.usc.edu/dept/LAS/wsrp/information/wadi_el_hol/inscr1.jpg)
"Another intriguing candidate for 'inventor of the alphabet' is the Midianites, a Sinai people who mined copper and who could have derived it from the writing of their Egyptian overseers in the same way as did the miners of Serabit. ...
"[The rise of monotheism was during the same period and] the temporal and geographic connection between the alphabet and monotheism in Egypt-Palestine during the middle of the second millennium may be more than coincidence. What might tie them together? The notion of a disembodied, formless, all-seeing, and ever-present supreme being requires a far more abstract frame of mind than that needed for the older plethora of anthropomorphized beings who oversaw the heavenly bodies, the crops, fertility, and the seas. Alphabetic writing requires the same high degree of abstraction and may have provided a literate priestly caste with the intellectual tools necessary to imagine a belief system overseen by a single disembodied deity. Whatever the reason, Judaism and the West acquired their God and their Book."
"Mass Production Employees Are Stupid"
....that to build cars cheaply enough for the average person to buy, Henry Ford had to redesign the assembly line according to the dictates of Frederick Taylor, breaking down each task into its simplest components so that each worker was responsible for a single task that could be repeated all day with a minimum of wasted motion and time. This proved so dehumanizing that turnover skyrocketed to 350 percent. To counteract this, Ford doubled his wages. This paradox of rote work and high wages ushered in the beginnings of the great American urban middle class:
"The central challenge confronting the automobile industry was economic as well as technological: how to build an automobile inexpensive enough so that people other than the wealthy could buy it. The man who most successfully tackled this problem was Henry Ford, a former machinist and mechanical engineer from Michigan, who built his first automobile in 1896 and in 1903 founded the Ford Motor Company. ...
"Ford achieved this success by improving the techniques of mass production, putting into practice what he called 'the principles of power, accuracy, economy, system, continuity, and speed.' Particularly in the pioneering plant he opened in Highland Park, Michigan, in 1910, he invested heavily in highly specialized machinery while simultaneously subdividing labor on the shop floor. To further the goals of continuity and speed, Ford in 1913 adopted the moving assembly line, a network of conveyor belts and overhead chains that carried all pieces of the automobile from one worker to the next. 'Every piece of work in the shop moves,' Ford observed a few years later. 'There is no lifting or trucking of anything other than materials.' The moving assembly line produced substantial savings, in part because employees were compelled to work more intensively, at a pre-set rhythm. Within a decade, the moving assembly line was adopted throughout the industry, hastening the disappearance of small manufacturers who could not afford to retool their plants.(http://corporate.ford.com/images/content/heritage_1928_rouge_model_a_575x426.jpg)
"1928 Ford Rouge Complex Model A assembly line negative
from the Ford Motor Company archives.
"Ford's assembly line and his production techniques in general were exemplars of 'scientific management,' a phrase and approach made popular by Philadelphia engineer and businessman Frederick Winslow Taylor. Taylor was one of the nation's first specialists in shop-floor management, and his short book The Principles of Scientific Management was the best-selling business book of the first half of the twentieth century. Taylor believed that workplaces could be made more efficient by training, inducing, and compelling workers to labor more steadily and intensively. He conducted time and motion studies to analyze the tasks workers were expected to perform and then encouraged employers to reorganize the work process to minimize wasted motion and time. He also favored piece-rate payment schemes to compel employees, many of whom he described as 'stupid,' to work more quickly. 'Faster work can be assured,' wrote Taylor, 'only through enforced standardization of methods, enforced adoption of the best implements ... and enforced cooperation.'
"Not surprisingly, most industrial workers resisted such schemes. One worker at the Ford Motor Company complained that 'when the whistle blows he starts to jerk and when the whistle blows again he stops jerking.' At Ford and elsewhere, a common response to the brutal intensification of work was absenteeism and high quit rates: in 1913, Ford's daily absentee rate was 10 percent, while annual turnover exceeded 350 percent. To reduce turnover, which was costly to the company, Ford doubled the daily wages of his most valued employees, to five dollars a day. This strategy was successful in stabilizing the labor force and reducing operating costs."
(http://www.powells.com/cgi-bin/images.cgi?isbn=9780465018581&p=1)
....that if we were strictly following both the letter of the U.S. Constitution and the intentions of those who wrote it, we would now have 9,380 members of the House of Representatives instead of 435.
That is because the Constitution speaks of one representative for every thirty thousand citizens to insure a direct and personal connection between congressmen and their constituents—in order to achieve truly democratic involvement. This point was so important to George Washington that he required a change from forty thousand down to thirty thousand on the last day of the Constitutional Convention:
"The minimal size of a House district was reduced from 40,000 to 30,000 on the very last day of the Convention, and only then with an unprecedented direct endorsement from George Washington, speaking from the chair, who rightly foresaw that many Americans would be disturbed by the large number of constituents each member of the House would represent. No constitutional requirement limits the size of the House to 435 representatives (as set in 1911), which makes it a smaller body than the British House of Commons. (....Prof. Jack Norman Rakove)
"Based on the count in 2000 of America's population, 9,380 is the number of representatives Congress would be permitted to create. The apportionment following the 2000 census left each House member representing an average of 646,952 people. The current size of the House, 435 seats, dates to a 1911 law that authorized 433 representatives, with room for two more when Arizona and New Mexico were admitted as states. The House eventually swelled to 437 seats with the additions of Alaska and Hawaii, but was adjusted back to 435. ...
"The first House of Representatives was to include as many as sixty-five members. Madison urged that the number be doubled, as it 'was too small a number to represent the whole inhabitants of the U. States; They would not possess enough of the confidence of the people, and wd. be too sparsely taken from the people, to bring with them all the local information which would be frequently wanted.' Others called for fewer members, with Roger Sherman of Connecticut urging fifty on the grounds that 'the great distance they will have to travel will render their attendance precarious and will make it difficult to prevail on a sufficient number of fit men to undertake the service.' After the first apportionment, which followed the 1790 census, the House was expanded to 105 seats, with each seat representing about 33,000 inhabitants as counted for apportionment purposes.
.....Seth Lipsky, the author of "The Citizen's Constitution: An Annotated Guide"
(http://img1.imagesbn.com/p/9781439112908_p0_v1_s260x420.JPG)
.....that Beer and Ale are regarded as more or less synonymous in the modern world, but they are very different things in Elizabethan times. Beer is made from malt barley, water and hops and keeps well -- and the longer you keep it before it goes stale, the better it will be. Ale is not made with hops and has to be drunk quickly, within three days at the most; and is much less popular as a result. However, it can be made quickly to a great strength, using a high ratio of malt to water, and so it is still brewed. It is also regularly used by cooks in their sauces.
"The quantities drunk will no doubt surprise you. When entertaining the queen in 1577 Lord North orders 3,996 gallons of beer and 384 gallons of ale. The daily allowance for a man -- whether he be a servant or a nobleman -- in many large houses is a gallon of beer, and this is not a notional amount: people really do drink that much on a regular basis. And some of it is strong stuff. The best beer is called March beer, because that is when it is brewed, and if you drink a gallon of that in a day you will not be good for much else. In some places you find it called 'double beer', because double the amount of malt is used, which means it can be as intoxicating as wine. Small beer for the servants is made with less malt in relation to the quantity of water; it is therefore not as strong, nor does it keep for more than a month.
"As with wine, beer is stored in barrels and decanted into leather jacks or earthenware bottles as required. Bottled beer can be purchased in stoneware bottles bearing the face of a rotund bearded man. However, if you buy one, drink it quickly for the yeast in the beer will continue to ferment, the pressure will build up and the bottle will eventually explode. If you want to taste a good range, you can find them at any country fair. They have poetic names like their modern equivalents. William Harrison lists Huffcap, The Mad Dog, Father Whoreson, Angels' Food, Dragon's Milk, Go-by-the-Wall, Stride Wide and Lift-Leg. While these have the power to turn those who drink them into 'ale-knights who ... will not dare to stir from their stools but sit pinking with their narrow eyes, as half-sleeping, until the fume of their adversary be digested', beer and ale are not without their healthy connotations. Some beers are brewed with herbs, thereby containing the essence of something health-giving. Others are made into restorative possets, through the addition of spices and mille Alternatively you might want to add an egg yolk and sugar or honey, thereby making caudled ale, which is often recommended for the sick.
"Not everyone approves of English ale and beer. Mediterranean visitors in particular cannot understand the Englishman's love of it. Alessandro Magno writes in his journal that English beer is 'healthy but sickening to taste. It is cloudy like horse's urine and has husks on top.' Andrew Boorde is even more disparaging about Cornish ale: 'it will make you spew ... it is like wash that pigs have wrestled in'."
....Author: Ian Mortimer
Ya,but one didn't dare drink the water in most places, it was so polluted. So other drinks had to do. Gee, what a shame. ;)
(http://newsbcpcol.stb.s-msn.com/amnews/i/e1/2d9861a04f483c90ef347d314587ff/_h353_w628_m6_otrue_lfalse.jpg)
'I listened to Marilyn die': Private eye who bugged Monroe's house reveals details of her final hours in his diary
Documents belong to notorious private detective Fred OtashHe claimed Monroe did have a sexual relationship with the brothersBy Leon Watson
Files shedding new light on Marilyn Monroe's last night alive and her relationships with President John F Kennedy and his younger brother Bobby have emerged 51 years after her death.
Documents belonging to the late Fred Otash, one of Hollywood's most notorious private detectives, were uncovered by his daughter Colleen after being found in a suburban storage unit.
According to Otash, who died in 1992, Monroe had a sexual relationship with the brothers and complained about being 'passed around like a piece of meat'.
(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/06/09/article-2338425-00C75A1A00000190-137_634x614.jpg)
'Passed around': President John F Kennedy and his brother Bobby (left) with Marilyn Monroe
Otash, who had installed bugging devices in her Los Angeles home, has long been derided by Kennedy admirers for his claims to have listened to a tape of Monroe and JFK in bed together.
But the notes published by The Hollywood Reporter magazine last week contained a detailed account of his bugging activities and what he heard.
Shortly before his death, he told an interviewer: 'They were having a sexual relationship ... but I don't want to get into the moans and groans.'
And in his notes, Otash claimed: 'I listened to Marilyn Monroe die.'
He recorded that on August 5 1962, she had a violent argument with the Kennedys and that she felt that she had been 'passed around like a piece of meat'.
The notes read: 'She was really screaming and they were trying to quiet her down.
'She's in the bedroom and Bobby gets the pillow and he muffles her on the bed to keep the neighbors from hearing. She finally quieted down and then he was looking to get out of there.'
Otash only found out she had died later on.
(http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2338425/Marilyn-Monroe-death-Confession-inside-diary-Hollywoods-famous-private-detective-Fred-Otash.html)
Notorious: Private detective Fred Otash (right) on the stand before a state legislative committee in Los Angeles about photographs he ordered several of his employees to take of actress Anita Ekberg
(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/06/09/article-2338425-00094EEB00000258-341_634x881.jpg)
Marilyn Monroe singing Happy Birthday to the President at Madison Square Gardens, in New York, in May 1962, shortly before she died
At that point Otash was the most famous private eye in Hollywood and the first choice for any celebrity with a potential problem.
Otash, a former Los Angeles detective, had set up his own bureau in Hollywood where he specialised in 'fact-checking' for a celebrity gossip magazine called Confidential.
Among the stars he bugged was Rock Hudson, whose wife apparently confronted him about his homosexuality decades before the public knew he was gay and told him to 'grow out of it'.
Hudson, who died in 1985 aged 59 due to complications related to AIDS, had been considered one of the most desirable men of his day, starring alongside female screen icons such as Doris Day in classics such as 'Pillow Talk'.
His other files include information on Judy Garland and how in 1963 he cleaned her Beverly Hill apartment out of all the pills and alcohol she had stashed during her bitter split from third husband Sid Luft.
(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/06/09/article-2338425-065F5F180000044D-483_634x425.jpg)
The late U.S. President John F Kennedy (left) and his wife, late Jacqueline Kennedy (right) riding in a motorcade in Dallas, Texas, moments before his assassination on November 22, 1963
Otash died in 1992 having been used as the inspiration for the shady PI played by Jack Nicholson in the Oscar-winning 1974 film Chinatown.
James Ellroy, the crime novelist and author of LA Confidential, who met Otash several times, turned his career into a novel, Shakedown, published online and is now writing the script for a television version.
According to The Hollywood Reporter, it was the negative portrayal of Otash in Ellroy's book that persuaded Colleen to search through her father's old records and make some of them public.
'I was very aggrieved,' she said. '[I thought]: what can we do to stop [Ellroy] from taking my father's life and turning it into just a horrible fictional depiction?'
The Otash notes published so far do not reveal what, if anything, the detective discovered when he searched Monroe's house and the tapes of the Hollywood star's alleged encounters with the Kennedys have never surfaced.
A red filing cabinet that contained Otash's most sensitive material was removed from his apartment by his lawyer after he collapsed from an apparent heart attack. Its contents were never seen again.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2338425/Marilyn-Monroe-death-Confession-inside-diary-Hollywoods-famous-private-detective-Fred-Otash.html#ixzz2Vqe6Bo8A
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
...that:
(http://www.todayifoundout.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/10-Interesting-Celebrity-Facts-copy.jpg)
....that on May 17, 1902, a Greek archeologist noticed precision gear wheels embedded in an ancient artifact of corroded bronze and wood. The device would come to be known as the Antikythera mechanism, the oldest known complex scientific instrument.
(http://m.eet.com/media/1188002/antikythera.jpg)
Discovered in 1900 on the wreck of an ancient Roman merchant vessel near the island of Antikythera, the 2000-year-old device was designed to calculate astronomical positions, predict eclipses, and calculate the timing of the ancient Olympics. It is now regarded as the world's first mechanical computer.
Enclosed in a wooden box roughly 30-cm tall and 20-cm wide, the mechanism contained more than 30 bronze gear wheels crafted with the precision and complexity of a modern clock.
Because of its condition, the mechanism wasn't investigated until 1951 when English physicist Derek J de Solla Price began studying it with x-rays. Price used the mechanism fragments to develop a model incorporating the ancient Metonic cycle of the sun and moon, which was key to understanding the device.
Recent use of 3-D x-ray and photography techniques have allowed researchers to see the gears in layers and study the fragments in greater detail to learn more about the mechanism's purpose and origin.
The mechanism could be from as early as 140 BC and is technically more complex than any known device for at least a millennium afterward. Months inscribed on the dials were identified as Corinthian, meaning it is likely from northwestern Greece or Syracuse in Sicily. Syracuse was also the home of Archimedes, a renowned ancient scientist and mathematician who later built similar devices.
The mechanism featured front and back output dials that predicted lunar and solar eclipses on the basis of Babylonian arithmetic-progression cycles. Included were dials using the Metonic cycle, a Saros eclipse-prediction dial, and a dial that followed the four-year cycle of the Olympiad and its associated Panhellenic Games.
The creators of the Antikythera mechanism took theories about how astronomical bodies move, and made a machine that would calculate them, which was a revolutionary idea. It is still being studied, and is now at the National Archaeological Museum in Athens.
(http://m.eet.com/media/1188003/ancient-computer.jpg)
Below is a video of a working model of the Antikythera mechanism:
In 1900, a storm blew a boatload of sponge divers off course and forced them to take shelter by the tiny Mediterranean island of Antikythera. Diving the next day, they discovered a 2,000 year-old Greek shipwreck. Among the ship's cargo they hauled up was an unimpressive green lump of corroded bronze. Rusted remnants of gear wheels could be seen on its surface, suggesting some kind of intricate mechanism. The first X-ray studies confirmed that idea, but how it worked and what it was for puzzled scientists for decades. Recently, hi-tech imaging has revealed the extraordinary truth: this unique clockwork machine was the world's first computer. An array of 30 intricate bronze gear wheels, originally housed in a shoebox-size wooden case, was designed to predict the dates of lunar and solar eclipses, track the Moon's subtle motions through the sky, and calculate the dates of significant events such as the Olympic Games. No device of comparable technological sophistication is known from anywhere in the world for at least another 1,000 years. So who was the genius inventor behind it? And what happened to the advanced astronomical and engineering knowledge of its makers?
...that:
A Top Exorcist Sends 160,000 Demons Back to Hell.
ACLU, Bishop Schori File Lawsuits.
(http://strangeherring.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/gustavedoreparadiselostsatanprofile.jpg)
"So where am I supposed to put
all these guys? I swear, just when
you think you've got some living
space, they all move back home..."
So the Roman Catholic Church's top exorcist claims to have sent 160,000 demons back to hell. Now that's some strict bookkeeping, because I would have stopped counting after the first fifty or sixty. And no word on whether amnesty is in the works for some of the less belligerent types.
Father Gabriele Amorth, 88, who also heads the International Association of Exorcists, told The Sunday Times that he will ask Pope Francis to allow all priests the right to do exorcisms without the church's approval. According to the report, priests currently need special approval from their bishop to perform the rite and it is rarely granted.
"I will ask the pope to give all priests the power to carry out exorcisms, and to ensure priests are properly trained for these starting with the seminary. There's a huge demand for them," said Father Amorth.
He explained that he was inspired to make the request after watching Pope Francis perform what he insists was an exorcism on a man "possessed by four demons" in St. Peter's Square.
"The pope is also the Bishop of Rome, and like any bishop he is also an exorcist," Amorth reportedly told La Repubblica newspaper.
See? Now this guy knows what he's talking about. He's "head" of the International Association of Exorcists, which is harder to get into than the Teamsters. I mean those blackballing bastards make you jump through so many hoops... have you ever seen the paperwork? Reams of questionnaires, eyewitness testimony, a reference from at least two senior devils. It's ridiculous, I tell you. But OH the benefits. Fifteen percent off every coffee at Starbuck's, you can fly Coach on any airline but Virgin, a bowling jacket, free dental...
Now here's another thing: Fr. Amorth says all bishops are exorcists. Is this only in the RCC? How about Orthodox bishops? Anglican? What about Bishop Schori, who believes possession is an alternative lifestyle? Is exorcism a sin against diversity? Can Fr. Amorth be sued for intolerance?
I think we should all be grateful to the Fr. Amorths of the world. Anyone who does not believe in demons has never been to a midnight showing of the Rocky Horror Picture Show or sat in traffic on the Long Island Expressway. The more of those troublemakers we send back south of the border (and by border, I mean the one that divides terrestrial life from the nether regions, like Amsterdam), the better for property values.
Although we don't want them to be too successful. The last thing we need is a bunch of unemployed exorcists bumming demons off of hyperactive high schoolers or Hollywood show runners.
...Father Belligerent
...that Swiss researchers have released futuristic designs for attachable modular aircraft that will allow passengers to board a plane at a railway station and disembark at their destination without ever setting foot in an airport. EPFL says its Clip Air project is no flight of fancy. Jim Drury reports.
Clip Air brings air travel by train (2:35) ...that DNA extracted from cigarette butts and bubble gum found on the streets of Brooklyn is being used by artist Heather Dewey-Hagborg to create realistic portraits of anonymous New Yorkers. The artist says her project is designed to spark debate about the use - or potential misuse - of DNA profiling in society.
Artist stirs privacy debate with portraits from DNA...that Researchers at the University of Tokyo are developing indoor projection technology that incorporates a sense of touch for interactive devices of the future. The system emits ultrasonic waves to generate pressure a user can feel and could one day render keyboards, smartphones, and even pens obsolete.
Researchers project the future of smart phones...
Published on Jul 1, 2013
Warph,did you know that a number of large airports do indeed have multi denominational Christian chapels for public use? Some have had them for many years...including Sky Harbor. Folks who fly a lot usually know about them. Imagine them being used by people on lay overs to a family funeral or on the way to see about loved ones who have died in a plane crash. Some even have chaplins.
(http://img.ehowcdn.com/default/ehow/images/a06/39/tt/decipher-social-security-number-800x800.jpg)
How to Decipher a Social Security Number
...that each Social Security number has three parts, though the first is the most informative. The first three digits can tell you what geographical area the person had a connection to and when he received his number. The last two parts can help you judge whether a Social Security number is a real, valid number. While a person is still living, the Social Security Administration keeps other information confidential, but after a person dies, you can also find out a little more. Instructions#1 Compare the first three digits to the "Chart of SSN Assignments by State" on the Social Security Administration's website. If the person received her number before 1972, the state indicates the location of the office that issued her card. After 1972, the area number reflects the mailing address that the person used when he applied for his card.#2
Check the Social Security Administration's current "High Group List" to see the highest group numbers issued for each area number. The two-digit group number follows the three-digit area number. However, group numbers don't run in normal numerical order. The Social Security Administration issues odd group numbers for each area from 01 to 09, then switches to even numbers starting with 10 and ending with 98. Then they start over with 02 and use the even numbers to 08, switching again to the odd numbers from 11 to 99.
The Social Security website shows the highest group numbers currently being issued for each area, so if someone gives you a Social Security number that's sequentially beyond that, you know it's fake. The final four digits are the serial numbers. They run in numerical order beginning with 0001. When someone in an area receives 9999, that area begins a new group number and begins again with a serial number of 0001.
#3
Check the Social Security Death Index if you suspect the number belongs to someone who died after 1962. The list is incomplete for people who died before 1962, but some numbers for those people may appear on the index as well. If the person has died, you can find her name, birth date, death date and place of death in the Social Security Death Index.
Unfortunately people do access those numbers of people who have died and try to use the numbers. Shortly after Daddy died it happened with his number. I don't know how it was caught, but we were sent an "attempt of fraudulent use" letter.
Yup.
(http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-nqKxl3pc5Fw/Ue2fUbAry3I/AAAAAAAAQck/0C7dqbTEVdc/s320/tantrum.gif)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-uC-r-filPM0/UfrmY8HWHkI/AAAAAAAAQdo/6n2ziPnuJyY/s1600/smack.jpg)
...that a new study has found that girls are just as likely to be violent on dates as boys!http://www.nbcnews.com/health/girls-commit-dating-violence-often-boys-studies-show-6C10809607
Those big manly girls with their steroid encrusted muscles and their mega fighting skills are pulverizing boys left and right.
Streets are littered with victims.
What are we to do, guys?
This is the new world order of things boys and girls.
What kind of violence, you ask?
Perhaps these girls blow their noses on a date's sleeve? Yes, that is one particularly egregious form of violence.
Alas, they slap boys and call them names like 'big meanie' or 'poopy head.'
Yes, pretty raw stuff and I apologize for having to print those kinds of terms.
You know this gives new meaning to the old phrase "you hit like a girl!"
...a phrase to send chills and terror into the hearts of men everywhere.
These mighty and super powerful women are causing all manner of mayhem and foolishness on boys who have no defense.
Oh... the humanity.
I can't go on. I am too overcome with the horror of it all.
Yes... as Bob Dylan once worbbled, 'Times They Are a-Changing.'
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vCWdCKPtnYE
For All You Duck and Geese Hunters out there
...that an 8-year-old boy in Australia had high levels of lead, a toxic metal, in his blood for more than two years for unexplained reasons, until doctors found lead pellets in his body, trapped in an unlikely place, according to a new report of his case.
Doctors had tested the boy for toxins in looking for the cause of his unusually hyperactive behavior. They found levels of lead in his blood ranging from 17.4 to 27.4 microgram per deciliter, much higher than the level of 5 micrograms considered normal. But the source remained mysterious -- doctors couldn't find what the boy might have been touching, inhaling or eating, to have such high lead levels for months.
When the boy started to have a stomachache and was admitted to the hospital, the doctors did an x-ray, which revealed large numbers of small round objects in the boy's abdomen, according to the researchers, who published a case report in Aug. 8 issue of
the New England Journal of Medicine> [9 Weird Ways Kids Can Get Hurt ].
(http://i.livescience.com/images/i/000/055/762/i02/pellets-appendix-xray.jpg?1376432147)
The metallic-looking objects were in the lower right side of the boy's abdomen, appearing to be inside the digestive tract. The doctors immediately gave the boy a bowel washout, which should have cleared any object within his digestive tract, but a second x-ray showed the objects had not moved.
The doctors suspected the unlikely scenario – the objects had to be in the boy's appendix.
In surgery, the doctors removed the boy's appendix and cut it open, revealing 57 lead pellets trapped inside.
"It's one of those things you only see once in a life time," said Dr. Ibrahim Zardawi, the pathologist who examined the appendix. "I've been in medicine for almost 40 years now, and had never seen anything like this."
The boy's appendix weighed 5 times heavier than normal when containing the pellets, but other than few tissue scars, it was normal and wasn't inflamed. [See the image of the appendix with the pellets inside ]
(http://www.livescience.com/images/i/000/055/761/original/pellets-appendix.jpg?1376432032)
It is highly unlikely for external objects to end up in the appendix, Zardawi said. Sometimes small fruit seeds such as tomato seeds may find a way through, but it's a puzzle as to how so many pellets entered and became stuck in the boy's appendix, he said.
The pellets likely came from the geese the boy's family regularly hunted and ate, they later told the doctors. The boy and his siblings said they had been eating the pellets as part of a game the played, to make the pellets disappear.
Lead is a heavy metal used in manufacturing batteries and plastics. It is strongly poisonous to humans when ingested or inhaled. Once in the body, lead circulates in the blood and small amounts can be excreted through urine or feces, but some can remain in the tissues, organs and bones. Symptoms of severe lead poisoning include confusion, seizures, coma and death.
"One important question to ask is, why not use copper pellets?" Zardawi said. The pellets used to kill the birds usually stay inside the animal, and the lead can be dangerous to other animals and to whoever eats the meat. The whole family had high levels of lead, he said.
Consuming just one lead pellet could have been enough to make the child seriously ill, Zardawi said.
In another case of lead poisoning from a mysterious source, a 4-year-old boy was brought to a hospital in Knoxville, Tenn., with symptoms of lead poisoning. As detailed in the report of his case, published in 1994 in the Journal Pediatric Surgery, it took the doctors several rounds of x-rays and bowel washouts to finally find a lead pellet trapped in his appendix.
World's 10 Most Mysterious Pictures Ever Taken
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E7Cd5FWMusE
Where do Deleted Computer Files go when they die?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5s4-Kak49o
Besides Obuma, Pantsuit and Dirty Harry, Are We Ready For Aliens?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gCBlAAtJA54
25 Images You Won't Believe Weren't Photoshopped
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2Pd_ZHw9xH0
8 Facts About Food That Will Totally Creep you Out
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jXJSmxi2buc
Earth's 10 Most Mysterious Events
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xbRiYhD3M5s
Science's 10 Greatest Unsolved Mysteries
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4jeP6kX9faA
Science's 10 Inventions that Could Have Changed the World
The Kansas Redlegs
(http://www.legendsofkansas.com/people/Kansas%20redlegs.jpg)
Kansas Redlegs, so called because they wore red leggings.
During the early part of the Civil War western Missouri was infested with bands of guerrillas, and it was no uncommon occurrence for some of these lawless gangs to cross the border and commit depredations in Kansas. To guard against these incursions, and otherwise to aid the Union cause, a company of border scouts was formed sometime in the year 1862. As it was an independent organization, never regularly mustered into the United States service, no official record of it has been preserved. The men composing the company became known as "Red Legs," from the fact that they wore leggings of red or tan-colored leather.
It was a secret Union military society, organized in late 1862 by General Thomas Ewing and James Blunt for desperate service along the border, and numbered as many as 100 men.
The qualifications for membership in the company were unquestioned loyalty to the Union cause, undaunted courage and the skillful use of the rifle or revolver. Their headquarters were at the "Six-mile House," so called because it was six miles from Wyandotte (Kansas City) on the Leavenworth Road. This house was erected in the winter of 1860-61 by Joseph A. Bartels, whose son, Theodore, one of the best pistol shots on the border, was a member of the Red Legs.
The company was commanded by Captain George H. Hoyt, the lawyer who defended John Brown at Charleston, Virginia. Other members were Jack Harvey, a brother of Fred Harvey, of Santa Fe Wild Bill "; Joseph B. Swain, nicknamed "Jeff Davis," afterward captain of Company K. Fifteenth Kansas; "Red" Clark, of Emporia, whom General Ewing said was the best spy he ever had; John M. Dean, who was one of the organizers; and W. S. Tough, for many years proprietor of the horse market at the Kansas City stockyards. Still others, of less note, were Harry Lee, Newt Morrison, Jack Hays, James Flood, Jerry Malcolm, and Charles Blunt, often called "One-eyed Blunt."
William W. Denison, assistant adjutant-general of Kansas some years after the war, was a private soldier in the Eleventh Kansas, and was one of the detail to enforce General Thomas Ewing's General Order No. 11. On that occasion he wore the red leggings of the organization, which came to be recognized as "a badge of desperate service in the Union army." Generals Ewing and Blunt usually had several of the Red Legs on their payrolls, where they received often as much as $7 per day on account of the hazardous service they were required to render.
(http://www.legendsofamerica.com/photos-kansas/JackonCountyEvacuation.jpg)
Evacuation of Missouri Counties under General Order No. 11, painting by George Caleb Bingham, 1870. Original Painting held in Cincinnati Art Museum, Cincinnati, Ohio
In course of time the term "Red Leg" became general along the border. William E. Connelley, in his Quantrill and the Border Wars, said: "Every thief who wanted to steal from the Missouri people counterfeited the uniform of the Red Legs and went forth to pillage. This gave the organization a bad name, and much of the plundering done along the border was attributed to them, when, in fact, they did little in that line themselves. There were some bad characters among them—very bad. But they were generally honest and patriotic men. They finally hunted down the men who falsely represented themselves to be Red Legs, and they killed every man found wearing the uniform without authority."
Albert R. Greene, a member of the Ninth Kansas Cavalry, was personally acquainted with many of the Red Legs and was also well acquainted with the nature of their service. Concerning them and their work he said: "There was not one of them but performed valuable service for the Union cause, and, so far as I know and believe, always within the rules of civilized warfare. That the organization was disbanded before the close of the war was owing more to the fact that the necessity for its existence had ceased than because a few of its members had thrown off the restraints of discipline. . . .
It is enough to say for the propriety and wisdom of such an organization as the Red Legs, that it did more to protect the homes of Kansas than any regiment in the service, and was the organization of all others most dreaded by William Quantrill." Such was the character of the Red Legs -- men who knew not the meaning of the word cowardice, and who left their fields and firesides to defend their homes against the irregular and predatory warfare of the guerrilla and the bushwhacker.
Like the "Minute Men" of Concord and Lexington, they never hesitated to meet the invader, and when the trying conditions that called the organization into existence had passed, most of the members returned to peaceful occupations and became again law-abiding citizens. It is to be regretted that, not being regularly enlisted soldiers, the complete and authentic history of the Red Legs and their deeds of heroism and daring cannot be obtained at this late day.
*****************
Compiled by Kathy Weiser/Legends of America, updated March, 2011.About the Article: The vast majority of this historic text was published in Kansas: A Cyclopedia of State History, Volume I; edited by Frank W. Blackmar, A.M. Ph. D.; Standard Publishing Company, Chicago, IL 1912. However, the text that appears on this page has been edited.
(http://l.yimg.com/bt/api/res/1.2/nv.o2U3IJy.p1zfGSR1VBQ--/YXBwaWQ9eW5ld3M7cT04NTt3PTYzMA--/http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/blogs/compass/MountRushmoreCharlesDEmery2-copy.jpg)
Gutzon Borglum and his son, Lincoln, use a tramway during Mount Rushmore carving
....that on Halloween of 1941, carving on South Dakota's Mount Rushmore was declared complete. The monument, which features the heads of Presidents Lincoln, Washington, Roosevelt and Jefferson, was originally intended to show full-body representations of the four presidents. But time and money constraints limited sculptor Gutzon Borglum, who had previously carved the face of Robert E. Lee on Stone Mountain in Georgia.
(http://southern-partisan.org/StoneMountain.jpg)
Construction, using dynamite and involving more than 400 workers, began on Oct. 4, 1927. Washington's was the first face finished — dedicated on July 4, 1934 — followed by Jefferson in 1936, Lincoln in 1937 and Roosevelt in 1939. However, the mountain monument wasn't yet complete.
Borglum had planned to include an 80-by-100-foot inscription, but weaknesses in the granite forced him to relocate some of the heads and revise the plan. His new vision included a Hall of Records, carved into the granite in a canyon behind the faces. Ultimately, his plan was for the Declaration of Independence and Constitution to be stored in the hall. Borglum died, though, in the spring of 1941 after only carving 70 feet of the hall. His son Lincoln continued the work, and construction was deemed finished on Oct. 31.
In 1998, the National Park System put finishing touches on the Hall of Records, installing a vault and sixteen porcelain enamel text panels with documents including the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution engraved on them.
Today, the Mount Rushmore National Memorial attracts nearly 3 million visitors to the Black Hills every year.
I totally got that.. read plain as day....
READY...AIM....DUCK!
But she wasn't going for it! Women understand pecking bs. lol
I resent that Warph! ...well not really! lol
Ready..... -----......--- ... ---- .... .. (that was a drum solo from Smoke On The Water
edit: replied to your duck video...didn't take, I guess.....oh well ...----...--
....that a Lincoln Assassination Witness appears on "I've Got a Secret". The panelists on this show were, left to right (in order of appearance): Bill Cullen, Jayne Meadows, Henry Morgan, and Lucille Ball. The host was Garry Moore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I_iq5yzJ-Dk
More info:
http://mentalfloss.com/article/49050/one-witness-lincoln-assassination-might-have-been-alive-during-your-lifetime
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/08/04/samuel-j-seymour-lincoln-assassination_n_918381.html
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Samuel_J._Seymour
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/aug/13/last-witness-to-assassination/?page=all
17 Bizarre Natural Remedies From the 1700's
(http://mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_640x430/public/primitive_physick.png)
.... that in the late 1740s, John Wesley — a British evangelist and the co-founder of Methodism—published Primitive Physick, or, An Easy and Natural Method of Curing Most Diseases. The tome gave regular people ways to cure themselves, using items they could find in their own homes.
When in doubt, Welsey thought that drinking cold water or taking cold baths could cure most illnesses (including breast cancer); some of his suggestions, like using chamomile tea to soothe an upset stomach, have survived today. Other cures he whipped up, though, are decidedly strange. Here are a few of them:1. To Cure An AgueWesley describes an ague as "an intermitting fever, each fit of which is preceded by a cold shivering and goes off in a sweat." There are many natural remedies for curing it, but all must be preceded by taking a "gentle vomit," which, if taken two hours before the fit, Wesley says will generally prevent it, and may even cure the ague. If the vomiting fails, however, Wesley suggests wearing a bag of groundsel, a weed, "on the pit of the stomach, renewing it two hours before the fit." The weed should be shredded small, and the side of the bag facing the skin should have holes in it.
Should this not work, Wesley suggests a remedy that requires a stronger stomach: "Make six middling pills of cobwebs, take one a little before the cold fit: Two a little before the next fit: The other three, if Need be, a little before the third fit. I never knew this fail."
2. To Cure a Canine AppetiteWesley turns to a Dr. Scomberg for the cure to this condition, which is defined by Wesley as "an insatiable desire of eating": If there's no vomiting, canine appetite "is often cured by a small Bit of Bread dipt in Wine, and applied to the Nostrils."
3. To Cure AsthmaTar water, sea water, nettle juice, and quicksilver are all acceptable cures for what Wesley calls "moist Asthma" (which is characterized by "a difficulty of breathing ... the patient spits much"). But a method that "seldom fails," Wesley says, is living "a fortnight on boiled carrots only."
Dry and convulsive asthma, meanwhile, can be treated with toad, dried and powdered. "Make it into small pills," Wesley writes, "and take one every hour until the convulsions fade."
4. To Prevent/Cure Nose BleedsDrinking whey and eating raisins every day, Wesley says, can help prevent nose bleeds. Other methods for preventing or curing the phenomenon include "hold[ing] a red hot poker under the nose" and "steep[ing] a linnen rag in sharp vinegar, burn[ing] it, and blow[ing] it up the nose with a Quill."
5. To cure a "cold in the head"Getting rid of this common ailment is easy, according to Wesley: Just "pare very thin the yellow rind of an orange," he writes. "Roll it up inside out, and thrust a roll inside each nostril."
6. To cure "An habitual colic"Today's doctors define colic as a condition suffered by "a healthy, well-fed infant who cries for more than three hours per day, for more than three days per week, for more than three weeks." But adults can get it, too; it's characterized by severe stomach pains and spasms (which, we now know, can be an indication of other conditions, like Crohn's disease and irritable bowel syndrome). To cure it, Wesley suggests this odd remedy: "Wear a thin soft Flannel on the part."
6. To cure "white specks in the eye"While it's unclear exactly what "white specks in the eye" actually is—eye floaters, maybe—Wesley suggests that, when "going to bed, put a little ear-wax on the Speck.—This has cured many."
7. To cure the falling sicknessThose who suffer from this illness "fall to the ground, either quite stiff, or convulsed all over, utterly senseless, gnashing his teeth, and foaming at the mouth." To cure the condition, Wesley recommends "an entire milk diet for three months: It rarely fails." During fits, though, "blow up the nose a little powder'd ginger."
8. To cure the gout"Regard not them who say the gout ought not to be cured. They mean, it cannot," Wesley writes. (They, here, might be referring to regular practitioners of medicine.) "I know it cannot by their regular prescriptions. But I have known it cured in many cases, without any ill effect following." Gout in the foot or hand can be cured by "apply[ing] a raw lean beef-steak. Change it once in twelve hours, 'till cured."
Curing the gout in any limb can be accomplished by beginning this ritual at six in the evening: "Undress and wrap yourself up in Blankets. — Then put your Legs up to the Knees in Water, as hot as you can bear it. As it cools, let hot Water be poured in, so as to keep you in a strong Sweat till ten. Then go into a Bed well warm'd and sweat till Morning. — I have known this to cure an inveterate Gout."
9. To cure JaundiceWesley suggests curing jaundice—which turns the skin and whites of the eyes yellow (thanks to too much bilirubin in the blood, we now know)—by wearing "leaves of Celandine upon and under the feet." Other possible cures include taking a small pill of Castile soap in the morning for eight to 10 days, or "as much lies on a shilling of calcin'd egg-shells, three mornings fasting; and walk till you sweat."
10. To cure "The Iliac Passion"This decidedly unpleasant condition—which Wesley defines as a "violent kind of Colic ... the Excrements are thrown up by the mouth in vomiting," yuck—has a few cures, including "apply[ing] warm Flannel soaked in Spirits of Wine." Most delightful, however, is the cure recommended by a Dr. Sydenham: "Hold a live Puppy constantly on the Belly."
11. To cure "the palpitation or beating of the heart"Among the remedies for this ailment are the mundane "drink a Pint of cold Water," the stinky-but-probably-not-effective "apply outwardly a Rag dipt In vinegar," and the very exciting "be electrified" (which is suggested for a few other illnesses as well).
12. To Cure the PleurisyThis illness is characterized by "a Fever attended with a violent pain in the Side, and a Pulse remarkably hard." (It's caused, we now know, when the double membrane that surrounds the lungs inside the chest cavity becomes inflamed.) Wesley's first suggested remedy involves applying "to the Side Onions roasted in the Embers, mixt with Cream." Next up is filling the core of an apple with frankincense "stop[ping] it close with the Piece you cut out and roast[ing] it in Ashes. Mash and eat it." Sounds delicious!
13. To cure the Quinsy"A quinsy," Wesley explains, "is a Fever attended with Difficulty of Swallowing, and often Breathing." (Today, the condition is called "peritonsillar abscess" and it's known to be a complication of tonsillitis.) He suggests applying "a large White-bread Toast, half an Inch thick, dipt in Brandy, to the crown of the Head till it dries."
14. To Cure "A Windy Rupture"Wesley doesn't say what, exactly, this condition is, though a Google search brings up the term hernia ventosa, which another medical book of the same time defines as a "false hernia ... where the wind is pent up by the coats of the Testes, inflating and blowing up the inguen," or the groin area. Wesley prescribes the following method to cure it: "Warm Cow-dung well. Spread it thick on Leather, [throwing] some cummin seeds on it, and apply it hot. When cold, put on a new one." This, he says, "commonly cures a Child (keeping his Bed) in two Days."
15. To Cure a "Tooth-ache"Wesley suggests being electrified through the tooth. If that's too extreme for you, try "rub[bing] the Cheek a Quarter of an Hour ... Or, put[ting] a Clove of Garlick into the Ear."
16. To Stop VomitingInduced vomiting was an important part of Wesley's medical theories (remember the "gentle vomit" that could stop the ague?). But if a patient was vomiting and it wasn't a part of the prescribed method for curing him, Wesley advised "after every Vomiting, drink a pint of warm water; or, apply a large onion slit, to the Pit of the Stomach."
17. Dealing with a cutWesley suggests holding the cut closed "with your thumb for a quarter of an hour" (what we might call applying pressure these days), then dipping a rag in cold water and wrapping the cut in it. Another method: "Bind on toasted cheese," Wesley writes. "This will cure a deep cut." Pounded grass, applied fresh every 12 hours, will also do the trick.
Your Brain On Alcohol
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vkpz7xFTWJo
Your Brain on Marijuana
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oeF6rFN9org
(http://mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_640x430/public/librarian-with-dictionary_6.jpg)
...that within our lexicon lives a library of forgotten stories, developed over centuries and tucked away in words. Thanks to the dirty impulses of our forefathers, quite a few of them also contain filthy chapters, making us the unwittingly foul-mouthed butt of their humor. Here are some of our language's naughtier practical jokes:
1. Orchid
Oops, you just said: TesticlesTake a look at certain orchids' roots, and you'll probably notice that they look like testicles. If not, you've set yourself apart from multiple generations of language-makers that simply couldn't help but name the whole plant family after this snicker-worthy observation. Our contemporary word for the flower, introduced in 1845, comes from the Greek orchis, which literally translates as "testicle." Speakers of Middle English in the 1300s came up with a phonologically different word—inspired by the same exact dirty thought. They called the flower ballockwort from ballocks, or testicles, which itself evolved from beallucas, the Old English word for balls.
2. Porcelain
Oops, you just said: Pig's vaginaThe word "porcelain" comes from the material's Italian name, porcellana, which literally translates as a "cowrie shell" and refers to porcelain's similarly smooth surface. But the Italian cowrie shell in turn takes its name from porcella, a young sow, because the shell's shape is reminiscent of a small, female pig's vulva.
3. Vanilla
Oops, you just said: VaginaDuring Hernando Cortes' conquest of the Aztec empire, his men discovered the vanilla plant and dubbed it vainilla, literally "little pod" or "little sheath," from the Latin vagina, "sheath." The conquistadors drew the name from the shape of the plants' bodies, which need to be split open in order to extract the beans they enclose—still a bit of a stretch as they more closely resemble tough, dark string beans. Funny enough, the '70s slang sense of vanilla as "conventional" or "of ordinary sexual preferences" has nothing to do with its original etymology; instead, it refers to the unadventurous choice of vanilla ice cream and the blandness of the color white.
4. Seminar
Oops, you just said: Semen"Seminar" comes from the Latin seminarium, meaning "breeding ground" or "plant nursery," which itself comes from the Latin seminarius, meaning "of seed." Given the words' phonological likeness, it's pretty obvious that they all come down to the Latin semen, "seed."
5. Fundamental
Oops, you just said: ButtocksThe 15th-century word "fundamental" is derived from the Late Latin fundamentalis, meaning "of the foundation," which itself is from the earlier Latin fundamentum. While taking another step back won't lead you to the buttocks, a small, crooked step forward will take you to fundamentum's more immediate descendent, fundament, which has meant "anus" or "buttocks" since the 13th century.
6. Avocado
Oops, you just said: TesticleYet another generation that looked at plants and saw balls, 18th-century Spaniards took the vegetable fruit's name from an earlier Spanish version, aquacate, which evolved from the region's pre-conquest Nahuatl ahuakati, meaning "testicle."
7. Pencil
Oops, you just said: PenisIn the 14th century, "pencil" took on the meaning "an artist's fine brush of camel hair" from the French pincel, meaning the same thing minus the camel part. Pincel came from the Latin penicillus, which means "paintbrush" or "pencil" but literally translates as "little tail," the diminutive of the Latin penis, "tail."
8. Musk
Oops, you just said: ScrotumAgain we return to the testicles. "Musk," the substance secreted from a male deer's glandular sac, traces back to the Sanskrit muska-s, meaning "testicle," because of its origin's resemblance to a scrotum. For more evidence of our forefathers' far-fetched visual association games, one need only trace muska-s back to its origin, mus, meaning "mouse," which allegedly also looks like a scrotum. But why stop there when the same root gives us "muscle" from the Latin musculus, literally "little mouse." How, you ask? Well, muscles, too, allegedly look like mice... which look like scrotums, which look like deer glands.
9. Amazon
Oops, you just said: Breastless womanIn the late 1300s, the Greek spoke of the Amazones, a Scythian race of female warriors that, according to popular folk etymology, had an interesting custom of cutting or burning off one breast in order to draw bowstrings more easily. They stood out quite starkly as a- mazos, "without breasts."
5 Reasons Pets are Great for the Workplace
(http://mentalfloss.com/sites/default/files/styles/article_640x430/public/177312132.jpg)
....that the idea that pets are good for workplace productivity is counterintuitive: Pets are noisy and rambunctious, and they need to be fed, walked, and cuddled throughout the day. If anything, they sound like they would distract from work.
Yet a growing number of companies, from Ben & Jerry's to Google, are allowing employees to bring their pets to work. Some, like Village Green, a Detroit-based property management company, actually pay workers to bring their pets to work.Here, five ways pets can improve the workplace:
1. They lower stress levelsMany work environments are inherently stressful: There are deadlines and quotas to meet, bosses and coworkers to please, and often very little sunlight and opportunity to get out from behind the computer screen. All these factors can elevate stress and lower workplace satisfaction, taking a bite out of worker productivity.
The antidote to all that stress? Research shows that four-legged furry friends can be of great help.
Recent studies in hospitals and nursing homes have shown the powerful effect animals can have on human health. Interspecies interaction can contribute to lower blood pressure, relief from depression and anxiety, and even faster recovery after surgeries. Similar benefits have been proven in the office setting, too.
In 2012, a Virginia Commonwealth University study took a look at a 550-person manufacturing-retail office in Greensboro, N.C., where about 20 to 30 dogs came to work each day, says Science Daily. Using surveys and saliva samples to evaluate stress levels, researchers found that self-reported stress declined throughout the day for employees who brought their pets to the office.
Meanwhile, those who left their dogs at home experienced an increase of self-reported stress throughout the day. By the end of the day, the group had "significantly higher stress" than the group with dogs.
2. They help break the iceLike a cute baby or an offensive T-shirt, pets have a way of instigating conversation among humans. This can be clutch in the modern workplace, where many employees interact only through screens, and offices can be quiet, except for the noisy typers.
Pets pull people away from their screens long enough to answer questions about, well, their pets—the breed, the story behind the name, etc. These face-to-face conversations can help team members bond and boost morale.
A 2010 study out of the University of Central Michigan showed how pets can foster bonding in the workplace:
The CMU study involved several experiments; one involving groups of four individuals, some with or without dogs. Each group member was charged with a fake crime, and surveyed to see if they would report their fellow group members. Groups with dogs present made employees 30 percent less likely to report each other, showing that canine co-workers make for a more cohesive and trustworthy workplace environment. [The Humane Society]
3. They force breaksMost jobs don't require workers to take breaks, and in a competitive, fast-paced environment, that can mean full days where workers don't leave their desks for more than the occasional trip to the water cooler.
Having a dog in the office requires the owner to occasionally peel herself away from her computer and take the dog for a walk, essentially forcing a break.
Though it sounds counterintuitive, these breaks can boost productivity. Studies show that sustained mental effort over multiple hours, like the kind required for data entry jobs, for example, can cause mental fatigue and stress, resulting in more mistakes and lower productivity. Occasionally breaking away, however, can boost focus and creativity, and lower mistakes.
It also helps that the dog owners are taking the breaks outside and moving around—also good for mental clarity.
4. They remove pests for freeAt Civitas, an urban design, planning, and landscape architecture firm in Denver, a gray and white cat named Gonzo performs a vital task: Mice removal.
"The mice came back when the cat before him died, but disappeared again when Gonzo showed up," says Amirah Shahid, a landscape architect at the firm. "He recently left a dead mouse carcass as a present at someone's desk."
Beyond the free gifts, the cat means not having to hire an exterminator to spray chemicals around the office.
5. The decorAnother benefit: Some cats and dogs can make the space more attractive. "[Gonzo's] very handsome to look at," says Shahid. "And he makes us take much needed breaks to acknowledge his presence when he's making his rounds around the studio."
"Clients, consultants, and other office visitors think we're super cool because we have him roaming around."
(http://www.teampwnicorn.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/05/Iron-Man-vs-Bat-man1.jpg)
Did you know we have the technology to be 'Iron Man'! We can rebuild...ourselves!
Will You be Iron Man?
(http://cdn.redmondpie.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/04/iron-man-header.png)
Human interface technologies like Google Glass, robotic prosthetics, and bionic eyes have the potential to help people recover lost abilities, but also to grant us new abilities. Will you someday be able to turn on your super-human hearing just by thinking about it? Maybe... if you live long enough. The question of whether we /should/ well, we'll leave that to the philosophers.
(http://texashideout.tripod.com/bckissing.jpg)
...these six things about "Bonnie and Clyde?
(http://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/files/2013/05/bonnie-and-clyde-loc-215x300.jpg)
You've probably heard of Bonnie and Clyde, but have you heard of Bonnie and Roy?
This month marks the 79th anniversary of the deaths of notorious crime duo Bonnie and Clyde on May 23, 1934. The young gangsters in love tore across the American Southwest during the Great Depression, leaving a trail of robberies and murders.
Newspapers demonized Clyde Barrow and his "gunwoman" Bonnie Parker as "notorious desperados" and "dangerous killers," so the following six facts might surprise you.(http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_VeQ_FRB5ix0/Swle7M6maaI/AAAAAAAAAHE/E5-TYJH0cUY/s1600/Bonnie+and+Clyde,+c+1933.jpg)
1. Although Barrow and Parker claimed to be married, Parker remained legally married to her first husband, Roy Thornton. On the day she died, she still wore his wedding ring and bore a tattoo on her knee with intertwined hearts and their names, Bonnie and Roy. http://texashideout.tripod.com/bonroy.html
(http://texashideout.tripod.com/rtkilled.jpg)
(http://texashideout.tripod.com/ring.jpg)
2. Bonnie and Clyde were both short. Parker was only 4'11″ and Barrow 5'4″ at a time when average heights for women and men were about 5'3″ and 5'8″. (Faye Dunaway and Warren Beatty, who played Bonnie and Clyde in the famous 1967 film stood 5'7″ and 6'2″ respectively.)
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-QgjZx4M8LwM/UaKkbXRMAlI/AAAAAAAAEfs/PuwaYOAZGlI/s400/Bonnie+and+Clyde_red.jpg)
3. Parker was an honor student and a poet, and life as one of America's most wanted didn't stifle those interests. Shortly before her death, Parker wrote a poem called "The Story of Bonnie and Clyde," which was published in several newspapers and immortalized their tale.
(http://ts2.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4645880236738565&pid=1.7)
***See Poem Below4. Parker and Barrow remained close to their families, even on the run. In fact, it was their predictable pattern of stopping to visit family that aided the team of Texas Rangers and deputies who ambushed and killed them.
(http://texashideout.tripod.com/journal.JPG)
(http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.5052343045916524&pid=1.7)
(http://s3-media2.ak.yelpcdn.com/bphoto/Upr5ihE1xgzQtj2cbnJj6g/l.jpg)
5. The pair attained such notoriety that hordes of people flocked to the scene of their death and later to the coroner's to retrieve "souvenirs." Some attempted to cut off Barrow's ear or finger; others took snippets of Parker's blood-soaked dress or shattered window glass. One man offered Barrow's father over $30,000 for Barrow's body—the equivalent of over $600,000 today.
(http://i.ebayimg.com/t/BONNIE-AND-CLYDE-VINTAGE-DEATH-PHOTO-CLYDE-BARROW-AFTER-AMBUSH-20761-/00/s/MTAyNFg4MTc=/z/9y4AAOxy5rpSTXhp/$T2eC16F,!)0FI,DSle13BST(ho7yhw~~60_35.JPG)
(http://ts1.mm.bing.net/th?id=H.4639403455938560&pid=1.7)
6. Eight decades later, the morbidly curious can see Bonnie and Clyde's bullet-ridden death car on display at Whiskey Pete's Casino in Primm, Nevada, outside of Las Vegas.
(http://keepitupdavid.files.wordpress.com/2013/09/bonnie-and-clyde-car-whiskey-petes.jpg)
(http://www.sideshowworld.com/a/at/atsbcpic3.jpg)
(http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-rpqcYNZaj70/T70-m86QONI/AAAAAAAAB3I/V7cM6Kadvfo/s320/536520_10150906295798006_817693005_226457829_441847137_n%5B1%5D.jpg)
***The Story of Bonnie and Clyde
You've read the story of Jesse James
Of how he lived and died;
If you're still in need
Of something to read,
Here's the story of Bonnie and Clyde.
Now Bonnie and Clyde are the Barrow gang,
I'm sure you all have read
How they rob and steal
And those who squeal
Are usually found dying or dead.
There's lots of untruths to these write-ups;
They're not so ruthless as that;
Their nature is raw;
They hate all the law
The stool pigeons, spotters, and rats.
They call them cold-blooded killers;
They say they are heartless and mean;
But I say this with pride,
That I once knew Clyde
When he was honest and upright and clean.
But the laws fooled around,
Kept taking him down
And locking him up in a cell,
Till he said to me,
"I'll never be free,
So I'll meet a few of them in hell."
The road was so dimly lighted;
There were no highway signs to guide;
But they made up their minds
If all roads were blind,
They wouldn't give up till they died.
The road gets dimmer and dimmer;
Sometimes you can hardly see;
But it's fight, man to man,
And do all you can,
For they know they can never be free.
From heart-break some people have suffered;
From weariness some people have died;
But take it all in all,
Our troubles are small
Till we get like Bonnie and Clyde.
If a policeman is killed in Dallas,
And they have no clue or guide;
If they can't find a fiend,
They just wipe their slate clean
And hand it on Bonnie and Clyde.
There's two crimes committed in America
Not accredited to the Barrow mob;
They had no hand
In the kidnap demand,
Nor the Kansas City depot job.
A newsboy once said to his buddy;
"I wish old Clyde would get jumped;
In these awful hard times
We'd make a few dimes
If five or six cops would get bumped."
The police haven't got the report yet,
But Clyde called me up today;
He said, "Don't start any fights
We aren't working nights
We're joining the NRA."
From Irving to West Dallas viaduct
Is known as the Great Divide,
Where the women are kin,
And the men are men,
And they won't "stool" on Bonnie and Clyde.
If they try to act like citizens
And rent them a nice little flat,
About the third night
They're invited to fight
By a sub-gun's rat-tat-tat.
They don't think they're too tough or desperate,
They know that the law always wins;
They've been shot at before,
But they do not ignore
That death is the wages of sin.
Some day they'll go down together;
And they'll bury them side by side;
To few it'll be grief
To the law a relief
But it's death for Bonnie and Clyde.
-- Bonnie Parker
Saw the car at the Kansas State fair. Don't recall the year, I was pretty young.
...that sometimes, history happens in a moment.
Usually, history is the long view. It's the perspective we gain with distance, from looking back and putting things into context. Events take their place in "history" only after we see their consequences and realize which were actually important. Usually, history takes time.
But sometimes, we know it the minute we see it.
History happened in a moment on 22 November 1963 when President John F. Kennedy was shot in Dallas. His death certificate is a matter-of-fact record of an event that shocked the world.
(http://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/files/2013/11/JFK-death-certificate.jpg)
Two days later, his alleged assassin, Lee Harvey Oswald, was gunned down. He was taken to Parkland Memorial, the same hospital where the president had died two days before... almost to the hour, according to Oswald's death certificate:
(http://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/files/2013/11/lee-harvey-oswald-death-certificate.jpg)
In a final twist, Jack Ruby, Oswald's killer, would die at the same hospital three years later:
(http://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/files/2013/11/jack-ruby-death-certificate.jpg)
There's no box checked for "Homicide" on Ruby's death certificate. He died from a pulmonary embolism and cancer, no gunshots. No mention of his role in the events of November 1963.
Nothing about his place in history.
You Won't Believe These Causes of Death on October 29, 2012. Among the more interesting details you may find on a death record is the cause of death. Even more so when that cause leads a story:
Pint-sized problemsAnyone who has spent long hours staring small screens or reading small type knows a little about eye strain, but who knew it could be fatal? This 1880 census mortality schedule from Leadville, Colorado reveals that J. Nash died from "Sore Eyes." Consider yourself warned.
(http://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/files/2012/10/SoreEyes.jpg)
It was loaded?Accidental deaths may be reported in newspapers, as was the case with Ohio politician and lawyer, Clement Vallandigham. Clement was defending a murder suspect and trying to demonstrate the possibility that the victim had shot himself. He attempted to demonstrate his theory, but grabbed a loaded gun by accident. His reenactment proved fatal. This article from The Herald and Torch Light of Hagerstown, Maryland (21 June 1871) describes the accident and the aftermath.
(http://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/files/2012/10/Vallandigham.jpg)
The defendant was eventually acquitted, but in 1875, he too succumbed to a bullet wound when he was shot in his saloon.
Death by SafeAlthough Jack Daniel's death certificate only lists "blood poisoning from operation," the full story of the famous distiller's death is a bit unusual. Apparently in frustration in not being able to open his safe, he kicked it, injuring his toe. The resulting infection was responsible for his death. The deadly safe is on display in Jack Daniel's distillery in Lynchburg.
(http://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/files/2012/10/JackDaniel.jpg)
It Really Was a Wild, Wild West!If you think that the gunfights of the American West were a product of Hollywood, a look at some mortality schedules might change your mind. This Arizona City, Yuma County, Arizona mortality schedule is a good example. Eleven of the thirty-one deaths reported were due to wounds, a fracture of the skull, shootings, or stabbings.
(http://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/files/2012/10/20110814AZCity.jpg)
At the bottom of the page, in the remarks section, the enumerator notes that, "I expect a great many violent deaths, this being a frontier county where all disputes are settled by the use of weapons, and it occurs between transient and single men who have no families."
12 Women You Don't Know.... but You Should.
Women Rule.
(http://www.funelf.net/photos/women-rule.jpg)
They also fight, write, paint, and unlock the secrets of the universe. And they've done it for a long time.1479–1458 B.C.
HatshepsutAncient Egypt is ahead of its time when it comes to equal rights for its citizens: women can own property, seek employment outside the home, and even adopt children. And female rulers govern Egypt on and off for centuries. But when Hatshepsut ascends to the throne, she doesn't settle for just being a queen—she declares herself pharaoh, the king of Egypt and a divine being. For 20 years she rules one of the most advanced and powerful empires in history.
ca. 546 B.C.
TheanoAnyone who's taken geometry has heard of the Pythagorean theorem—or should have. But have you heard about the woman beside the man? Tradition says that Pythagoras, the famous Greek mathematician, has a promising young female student named Theano whom he eventually marries. Together they create a school for mathematics that both men and women can attend, and Theano becomes an influential mathematician in her own right.
ca. 300 B.C.
Agnodice (or so says tradition again) illegally practices medicine in ancient Greece.
A.D. 40
The Trung SistersTrung Trac and Trung Nhi, young daughters of a Vietnamese lord, lead a revolution against the Chinese who had invaded and conquered their country. They form and train their own army, which eventually grows to around 80,000 warriors. Many of the army's generals—one is their own mother—are women. The rebellion does not overthrow the Chinese tyranny, but the women are still celebrated every year in Vietnam with their own national holiday.
(http://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/files/2013/04/trung.jpg)
Trung sisters riding elephants.
ca. 60
Boudicca, Celtic queen, leads a revolt against the Roman Empire.
ca. 1000
Lady Murasaki, Japanese author, writes The Tale of Genji, one of the earliest novels in recorded history.
ca. 1004
Gudridur ThorbjarnardottirNot one to be left behind, Erik the Red's daughter-in-law Gudridur Thorbjarnardottir gives birth to the first European child in the New World.
ca. 1090
Trotula of SalernoIn southern Italy, Trotula gains fame as a physician and healer during an era when some European women who practice medicine are considered witches. She writes several important medical treatises, including Passionibus Mulierum Curandorum, or The Diseases of Women. Many of her recommendations are controversial. For instance, she advocates giving women opiates during childbirth to alleviate their pain.
ca. 1600
Italian painter Artemisia Gentileschi is the first female painter to become a member of the Accademia dell'Arte del Disegno, the first drawing academy in Europe.
(http://blogs.ancestry.com/cm/files/2013/04/256px-Self-portrait_as_the_Allegory_of_Painting_by_Artemisia_Gentileschi.jpg)
Self-portrait as the Allegory of
Painting by Artemisia Gentileschi
1872
Victoria Claflin WoodhullVictoria spends her unusual childhood traveling the country with her family and telling fortunes, selling elixirs, and showing off her psychic powers. When she finally settles in New York, her business savvy—and some influential clients—help her start the first female-owned brokerage firm on Wall Street. She also creates and publishes a weekly journal. In 1872, Victoria becomes the first woman to run for president of the United States—at a time when most women can't even vote.
1953
Rosalind Elsie FranklinBy age 15, this young British girl knows she wants to be a scientist and pursues a higher education despite pressure from her family. During the 1950s, while working in a research lab in England, Rosalind uses X-ray techniques she learned in Paris and discovers the double-helix pattern of the DNA molecule. Her data is shared with other biochemists, who take this information, add it to their own, and publish the material. Four years after Rosalind's death, Wilkins, Watson, and Crick receive the Nobel Prize for their work on DNA. To this day the debate continues on how much credit should have gone to this instrumental scientist.
(http://www.madbeast.com/images/oscarsbanner.jpg)
....that there were two pairs of siblings who have competed against each other for acting awards at the Oscars?
Do you know who the only person named Oscar who ever won an Oscar?
Can you think of the first sequel to be nominated for Best Picture?If those are the type of questions that tickle your fancy, this Oscar quiz is for you.
There are 116 questions and some of them are real posers. But the creator of the quiz knows his stuff and provides full explanations of the answers.
Try it and see how you do!
(http://www.madbeast.com/images/header-quiz.png)
http://www.madbeast.com/quiz.htm
...that many witnessed these unforgettable events in real-time thanks to the magic of broadcasting.
Viewer Discretion is Advised.
Top 10 Craziest Events Caught On Live Televison
Top 10 Televised Events
Thanks to this medium of telecommunication, we'll never forget when these happened.
Top 10 Ways the World Might End (in the Next 100 Years)
If only these were fictional...
(http://theeconomiccollapseblog.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/02/Purple-Question-Mark.png)
Did you know ...that the God of the Bible says that one of the ways that you can know that He is the one true God is by looking at the prophecies that have been fulfilled? He is the only God that can tell us the end from the beginning because He sees it all. In Isaiah 46:9-10, it says the following...
"Remember the former things of old: for I am God, and there is none else; I am God, and there is none like me, declaring the end from the beginning, and from ancient times the things that are not yet done, saying, My counsel shall stand, and I will do all my pleasure"
Did you know ...that King David composed a graphic portrayal of the crucifixion of Jesus Christ about 1000 years before it happened? While he was hanging on the cross, Jesus even quoted Psalm 22 to point out to everyone that the fact that his hands and feet had been pierced had been prophesied long ago. At the time this Psalm was written, crucifixion had not even been invented yet.
Did you know ...that the prophet Isaiah prophesied incredible details about the life, suffering, death, burial and resurrection of Jesus the Messiah about 700 years in advance? Just check out Isaiah 53.
Did you know ...that the name of Jesus (Yeshua), Mary, Joseph, the names of the 12 disciples, Messiah, Galilee, Passover, Herod, the term "His Cross", the term "Let Him Be Crucified" and many other phrases relating to Jesus have all been found by Bible code researchers embedded in the text of Isaiah chapter 53?
Did you know ...that the prophet Daniel prophesied the exact YEAR when Jesus would be presented as Messiah and that he also prophesied that it would be BEFORE the Jewish temple was destroyed in 70 A.D.? All of this was prophesied more than 500 years in advance. To see this, just check out Daniel 9:24-27.
Did you know ...that the Bible foretold the exact family line that the Messiah would come from?
Did you know ...that the Bible foretold the exact place where the Messiah would be born?
Did you know ...that there are more than 300 prophecies about the Messiah in the Old Testament Scriptures that were fulfilled by Jesus Christ?
Did you know ...that Peter Stoner, Professor Emeritus of Science at Westmont College, has calculated that the odds of any one person fulfilling just 48 of the major Messianic prophecies in the Bible was 1 in 10 to the 157th power?
Did you know ...that the ancient Hebrew name for God, YHWH, is actually a prophecy of the death of Jesus Christ? In "paleo-Hebrew", each letter was represented by an ideogram. In other words, each letter was also a picture which represented an idea. It turns out that when you examine the ancient Hebrew name for God, it can be translated as follows: "The Hand Revealed, The Nail Revealed". For much more on this, please see "REVEALED! THE SECRET NAME OF GOD - Amazing Last Days Revelation (Hidden 'code')" on YouTube.
Did you know that the gospel message is contained in the genealogy from Adam to Noah that we find in Genesis chapter 5? In the list below, I have included the Hebrew names from the genealogy along with their English meanings. This is incredible...
Adam ("Man")
Seth ("Appointed")
Enosh ("Mortal")
Kenan ("Sorrow")
Mahalalel ("The Blessed God")
Jared ("Shall come down")
Enoch ("Teaching")
Methuselah ("His death shall bring")
Lamech ("The despairing")
Noah ("Rest" or "Comfort")
If you put it all together, you get a sentence that reads something like this: "Man is appointed mortal sorrow, but the Blessed God shall come down teaching, and his death shall bring the despairing rest."Did you know ...that for centuries ahead of time, God held a "dress rehearsal" for the crucifixion of Jesus the Messiah every single year in the exact city where it would happen and on the exact day it would happen? It is called Passover, and you can read more about it in Leviticus 23.
Did you know... that for centuries ahead of time, God held a "dress rehearsal" for the resurrection of Jesus the Messiah every single year in the exact city where it would happen and on the exact day it would happen? It is called Firstfruits, and you can read more about it in Leviticus 23.
Did you know ....that for centuries ahead of time, God held a "dress rehearsal" for the birth of Jesus the Messiah every single year in the exact region of Israel where it would happen and on the exact day it would happen? You see, the little town of Bethlehem is only about 5 miles away from Jerusalem. It is called the Feast of Tabernacles, and you can read more about it in Leviticus 23. And for a much more detailed explanation, please see "Christ's Birth Revealed In Scripture" by Pastor Mark Biltz on YouTube.
Did you know ...that Dr. Simon Greenleaf of Harvard University (one of the greatest professors of law in U.S. history) once made the following statement?...
"According to the laws of legal evidence used in courts of law, there is more evidence for the historical fact of the resurrection of Jesus Christ than for just about any other event in history."
Did you know ...that many that have tried to disprove the Christian faith have ended up becoming Christians and strongly defending the Christian faith once they evaluated the evidence? Two prominent examples of this are Josh McDowell and Lee Strobel.
If Jesus did not actually rise from the dead, why didn't the opponents of the new faith simply produce the body? That would have ended "Christianity" really fast.
Did you know ...that if Jesus did not actually rise from the dead, all of His disciples would have surely known that was the case? So why would all of those men die for a lie when honesty was at the very heart of the message that they were preaching? Why would they endure years of beatings, torture and floggings when all they had to do to stop it was to deny that Jesus rose from the dead?
Did you know ...that the son of a Jewish carpenter who lived about 2000 years ago that was killed by the Romans in his early thirties is far and away the most influential person in all of human history?
Did you know ...that there are a whole host of ancient sources outside of the Bible that attest to the life and death of Jesus Christ?
Did you know ...that large numbers of Muslims all over the world are having dreams and visions of Jesus and are turning to Christianity as a result? For an in-depth look at this phenomenon, please see "Dreams And Visions: Is Jesus Awakening the Muslim World?" by Tom Doyle.
Did you know ....that Carbon-14 dating gives us strong evidence that the Bible is accurate? Due to the rate that it decays, there should be absolutely no measurable radioactive carbon left in fossils that are "greater than 100,000 years old". Yet we find it in all of the ancient fossils that we dig up. We even find it in coal, diamonds and in dinosaur bones. Those that seek to promote the theory that life has been around for "millions of years" have absolutely no reasonable explanation for this.
Did you know ...that T-Rex bones have been discovered that still contain soft tissue inside of them? If those bones really were "millions of years old" that would be impossible.
Did you know ...that DNA is an incredibly complex language that we are only beginning to comprehend? Such a language system could not have come into existence by accident. The following is how Perry Marshall puts it...
1) DNA is not merely a molecule with a pattern; it is a code, a language, and an information storage mechanism.
2) All codes are created by a conscious mind; there is no natural process known to science that creates coded information.
3) Therefore DNA was designed by a mind.
If you can provide an empirical example of a code or language that occurs naturally, you've toppled my proof. All you need is one.Did you know ...that if the neutron was not precisely the size that it is (about 1.001 times the mass of the proton), either all protons would have decayed into neutrons by now or all neutrons would have decayed into protons by now and life on Earth would not be possible? In fact, there are a whole host of examples like this that show how God has gone to great lengths to fine tune our planet and our entire universe for us.
Did you know ...that the human brain consists of approximately 12 billion cells? It is far more complex than anything that humanity has ever created. Anyone that thinks that our brains could have come into existence "by accident" is only fooling themselves.
Did you know that there is a massive amount of scientific evidence that show that humanity was created by God?
Did you know ...that no nation that has ceased to exist has EVER come back into existence after 2000 years of not being a nation? But the Bible said that Israel would be a nation once again in the last days and that has happened.
Did you know ...that the Jewish Talmud inadvertently contains remarkable evidence for the Christian faith? The Talmud states that four remarkable miracles that kept repeatedly happening all started about forty years before the destruction of the Jewish temple in 70 A.D.
So what happened right about that time? The death and resurrection of Jesus Christ of course.
First, here is the description of these miracles that we find in the Jerusalem Talmud...
"Forty years before the destruction of the Temple, the western light went out, the crimson thread remained crimson, and the lot for the Lord always came up in the left hand. They would close the gates of the Temple by night and get up in the morning and find them wide open" (Jacob Neusner, The Yerushalmi, p.156-157).
Secondly, here is the description of these miracles that we find in the Babylonian Talmud...
"Our rabbis taught: During the last forty years before the destruction of the Temple the lot ['For the Lord'] did not come up in the right hand; nor did the crimson-colored strap become white; nor did the western most light shine; and the doors of the Hekel [Temple] would open by themselves" (Soncino version, Yoma 39b).
Did you know ...that remnants of ancient Egyptian chariot wheels have been found on the bottom of the Gulf of Aqaba? This is very strong evidence that the Biblical account of the Exodus is accurate.
If time did not have a beginning, then an infinite amount of time would have had to have passed in order to reach this point. But how would that be possible?
Did you know ...that Jesus Christ can give you meaning and purpose in life? If man is nothing but the random arrangement of molecules, what motivates you to care about anyone or anything? What motivates you to live morally and honorably if there is no God?
Did you know ...that people are still being raised from the dead in the name of Jesus today? If you doubt this, please watch a documentary entitled "Raised From The Dead" by Christ For All Nations. Also please see "Former Muslim Raised From The Dead" on YouTube.
Did you know ...that there are a large number of people alive today that claim to have actually been to heaven or been to hell? How can you dismiss all of those eyewitness testimonies? Are they all lying? Are they all crazy?
MUSIC FAST FACTS
Did you know... ...that to win a gold disc, an album needs to sell 100,000 copies in Britain, and 500,000 in the United States.
Melba toast is named after Australian opera singer Dame Nellie Melba (1861-1931).
Music was sent down a telephone line for the first time in 1876, the year the phone was invented.
The CD was developed by Philips and Sony in 1980.
40 billion songs are downloaded illegally every year, that's some 90% of all music downloads.
The music industry generates about $4 billion in online music but loose about $40 billion to illegal downloads.
Top-selling albums used to reach sales of 20 million copies before the advent of online piracy – by 2009 it had dropped to about 5 million.
The number of recorded CDs and blank CDs sold were about equal.
About one-third of recorded CDs ever sold were pirated.
The Star-Spangled Banner became the US national anthem in 1931. Prior to that, it was My Country 'Tis of Thee," which had the same melody as Britian's national anthem God Save the Queen, which is based on music written by John Bull in 1619. Bull's melody has been used more than any song in national anthems.
The British anthem was performed the most times in a single performance. In 1909, while waiting for King Edward VII who was getting dressed a German band played the anthem 17 times.
Tap dancing originates from Irish clog dancing and what is called the Irish reel and jig.
The harmonica is the world's best-selling music instrument. Just check out the great blues harmonica selection online.
It was at a concert in Minneapolis in 1954 that Al Dvorin first closed Elvis's concerts with: "Ladies and Gentleman, Elvis has left the building. Thank you and good night."
Elvis favorite collectibles were official badges. He collected police badges in almost every city he performed in.
Elvis was an avid gun collector. His collection of 40 weapons included M-16s and a Thompson submachine gun.
Duran Duran took their name from a mad scientists in the movie Barbarella.
Bob Dylan's first professional performance was as opening act for John Lee Hooker at Gerde's Folk City in New York, 1961.
Before they were known as Journey, Steve Perry called his band Golden Gate Rhythm Section.
Kenneth Edmonds was nicknamed Babyface by funk bassist and singer Bootsy Collins.
The world's largest disco was held at the Buffalo Convention Centre, New York, 1979. 13,000 danced a place into the Guinness Book of World Records.
In August 1983, Peter Stewart of Birmingham, UK set a world record by disco dancing for 408 hours.
Ireland has won the most Eurovision song contests (7 times).
Annie Lennox holds the record for the most Brit awards (8).
The Beatles holds the top spot of album sales in the US (106 million), followed by Garth Brooks second (92 million), Led Zeppelin (83 million), Elvis Presley (77 million), and the Eagles (65 million). Worldwide The Beatles sold more than 1 billion records.
Klezmer music is derived from two Hebrew words, clay and zimmer, meaning "vessel of music."
The Ocarina, a musical wind instrument, is also known as the Sweet Potato.
The LP (long-playing) record was invented by Paul Goldmark in 1948. The LP is not dead yet: more than 10 million LPs are sold every year.
The longest song to reach number one on the Billboard charts on LP was "I'd Do Anything For Love (But I Won't Do That)" by Meatloaf, the shortest: "Stay" by Maurice Williams & the Zodiacs.
At the first Grammy Awards, held on 4 May 1959, Domenico Modugno beat out Frank Sinatra and Peggy Lee for the Record of the Year, with "Volare."
The British, the highest per capita spenders on music, buy 7,2% of the world music market.
The first pop video was Bohemian Rhapsody by Queen, released in 1975.
The Beatles song "Martha My Dear" was written by Paul McCartney about his sheepdog Martha.
Jeanne Louise Calment's CD was released on her 121st birthday in 1996. Titled "Time's Mistress" it features Ms Calment reminiscing to a score of rap music and other tunes.
A grand piano can be played faster than an upright (spinet) piano.
A piano covers the full spectrum of all orchestra instruments, from below the lowest note of the double bassoon to above the top note of the piccolo.
The term "disc jockey" was first used in 1937.
The last note of a keyboard is C.
Themes from movies Unforgiven, A Perfect World, The Bridges of Madison County, and Absolute Power were all written by Clint Eastwood.
The US share of the world music market is 31.3%.
The only guy without a beard in ZZTOP surname (last name) is Beard.
Since its launch in 1981 the song Memory of the musical Cats has been played on radio more than a million times.
Paul McCartney was the last bachelor Beatle when he married Linda Eastman in a civil ceremony in London, 1969. Paul's brother Mike was his best man. No other Beatle attended the wedding.
There are 6 versions of Franz Schubert's "Die Forelle" ("The Trout"), simply because when friends asked him for copies of the song, he wrote out new copies to the best he could remember at the time.
In 1952, John Cage composed and presented ' 4'33″ ', a composition consisting of 4 minutes and 33 seconds of silence.
The Carpenters signature song, We've Only Just Begun, was originally part of a television commercial for a California bank.
In 1972 Leslie Harvey of Stone the Crows died after being electrocuted onstage in England. In 1976 Keith Relf, who used to play for The Yardbirds, was electrocuted by his guitar while playing in his basement. During a mid-performance in 1994 Ramon Barrero, a Mexican musician famous for playing the world's smallest harmonica, inhaled the harmonica and choked to death.
U2 was originally known as Feedback. To date, U2 have sold more than 70 million records, grossing $1,5 billion.
In May 1997, Paul McCartney broke his own world record by obtaining his 81st gold disc.
Global sales of pre-recorded music total more than $40 billion.
The top selling singles of all time are Elton John's "Candle in the Wind '97″, at 33 million, Bing Crosby's "White Christmas", 30 million, and Bill Haley's "Rock Around the Clock", 25 million.
"Guess Things Happen That Way" by Johnny Cash was the 10-billionth track sold on iTunes, February 2010. It was bought by Louie Sulcer of Woodstock, Georgia, who won a $10,000 (£6,500) iTunes gift card.
DVD discs are the same diameter (120mm) and thickness (1.2mm) as a Compact Disc (CD) but a DVD can store 13 times or more data.
Beethoven was the first composer who never had an official court position, thus the first known freelance musician. Born in 1770, he grew up poor, but published his first work at age 12. By age 20 he was famous. He often sold the same score to six or seven different publishers simultaneously, and demanded unreasonably large fees for the simplest work. He was short, stocky, dressed badly, didn't like to bath, lived in squalor, used crude language, openly conducted affairs with married women, and had syphilis. Beethoven was deaf when he composed his Ninth Symphony.
Did You Know......that looking back at 2013, there were many outstanding moments. The Voyager 1 spacecraft became the first human-made object to enter interstellar space. New animal species were discovered. British researchers successfully cure blindness in mice. There were breakthroughs in cancer and Alzheimer research. Edward Snowden's NSA leaks.
The most popular searches on Google and hashtags on Twitter, however, trend the 2013 Zeitgeist as follows: Nelson Mandela, Paul Walker, Miley Cyrus, Cory Monteith, Harlem Shake, Under the Dome, Government Shutdown, iPhone 5s, Samsung Galaxy S4, #bitcoin, #androidgames, #BostonMarathon, #SFBatkid, #SB47 and #Oscars.
Best 2013 momentBeauty is in the eye of the beholder, of course. But we'll choose the discovery of the adorable olinguito as the best moment of 2013. Described as a cross between a teddy bear and a house cat, the olinguito is "the first new carnivore species discovered in over 30 years." It is nicknamed the "Olly" and you can read all about it at Saving Species.
http://savingspecies.org/projects/current-projects/savingspecies-the-olinguito/
(http://didyouknow.org/wp-content/uploads/olinguito.jpg)
Baby olinguito
Other new species discovered include the cocoa frog, a new oncilla, a giant flying squirrels and a few more.
http://www.sci-news.com/biology/science-2013-top-new-species-01652.html
Most popular videoPSY's Gangnam Style continues to be the most popular video ever on YouTube, viewed more than 1,8 billion times.
The most trending video on YouTube during 2013 was Ylvis – The Fox (What Does the Fox Say?), which quickly racked up more than 300 million views since its release on September, 3rd. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jofNR_WkoCE
You can follow the most popular videos by city and region on the YouTube Trends Map.
http://www.youtube.com/trendsmap?gl=US
Tablets, phablets and smartphonesWhile 3D printing may have been the technology that made the world gasp in 2013, we humans continued our undeniable love affair with tablets, phablets and smartphones. Tablet PC sale have flattened a bit but phablets and smartphones have resisted whatever the recession could throw at it.
The Samsung Galaxy S4 became the fastest selling Android device in history. In fact, the S4 was the best-selling smartphone in 2013 – more than 40 million sold – followed a close second by the iPhone 5.
Since the launch of the first Galaxy in 2009, more than 140 million units have been sold. But that's still some way off the 250 million tally of the Nokia 1110, which was released way back in 2005.
(http://didyouknow.org/wp-content/uploads/Samsung-Galaxy-S4.jpg)
Samsung Galaxy S4 – most popular smartphone 2013
2013 sports momentsDuring 2013 you needed to hang on to your hat in the sporting arena.
Andy Murray became the first British Wimbledon men's champion in 77 years. Oracle Team USA took the honors in the America's Cup, the oldest international sporting trophy (first awarded in 1851).
Stéphane Peterhansel won his 11th Dakar victory (5 of which were in the motorcycle and 6 in the car categories).
In February, the Baltimore Ravens defeated the San Francisco 49ers by 34–31; it was the 49ers first Super Bowl loss in franchise history.
The Boston Red Sox won the World Series.
Miami Heat took the NBA Final for a consecutive second time when they defeated Western Conference champion San Antonio Spurs.
The Chicago Blackhawks beat the Boston Bruins for the Stanley Cup.
Heavyweight Wladimir Klitschko continued to dominate the WBA/IBF/WBO titles but, In November, super middleweight champion Carl Froch was given the fright of his live by George Groves, winning by controversial stoppage in Round 9.
In Cricket, England got humiliated by Australia in The Ashes test.
In a nail-biting MotoGP season, Marc Márquez became the first rookie in 35 years to take the title in his first season.
Jimmie Johnson took his 6th NASCAR Sprint Cup Series title while Austin Dillon triumphed in the NASCAR Nationwide Series. Sebastian Vettel stormed to his 4th F1 title.
Big bike newsAlmost as if to announce the end of the recession, KTM introduced the brutally powerful 1190 and 1190 R adventure motorcycles. BMW launched a much-updated semi-watercooled R1200GS while Harley Davidson likewise introduced some liquid cooling to their new tour range.
The biggest motorbike news, however, was the re-introduction of the Indian motorcycle. It inspires a hankering for the better life.
(http://didyouknow.org/wp-content/uploads/Indian-Chieftain.jpg)
A beautiful Indian Chieftain Motorcycle
First vehicle I owned (Picture of one here) was a 1947 Indian Chieftain motorcycle when I was a senior in highschool in 1955...Warph:
(http://ts3.mm.bing.net/th?id=HN.608023814228084356&pid=1.7)
War and PeaceArgentinian Jesuit priest Jorge Mario Bergoglio became the 226th Pope of the Catholic Church, choosing to be known as Pope Francis. He is Time's Person of the Year... and he has a lot of prayers to say. During 2013, there were 40 ongoing armed conflicts and numerous suicide bombings causing the death of thousands of innocent people and the displacement of millions, the latter often leading to slavery.
Sadly, 2013 also was a record year for the slaughter of the rhino, spurred by the failure of the governments of Thailand and Malaysia to stop the trading of rhino horn in those countries as a cure for hallucinations, carbuncles, and "devil possession." (Rhino horn consists of keratin, the structural component hair and nails. They might as well chew their finger nails to stop their hallucinations.)
But before you jump up to do your bit for animal or human welfare, take note that some of the most well known charities donate as little as 1% of the funds they raise to their stated course. Rather research a charity well; google it, ask your friends on Facebook for opinions, think fast but think twice.
International Year2013 was the UN International Year of Water Cooperation. Water is an increasingly scarce resource, getting more expensive every year.
Rather drink beer :)
Does an Oscar mean more money for actors?
(http://www.brimg.net/images/gallery/celebrity-money/2014/richest-oscar-winning-actors-and-actresses/2-jack.jpg)
Is the "Oscar jinx" real?Sometimes an actor will go "indie" to showcase their talents, but it usually comes back to money. Even multiple awards don't always garner you great roles or a great paycheck.
And the Oscar goes to ... the guy dressed as a bunch of grapes to help sell underwear? Academy Award notoriety, as with any of the major entertainment awards, has a checkered history of cumulative success for an actor's career. An actor's exceptional performance in one capacity can serve as a bellwether for future high-quality roles and a successful resume, or it can become a shiny side note of a trivia question to an otherwise unremarkable career.
(http://www.brimg.net/images/gallery/celebrity-money/2014/richest-oscar-winning-actors-and-actresses/3-tom.jpg)
F. Murray Abraham began his career as talking fruit in a commercial for Fruit of the Loom, but he eventually found himself accepting a bevy of awards in 1985 for his performance in "Amadeus" -- including a Golden Globe and an Oscar. Though he has made around 80 appearances on screen since, it has been with the likes of " Muppets from Space" and " The All New Adventures of Laurel and Hardy in 'For Love or Mummy.'" His resume prompted the unofficial diagnosis of underwhelming post-award careers as "F. Murray Abraham Syndrome" within the industry.
Otherwise known as the "Oscar jinx," it is a fairly common reminder that award recognition in Hollywood is certainly not a guaranteed badge into the A-list club or A-list income.
"The Oscar is the single most important event of my career," Abraham has said. "I have dined with kings, shared equal billing with my idols, lectured at Harvard and Columbia. If this is a jinx, I'll take two."
Maybe so, but you might also end up with more roles in films like the forgettable " Sword of War," which only took in $835,469 at the box office in 2009 against a $9 million budget.
(http://www.brimg.net/images/gallery/celebrity-money/2014/richest-oscar-winning-actors-and-actresses/4-robert.jpg)
One of the most notorious offenders of the jinx list is Cuba Gooding Jr., who won an Oscar and a Golden Globe for his supporting role in "Jerry Maguire." What happened next isn't pretty, with a decade and a half of a couple of bright spots overshadowed by fantastic failures such as "Boat Trip" and the sequel to "Daddy Day Care" -- "Daddy Day Camp" -- which only grossed around $13 million domestically and received an astonishingly bad 1 percent rating on Rotten Tomatoes. Gooding Jr. never has renewed his Oscar glory, but his character's remarkably overused catch phrase lives on, with someone, somewhere showing him the money. His net worth is an estimated $42 million, which surely is due in part to his former acclaim.
"Everybody gets more money; the question is how much," says film critic Emmanuel Levy, author of "All About Oscar: The History and Politics of the Academy Awards." "A lot depends on who they were before they got the Oscar."
Levy added that it is better to win or be nominated for an Oscar earlier in one's career, which usually bodes best for their career and earnings.
Anna Paquin, who was the second youngest Oscar winner ever for her role in 1993's " The Piano," has certainly seen her talent and acclaim pay out. With an estimated net worth of $12 million, she takes in around $75,000 per episode of HBO's popular " True Blood."
"Million-dollar salaries are still million-dollar salaries," says producer Elizabeth Yoffe, "But the days of throwing $20 (million) to $25 million salaries around are disappearing, except for the top, top tier."
(http://www.brimg.net/images/gallery/celebrity-money/2014/richest-oscar-winning-actors-and-actresses/5-barbara.jpg)
Yoffe is the former president of the nonprofit CineWomen L.A. and current head of the True Studio Media production company, which produced the award-winning "My Big Break," a documentary on the significant effects gaining and losing fame can have on a young actor. She says major awards in themselves have become less about recognition of a stellar performance and more about adding to the coffers of the industry.
"The search for more money for studios and actors in a shrinking box office is the main reason why the Oscars increased the number of films in contention," she says. "More people will pay to see more Academy Award-nominated films, which means more revenue for Hollywood."
Yoffe says talented actors sometimes will sign up for a low-budget "indie" film if they think they can showcase their talents well enough, but it usually comes back to the money before the quality of the role.
"Johnny Depp was once the icon for aspiring actors who wanted to only do their work for 'the art,'" she says, "But as you see, even Depp finally succumbed to big, big bucks when he got used to the lifestyle."
(http://www.brimg.net/images/gallery/celebrity-money/2014/richest-oscar-winning-actors-and-actresses/6-sean.jpg)
Ahoy, terrible reviews.An Oscar is the most valuable of the four major entertainment awards in terms of subsequent roles and income, Yoffe says. A Tony tends to be the least, though many actors are drawn to Broadway to "show their chops." She says it is generally a good career move, though the "star" types tend to struggle on stage, citing Julia Roberts' presence compared to a lamp post in the production "Three Days of Rain."
Then there's the EGOT, which sounds like the name of a giant, wish-granting bird and may be about as rare in the entertainment industry. Only 10 celebrities have reached EGOT status (Emmy, Grammy, Oscar, Tony wins) in competitive categories, not counting Tracy Jordan in TV's "30 Rock." One need look no further than the most recent member in this exclusive club to realize the "club" is more like an abandoned casting warehouse.
Whoopi Goldberg had received plenty of attention for her role in "The Color Purple," but it was her turn in "Ghost" in 1990 that won her the prestigious Oscar. In 2002, she rounded out her EGOT with Emmy and Tony wins. Prestigious roles would seem inevitable, but just a few years removed from her celebrated "Ghost" performance, Goldberg agreed to star in what must have seemed like a box office sure thing in the mid-90s. It was the role of a tough cop teaming with a talking dinosaur to stop a dino-killer and avert Armageddon. She came to her senses, but it would take a lawsuit and $7 million to keep Goldberg from backing out of the role. Theodore Rex would go on to blow $33.5 million in what was the most expensive direct-to-video title at the time. Goldberg's latest sister act is as a regular fixture on "The View," with an estimated salary of $2 million to $4 million.
Did You Know...
....Your stomach has to produce a new layer of mucus every two weeks or it will digest itself.
A rat can last longer without water than a camel.
The dot over the letter "i" is called a tittle.
A raisin dropped in a glass of fresh champagne will bounce up and
down continuously from the bottom of the glass to the top.
A female ferret will die if it goes into heat and cannot find a mate.
Chewing gum while peeling onions will keep you from crying.
A 2 X 4 is really 1-1/2" by 3-1/2".
During the chariot scene in "Ben Hur," a small red car can be seen
in the distance (and Heston's wearing a watch).
On average, 12 newborns will be given to the wrong parents daily!
(That explains a few mysteries....)
1. You can spell the word "upside down" by using other letters of the alphabet: umop apisdn(http://www.distractify.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads//2014/05//PlLOJTh.gif)
Sherlock Holmes NEVER said, "Elementary, my dear Watson."
Because metal was scarce, the Oscars given out during World War II were made of wood.
The number of possible ways of playing the first four moves per
side in a game of chess is 318,979,564,000.
There are no words in the dictionary that rhyme with orange,
purple and silver.
Astronauts are not allowed to eat beans before they go into space
because passing wind in a spacesuit damages them.
The very first bomb dropped by the Allies on Berlin in World War II killed the only elephant in the Berlin Zoo.
Weatherman Willard Scott was the first Ronald McDonald.
If one places a tiny amount of liquor on a scorpion, it will
instantly go mad and sting itself to death. (Who was the sadist who
discovered this??)
Bruce Lee was so fast that they actually had to s-l-o-w film down
so you could see his moves. That's the opposite of the norm.
The first CD pressed in the US was Bruce Springsteen's "Born in
the USA."
The original name for butterfly was flutterby.
The phrase "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law which
stated that you couldn't beat your wife with anything wider than your thumb.
The first product Motorola started to develop was a record player
for automobiles. At that time, the most known player on the market was Victrola, so they called themselves Motorola.
Roses may be red, but violets are indeed violet.
By raising your legs slowly and lying on your back, you cannot
sink into quicksand.
Celery has negative calories. It takes more calories to eat a
piece of celery than the celery has in it to begin with.
Charlie Chaplin once won third prize in a Charlie Chaplin
look-alike contest.
An old law in Bellingham, Washington, made it illegal for a woman
to take more than three steps backwards while dancing!
The Guinness Book of Records holds the record for being the book
most often stolen from public libraries.
The glue on Israeli postage is certified kosher.
Bats always turn left when exiting a cave!
Thanks to Deborah for submitting this!!
And another via email --this comes by Suzie T....
In the 1400's a law was set forth that a man was not allowed to beat his wife with a stick no thicker than his thumb. Hence we have "the rule of thumb"
The first couple to be shown in bed together on prime time TV were Fred and Wilma Flintstone.
Men can read smaller print then women can; women can hear better.
It is impossible to lick your elbow.
The State with the highest percentage of people who walk to work: Alaska
The average number of people airborne over the US any given hour: 61,000
Intelligent people have more zinc and copper in their hair.
The first novel ever written on a typewriter: Tom Sawyer.
The San Francisco Cable cars are the only mobile National Monuments.
111,111,111 x 111,111,111 = 12,345,678,987,654,321
Each king in a deck of playing cards represents a great king from history:
Spades - King David
Hearts - Charlemagne
Clubs -Alexander, the Great
Diamonds - Julius Caesar
If a statue in the park of a person on a horse has both front legs in the air, the person died in battle. If the horse has one front leg in the air the person died as a result of wounds received in battle. If the horse has all four legs on the ground, the person died of natural causes.
Q. Half of all Americans live within 50 miles of what?
A. Their birthplace.
Q. If you were to spell out numbers, how far would you have to go until you would find the letter "A"?
A. One thousand
Q. What do bulletproof vests, fire escapes, windshield wipers, and laser printers all have in common?
A. All invented by women.
Q. What is the only food that doesn't spoil?
A. Honey
In Shakespeare's time, mattresses were secured on bed frames by ropes. When you pulled on the ropes the mattress tightened, making the bed firmer to sleep on. Hence the phrase......... "goodnight, sleep tight."
It was the accepted practice in Babylon 4,000 years ago that for a month after the wedding, the bride's father would supply his son-in-law with all the mead he could drink. Mead is a honey beer and because their calendar was lunar based, this period was called the honey month, which we know today as the "honeymoon".
In English pubs, ale is ordered by pints and quarts... So in old England, when customers got unruly, the bartender would yell at them, "Mind your pints and quarts, and settle down."
It's where we get the phrase "mind your P's and Q's"
Many years ago in England, pub frequenters had a whistle baked into the rim, or handle, of their ceramic cups. When they needed a refill, they used the whistle to get some service. "Wet your whistle" is the phrase inspired by this practice. ~~~~AND FINALLY~~~~~~~~~~~~
At least 75% of people who read this will try to lick their elbow.
The Top 10 Craziest Science Stuff you didn't know
You can Hypnotize Chickens
A chicken can be hypnotized, or put into a trance by holding its head down against the ground, and continuously drawing a line along the ground with a stick or a finger, starting at its beak and extending straight outward in front of the chicken.
If the chicken is hypnotized in this manner, it will remain immobile for somewhere between 15 seconds to 30 minutes, continuing to stare at the line.
You can have an erection once dead
A death erection (sometimes referred to as "angel lust") is a post-mortem erection which occurs when a male individual dies vertically or face-down – the cadaver remaining in this position. During life, the pumping of blood by the heart ensures a relatively even distribution around the blood vessels of the human body. Once this mechanism has ended, only the force of gravity acts upon the blood. As with any mass, the blood settles at the lowest point of the body and causes edema or swelling to occur; the discoloration caused by this is called lividity.
Sorry, no photo for this one!
Your hand can have a life of it's own
Alien hand syndrome (or Dr. Strangelove syndrome) is an unusual neurological disorder in which one of the sufferer's hands seems to take on a life of its own.
AHS is best documented in cases where a person has had the two hemispheres of their brain surgically separated, a procedure sometimes used to relieve the symptoms of extreme cases of epilepsy. It also occurs in some cases after other brain surgery, strokes, or infections. The HAND is after you!
Don't laugh too much, it can kill you
Fatal hilarity is death as a result of laughter. In the third century B.C. the Greek philosopher Chrysippus died of laughter after seeing a donkey eating figs (hey, it wasn't THAT funny).
On 24 March 1975 Alex Mitchell, a 50-year-old bricklayer from King's Lynn, England, literally died laughing while watching an episode of The Goodies. According to his wife, who was a witness, Mitchell was unable to stop laughing whilst watching a sketch in the episode "Kung Fu Kapers" in which Tim Brooke-Taylor, dressed as a kilted Scotsman, used a set of bagpipes to defend himself from a psychopathic black pudding in a demonstration of the Scottish martial art of "Hoots-Toot-ochaye". After twenty-five minutes of continuous laughter Mitchell finally slumped on the sofa and expired from heart failure. His widow later sent the Goodies a letter thanking them for making Mitchell's final moments so pleasant.
A weapon could make you Gay
Gay bomb is an informal name for a potential non-lethal chemical weapon, which a U.S. Air Force research laboratory speculated about producing.
In one sentence of the document it was suggested that a strong aphrodisiac could be dropped on enemy troops, ideally one which would also cause "homosexual behaviour". So that's how they got Saddam!
It's true, Men can breastfeed
The phenomenon of male lactation in humans has become more common in recent years due to the use of medications that stimulate a human male's mammary glands.
Male lactation is most commonly caused by hormonal treatments given to men suffering from prostate cancer. It is also possible for males (and females) to induce lactation through constant massage and simulated 'sucking' of the nipple over a long period of time (months).
Bart Simpson's Tomacco (half tomato, half tobacco) was possible
A tomacco is originally a fictional hybrid fruit that is half tomato and half tobacco, from the 1999 episode "E-I-E-I-(Annoyed Grunt)" of The Simpsons; the method used to create the tomacco in the episode is fictional.
The tomacco became real when it was allegedly produced in 2003. Inspired by The Simpsons, Rob Baur of Lake Oswego, Oregon successfully grafted a tomato plant onto the roots of a tobacco plant, which was possible because both plants come from the same family.
It's OK to have a third nipple
A supernumerary nipple (also known as a third nipple) is an additional nipple occurring in mammals including humans. Often mistaken for moles, supernumerary nipples are diagnosed at a rate of 2% in females, less in males. The nipples appear along the two vertical "milk lines" which start in the armpit on each side, run down through the typical nipples and end at the groin. They are classified into eight levels of completeness from a simple patch of hair to a milk-bearing breast in miniature.
You can die on the Toilet
There are many toilet-related injuries and some toilet-related deaths throughout history and in urban legends.
In young boys, one of the most common causes of genital injury is when the toilet seat falls down while using the toilet.
George II of Great Britain died on the toilet on 25 October 1760 from an aortic dissection. According to Horace Walpole's memoirs, King George "rose as usual at six, and drank his chocolate; for all his actions were invariably methodic. A quarter after seven he went into a little closet. His German valet de chambre in waiting heard a noise, and running in, found the King dead on the floor."
Picking one's nose and eating it might be healthy
Mucophagy (literally mucus-eating, also referred as picking one's nose and eating it) is the consumption of the nasal mucus, boogers, and other detritus obtained from nose-picking.
Some research suggests that mucophagy may be a natural and even healthy activity, which exposes the digestive system to bacteria accumulated in the mucus, thereby helping to strengthen the immune system.
...That 10 Urban Legends About Flying That Aren't True
http://www.businessinsider.com/10-airplane-myths-debunked-2013-9
From terrifying tales about airplane bathrooms to mid-flight door-opening fears, there are a lot of myths about air travel flying around out there. Here are 10 urban legends that just aren't true.Airlines Dump Waste In-FlightApparently, so many people believe that airlines jettison sewage in-flight that the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) had to release a fact sheet titled "It Came from the Sky: Human Waste, Blue Ice, and Aviation" to dispute the myths. The sheet dispels the legend of "blue ice" (or frozen airplane toilet water, which sometimes has a blue chemical added to it), explaining that aircraft waste is stored in a holding tank until landing, that it is not possible for airplane crew to dump waste in-flight (due to the mechanics of the system), and that the most likely explanation for being hit by something blue and disgusting from the sky is that "bird migration also occurs during a time when fruit trees are ripening. As the fruit goes through a bird's digestive system it loses none of its color, which means if it was blue going in, it will be blue coming out."
Personal Electronics Make Planes CrashIf you don't turn off your cell phone before takeoff, are you dooming yourself to a fiery crash? Probably not, or we highly doubt that electronics would be allowed on planes at all. Truth is, there's no real evidence that electronics pose a safety hazard during flight--pilots are even allowed to bring iPads into the cockpit. In fact, earlier this year, the FAA revealed that it's rethinking the ban on device use. So, soon you may not have to stop reading your Kindle during takeoff and landing after all.
Recirculated Air Makes You SickDo you get sick every time you fly? It's not the recirculated air that's making you ill. The air inside the cabin is pressurized fresh air that has been filtered to remove more than 99 percent of bacteria and viruses. The more likely culprit for that virus you caught on vacation is something you touched onboard the plane--tray tables, blankets, and bathrooms are germ hotbeds.
Airplane Food Tastes BadNo one fondly reminisces about all the great airplane meals they've eaten on their travels. But is the food itself really to blame? According to a study conducted by University of Manchester researchers, it could be the loud noise from the plane's engines that makes flyers think their in-flight meals taste bad. The study found that background noise (which is constant on airplanes) can distract eaters and change their perceptions of how the food tastes.
You Can Open the Aircraft Doors In-FlightNews stories abound of disgruntled passengers attempting to pry open airplane doors during flight. No need to worry--it is physically impossible for a person to pry open an airplane door when the cabin is pressurized, because the difference in air pressure is too great.
Brace-Position Conspiracies Google "brace position" and you'll be treated to pages of results from people who believe that, in the event of a crash, it is not safer to sit in the brace position than sit normally -- and, in fact, that it's encouraged only to preserve passengers' teeth (thereby making body identification easier). Another theory is that the position is designed to break flyers' necks and kill them quickly, because it is cheaper for an airline to pay for a wrongful death settlement than injury compensation. That's just simply not true. Studies of airline crashes have shown that the brace position, when done correctly, saves lives. By placing your head on the seat in front of you, you will significantly reduce the risk of head trauma in a crash.
Autopilot (Not Pilots) Fly Planes These DaysTechnology is so advanced that the pilot can just press a button and cruise on autopilot for the entire flight, right? Not quite. Autopilot is rarely used during takeoff and landing. It's primarily used when the plane is cruising. Even then, the pilot keeps a close eye on it and makes adjustments as needed.
You Can Get Stuck to the Airplane ToiletIt's a myth that sounds so plausible even the BBC believed it: In 2002, the news agency ran a reportabout a woman who got stuck to an airplane toilet after she flushed while remaining seated. The story claimed that the flush had created a vacuum seal that trapped the passenger to the toilet and that the woman had to be freed by airport technicians after landing.
The BBC had to run a retraction after the story was proven to be just an urban legend. In fact, it's not possible for anyone to get stuck to an airplane toilet seat--the person sitting would have to create an airtight seal around the toilet (not likely), and even if that did happen, as soon as the toilet stopped flushing, the seal would be broken.
You Get Drunk More Quickly on a PlaneWe'd like to think that pricey in-flight drinks give you more bang for your buck by getting you more intoxicated, but it's not true. Studies have shown that drinkers' blood-alcohol levels aren't higher in the air than on the ground. However, both alcohol and air travel can dehydrate you, so your hangover may be worse after a few drinks in the sky than a few at the bar.
The Oxygen in Masks Gets You HighIf you prefer to get your scientific facts from Hollywood, you may believe that the oxygen in airplane masks is there to get flyers high. As Tyler Durden said in Fight Club, "You know why they put oxygen masks on planes? Oxygen gets you high. In a catastrophic emergency, you're taking giant panicked breaths. Suddenly you become euphoric, docile. You accept your fate." Of course, the truth is that oxygen masks are there so that you can breathe in the event that the cabin pressure is lost. Oxygen won't get you high--no matter what "oxygen bars" or movies try to tell you.
RANKED: The Best Airlines In America
http://www.businessinsider.com/the-best-airlines-in-america-2013-9?op=1
Did you know That 11% of people are left handed
Did you know August has the highest percentage of births
Did you know unless food is mixed with saliva you can't taste it
Did you know the average person falls asleep in 7 minutes
Did you know a bear has 42 teeth
Did you know an ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain
Did you know most lipsticks contain fish scales
Did you know no two corn flakes look the same
Did you know lemons contain more sugar than strawberries
Did you know 8% of people have an extra rib
Did you know 85% of plant life is found in the ocean
Did you know Ralph Lauren's original name was Ralph Lifshitz
Did you know rabbits like licorice
Did you know the Hawaiian alphabet has 12 letters
Did you know 'Topolino' is the name for Mickey Mouse Italy
Did you know a lobsters blood is colorless but when exposed to oxygen it turns blue
Did you know armadillos have 4 babies at a time and are all the same sex
Did you know reindeer like bananas
Did you know the longest recorded flight of a chicken was 13 seconds
Did you know birds need gravity to swallow
25 Scary Bridges
....that if you're not afraid of heights, you have a sense of adventure, and you scoff in the face of danger then you may want to check out these 25 scary bridges you'll have to see to believe:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_OIHRh6dto8
[...]
5 Most Secret Military Aircraft
Published on Feb 25, 2014
UFO? Try top secret military aircraft. These are the most mysterious military airplanes, jets and space planes flying today, including the infamous Aurora black triangle, the Boeing X-37, the new Northrop Grumman unmanned RQ-180 stealth drone, the Blackstar space bomber, and stealth Black Hawk helicopters.
These incredible black projects were developed under the watch of the US Air Force, the US Navy, the CIA, the US Army and NASA. With numerous sightings, they've been the subject of conspiracy theories and investigations for decades.
Tested in top secret locations like Area 51, evidence and footage is difficult to obtain but rumors of their existence continue to persist.
So buckle up for a look at the 5 most secret military aircraft, and don't be surprised if you encounter a bit of turbulence...http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VJ0I773sFbw
[...]
Dying Ex-CIA Worker Comes Forward About Area 51 & Aliens
Published on May 23, 2013 At an undisclosed location, with Richard Dolans. My gut feeling is this guy is telling the truth, I mean it REALLY seems like he isn't making this up. I mean come on, he's on his deathbed.http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iQH11GW7w8Q
[...]
....that the next Future Surveillance Technology is unbelievable... No One Escape (Full Documentary)http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbQeABIoO6A
Also watch these interesting Videos: Top 10 Ways to Destroy Earth | Black Holes & Sun-Earth Collision http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4bq8Fk...
Great Documentary on Jupiter and NASAs - Extraterrestrial LIFEhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vVh7mW...
Stealth - Documentary on the Stealth Aircraft http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YZtQbj...
Google building SKYNET - Full Documentary http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T7GwNl...
Next Future Terrifying Technology Will Blow Your Mind https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JbQeA...
(HD) Future Humanoid Robots -From Fiction to Reality - 2014 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=13JGG...
Upcoming Top 5 Future Smartphones 2014https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kSlHL...
(http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/c9/d2/00/c9d2008421b659742355b9250363edb6.jpg)
Did you know... ...the supersonic Concorde jet made its first trial flight on January 1st 1969
...in 1872 Yellowstone in the US was the world's first national park
...in 1900 the average life span in the US was 47
...the first credit card was a Diner's Club card issued in 1950
...the world's first roller coaster opened in 1884 at Coney Island New York
...instant mashed potatoes (dehydrated potato flakes) were invented in Canadian in 1962
...the corkscrew was invented in 1890
... the winter of 1932 was so cold that Niagara Falls froze over completely
...the typewriter was invented in 1829
...the dishwasher was invented in 1889
...the wristwatch was invented in 1904
(http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/c1/6c/2b/c16c2b0f9eac057492261692d183a0f2.jpg)
...before 1850 golf balls were made of leather and were stuffed with feathers
...Superman dates back to June 1938 (he first appeared in Action Comics No. 1)
...the first crossword puzzle appeared in 1913
...the ice cream cone was introduced in 1904
...the first city to mint its own gold coins was Florence, Italy in 1252
...the first aluminum drink can was introduced in 1964
...the first drug that was sold as a water soluble tablet was aspirin in 1900
...women were not allowed to vote in France until 1944
...the world's first paved streets were laid in Rome in 170 B.C.
...the game of Tug-of-war was an Olympic sport from 1900-1920
...John Cadbury founded the Cadbury chocolate company in England in 1842 producing the first chocolate bars
...Franklin Mars invented the Snickers Bar in 1930
...the first ground vacuum packed coffee was first introduced in 1900
...between 1931 and 1969 Walt Disney was awarded 35 Oscars
...Disneyland opened in 1955
...the 1st full length animated film was released by Disney Studios in 1937 (it was Snow White and the seven dwarfs)
(http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/cd/cb/d4/cdcbd431ca0c5636e99cddafcb87ad05.jpg)
...the hamburger was invented in 1900
...the hottest chile in the world is the habanero
...Hawaii officially became apart of the US on June 14 1900
...the dollar was established as the official currency of the US in 1785[/b]
What Do We Know About "Angels"
(http://achristianpilgrim.files.wordpress.com/2012/09/god-s-messengers-angels-8047909-1024-768.jpg)
"A tear is an intellectual thing, / And a sigh is the Sword of an Angel King."
—William Blake, "The Agony of Faith"
http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Angels
Biblical lore tells a variety of different stories about the angels that serve as God's messengers, as conduits between the mortal and the divine, and as personal guardians. There's actually an established three-tier hierarchy of angels, consisting of three different types of angels in each tier. Each has their own distinct purpose, their own role to play and, in some cases, their own strange, strange appearance. The Seraphim, the Cherubim, and the Thrones make up the first tier, the Dominions, the Virtues, and the Powers the second tier, and the Principalities, the Archangels, and the Angels in the lowest tier.
Note: The following distinctions are largely those employed and developed by members of the Catholic faith. Regardless of our beliefs, we probably all have the same mental image of the Christian angel. Beautiful, divine, with big white wings and probably surrounded by some sort of supernatural light. There's actually an entire hierarchy of angels, though, each with a different purpose.
At the top of the angelic hierarchy are the Seraphim. These six-winged angels (one pair to fly with, one pair to cover their feet, and one pair to cover their faces) are the closest to God, and burn with fire and light as suggested by their name, which is Hebrew for "flaming."
The Cherubim also hold a position in the top tier of the hierarchy, and it's these angels that are usually depicted as little, infant-like, innocent figures in Renaissance paintings. But the Biblical descriptions of the Cherubim are quite different, and different books of the Bible are at odds with each other as to what they look like. They always glow with the light of knowledge, as they're the ones that are the most enlightened of the angels and pass that knowledge on to others. Sometimes they have many, many eyes, and according to Ezechiel there are four Cherubim, each with unbending knees, brass-shod hooves, four arms, wings on each arm, and four faces: human, eagle, lion, and ox.
The Thrones are the third part of the top tier in the Hierarchy, and perhaps the most vaguely described. Occasionally they are defined as being the closest to God instead of the Seraphim, and these angels are God-bearing in function if not in name. They also act as a conduit between God and Earth, funneling divine grace to help guide mortal beings.
The middle tier is made up of the Dominions, the Virtues, and the Powers. The Dominions rank above all the other angels not in the tier above them, and guide both those divine beings they outrank and the mortal beings on Earth. The Virtues are the ones that work miracles, tell the future, heal the sick, and endow mankind with patience and the inner strength to fight earthly battles. The Powers are the angels that fight Satan and his demons, protect people who have been targeted by evil, and help them overcome temptation.
And the lowest tier in the hierarchy includes the Principalities, the Archangels, and the Angels. The Principalities are made up of a group of angels, with each one assigned to overseeing a country, nation, land, or race of people. They're essentially middle management, making sure that only worthy people are given earthly power, that they rule with God in mind ahead of themselves, and that they're guided to a peaceful reign. The Archangels are the heralds, making announcements and revealing prophecies that mankind needs to know. And the Angels are what we usually think of as guardian angels, watching over individual people who believe in God and help where it's needed.
Then, of course, there's the evil angels. The devil himself is defined as an angel that has fallen from grace, and it's said often in the New Testament that he took other angels with him when he left the grace of God. Oddly, in some Greek texts the ideas of a fallen angel and a demon are surprisingly complex. Some Greek writers describe humans as having good demons as their protectors, while it's the evil demons that being chaos and havoc to the world.
Show Me The Proof
New Advent: Angel (Catholic Encyclopedia on Angels)http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/01476d.htm
The Celestial Hierarchy of Pseudo-Dionysius the Areopagite http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pseudo-Dionysius_the_Areopagite
The Holy Angelshttp://theholyangels.wordpress.com/the-seven-before-the-throne/
The Holy Angel Of Godhttp://www.catholic.org/saints/angels/angelprayer.php
(http://mindjunks.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/11/samples.jpg)
(http://37.media.tumblr.com/e3236a8dc4223fe298e57b6f00cdb739/tumblr_naxixeItcQ1qkvbwso1_500.png)
(http://38.media.tumblr.com/6d333dd70c5db03de81fafa92cd38d95/tumblr_naxiu7bgc71qkvbwso1_500.png)
(http://37.media.tumblr.com/ba8d2c1c0aebfcd0da5844b34154a9b3/tumblr_naxirhGXgH1qkvbwso1_500.png)
ANIMAL FACTS
DID YOU KNOW...
Did you know
a bear has 42 teeth
Did you know
an ostrich's eye is bigger than it's brain
Did you know
most lipsticks contain fish scales
Did you know
rabbits like licorice
Did you know
a lobsters blood is colorless but when exposed to oxygen it turns blue
Did you know
armadillos have 4 babies at a time and are all the same sex
Did you know
reindeer like bananas
Did you know
the longest recorded flight of a chicken was 13 seconds
Did you know
birds need gravity to swallow
Did you know
a cat has 32 muscles in each ear
Did you know
goldfish can see both infrared and ultraviolet light
Did you know
cats spend 66% of their life asleep
Did you know
macadamia nuts are toxic to dogs
Did you know
spiders are arachnids and not insects
Did you know
Koalas sleep around 18 hours a day
Did you know
all insects have 6 legs
Did you know
African Grey Parrots have vocabularies of over 200 words
Did you know
a giraffe can clean its ears with its 21 inch tongue
Did you know
cats have over 100 vocal chords
Did you know
camel's milk doesn't curdle
Did you know
elephants sleep between 4 - 5 hours in 24 period
Did you know
it's possible to lead a cow up stairs but not down
Did you know
frogs can't swallow with their eyes open
Did you know
elephants are the only mammal that can't jump
Did you know
frogs don�t drink (they absorb water through their skin)
Did you know
at birth dalmations are always white
Did you know
hummingbirds are the only bird that can fly backwards
Did you know
a duck can't walk without bobbing its head
Did you know
a hummingbird's heart beats at over a 1,000 times a minute
Did you know
dragonflies have 6 legs but can't walk
Did you know
a crocodile can't move its tongue
Did you know
hippopotamuses have killed more people in Africa than any other animal
Did you know
an elephants ears are used to regulate body temperature
Did you know
bats always turn left when exiting a cave
Did you know
crocodiles never outgrow their enclosure
Did you know
reindeer hair is hollow inside like a tube
Did you know
cows don't have upper front teeth
Did you know
an octopus pupil is rectangular
Did you know
cats can't move their jaw sideways
Did you know
its physically impossible for pigs to look up at the sky
Interesting. I did know 20 of them and learned something new too. Fun!
Quote from: Diane Amberg on September 10, 2014, 10:00:58 AM
Interesting. I did know 20 of them and learned something new too. Fun!
Here's one or two more, Diane...
Animal did you knows.... Did you know a group of frogs is called an army
Did you know a group of rhinos is called a crash
Did you know a group of kangaroos is called a mob
Did you know a group of whales is called a pod
Did you know a group of geese is called a gaggle
Did you know a group of owls is called a parliament
Did you know the only animals that purr are cats
Did you know a cats urine glows under a blacklight
Did you know white cats with blue eyes are usually deaf
Did you know cats have a peripheral vision of 285 degrees
Did you know small dogs usually live longer than larger breeds
Did you know domestic cats dislike citrus scents
Did you know cats can jump up to 7 times their tail length
Did you know giraffes and rats can last longer without water than camels
Did you know your more likely to be killed by a champagne cork than by a poisonous spider
Did you know a crocodile can't stick out its tongue
Did you know ostriches don't bury their heads in sand
Did you know only female mosquitoes bite
Did you know hummingbirds can't walk
Did you know India is home to over 200 million cows
Did you know duck eggs are the largest eggs in the world
Did you know owls can't move their eyes from side to side
Did you know flamingos can bend their knees backwards
Did you know scorpions glow under ultra violet light
Did you know ants stretch when they wake up in the morning
Did you know Isaac Newton invented the cat door
Did you know more people die from falling coconuts then from shark attacks
Did you know gorillas sleep 14 hours a day
Did you know female lions complete 90% of the hunting in their herd
Did you know the lifespan of a squirrel is 9 years
Did you know the stomach acids found in a snakes stomach can digest bones and teeth but not fur or hair
Did you know a giraffe can go longer without water than a camel
Did you know there are more chickens than people
Did you know for every human there are 200 million insects
Did you know the average bed contains over 6 billion dust mites
Did you know an iguana can stay under water for 28 minutes
Did you know emus can't walk backwards
Did you know the average hen lays 228 eggs a year
Did you know more people are allergic to cows milk than any other food
Did you know more people are killed from bees than snakes
Did you know the life span of a house fly is between 10 to 25 days
Did you know a dolphins top speed is 60kmh (37mph)
Did you know the smallest dog is the Chihuahua
Did you know a sharks top speed is 70kmh (44mph)
Did you know there are 70 million sheep in New Zealand (with 4 million people)
Did you know sharks are immune to all known diseases
Did you know the worlds smallest bird is the 'bee hummingbird' found in Cuba
Did you know African elephants only have 4 teeth
Did you know 1 billion snails are served in restaurants each year
Did you know it takes 1 alligator to make a pair of shoes and 3 for a pair of boots
Did you know a flea can jump 350 times its body length
Did you know a honeybee's top speed is 24kph (15mph)
Did you know a humming bird flaps its wings up to 90 times a second (5,400 times a minute)
Did you know flys always launch backwards for a quick getaway
Did you know horses have 18 more bones than humans
Did you know a cheetahs top speed is 114kph (70mph)
Did you know horses sleep standing up
Did you know a jellyfish is 95% water
Did you know bats are the only mammals that fly
Did you know a cat uses its whiskers to determine if a space is too small to squeeze through
Did you know a snail can sleep for 3 years
Did you know tigers have striped skin as well as fur
Did you know crocodiles are colour blind
Did you know a chameleons tongue is twice the length of its body
Did you know dogs sweat through the pads on their feet
Did you know hippopotamuses are born under water
Did you know whales can't swim backwards
Did you know camels are born without humps
Did you know only female mosquitoes bite
Did you know the average porcupine has 30,000 spikes
Did you know tarantula spiders can survive 2 and a half years without food
Did you know crocodiles are responsible for over a 1,000 deaths each year by the Banks of the Nile river
Did you know there are more insects in the world than all other animals combined
Did you know giraffes can't swim
Did you know crocodiles swallow rocks to help them dive deeper
Did you know an elephant's trunk can hold over 5 litres of water
Did you know bull's can run faster uphill than down
Did you know a shark's teeth are literally as hard as steel
Did you know a moth has no stomach
Did you know grasshoppers have white blood
Did you know it takes 4 hours to hardboil an ostrich egg
Did you know you have fewer muscles than a caterpillar
Did you know giraffes have no vocal cords
Did you know most birds eat twice their body weight each day
Did you know a group of whales is called a pod
Did you know Kiwi birds are blind
Did you know armadillos can walk underwater
Did you know the bones of a pigeon weigh less than its feathers
Did you know the cheetah is the only cat that can't retract it's claws
Did you know roosters can't crow if they can't fully extend their necks
Did you know dolphins can hear underwater sounds from 24km (15miles) away
Did you know flamingos can only eat when their heada are upside down
Did you know the fingerprints of koala bear are indistinguishable to that of a human
Did you know a female ferret is called a jill
Did you know porcupines float in water
Did you know there are 2 chickens for every person
Did you know there are a million ants for every person on Earth
Did you know coconuts kill over 150 people each year (more than sharks)
Did you know emus can't walk backwards
Did you know 'Babe' was played by over 50 pigs
Did you know giraffes has the highest blood pressure of any animal
Did you know India has over 50 million monkeys
Did you know ostriches have a 14 meter (46 foot) long small intestine
Did you know your foot is the most common body part bitten by insects
Did you know Japan is the largest exporter of frog legs
Did you know a squid has 10 tentacles
Did you know you're more likely to get stung by a bee on a windy day than any other
Did you know more people are killed by hippopotamuses then by lions, elephants and water buffalos combined
Did you know a woodpeckers tongue can wrap around its head twice
Did you know snakes can't blink
Did you know ants don�t like baby powder (talcum powder)
Did you know a rat can tread water for 3 days
Did you know dolphins can kills sharks by ramming them with their snout
Did you know sharks can sense a drop of blood from 4km (2.5miles) away
Did you know bottle nosed whales can dive to a depth of 915 metres (3,000feet) in 2 minutes
Did you know flamingoes can live up to 80 years
Did you know the only continent without reptiles or snakes is Antarctica
Did you know Australia has the largest sheep population
Did you know greyhounds can reach speeds of up to 67kph (42mph)
Did you know you can tell the sex of a horse by its teeth (most males have 40, females 36)
Did you know sharks never stop moving even when they sleep or rest
Did you know greyhounds can see better than any other dog breed
Did you know when 2 zebras stand side by side they usually face each other in opposite directions to keep an eye out for predators
Did you know most cows produce more milk when they listen to music
Did you know elephants communicate in sound waves below the frequency that humans can hear
Did you know giant tortoises can live in captivity longer than any other animal
Did you know snakes can't bite in rivers or swamps (they would drown otherwise)
Did you know a blue whale can go up to 6 months without eating
Did you know pelicans consume around a 1/3 of its body weight in a single meal
Did you know gorillas can't swim
Did you know house cats have 18 claws
Did you know giraffes can't cough
Did you know the Giant Pacific Octopus can squeeze its entire body through a hole the size of its beak
Did you know deers don't like hay
Did you know shrimps are all born male but slowly grow into females
Did you know the average elephant produces 22kg (50 pounds) of dunn each day
Did you know there are more than 50 different kinds of kangaroos
Did you know the average lifespan of a squirrel is 9 years
Did you know a platypus can eat its weight in worms every day
Did you know spiders have transparent blood
Did you know mosquitoes prefer children to adults and blondes to brunettes
Did you know only 4 out of 20,000 species of bees produce honey
Did you know March 14 is 'save a spider day'
Did you know there are over 4,300 known species of ladybugs
Did you know a fly's recation time is 30 milliseconds
Did you know butterflies taste with their back feet
Did you know moths have no stomach
Did you know bees and house flies flap their wings 200 times a second
Did you know bees have 4 wings
Did you know 60 cows can produce a ton of milk each day
Did you know police dogs are trained to respond to commands in foreign languages (usually German or Hungarian)
Did you know jellyfish don't have a brain
Did you know ferrets sleep between 18 - 20 hours a day
Did you know a group of foxes is called a skulk
Did you know a hippopotamus can run faster than a man
Did you know a King Cobra is the biggest of all poisonous snakes and can grow to over 4 metres (13 feet) long
Did you know lions in the wild usually makes no more than 20 kills a year
Did you know a male baboon can kill a leopard
Did you know rhinoceros have 3 toes on each foot
Did you know a shrimp has 5 pairs of legs
Did you know elephants can run up to 40kmh (25mph)
Did you know baby rattlesnakes are born in August and September
Did you know most snakes have 1 lung
Did you know camels have 3 eyelids to protect themselves from blowing sand
Did you know the night vision of tigers is 6 times better than humans
Did you know flamingoes can live up to 80 years old
Did you know in Africa more people are killed by crocodiles than lions
Did you know most dinosaurs lived to be more than 100 years old
Did you know out of the 250+ known species of shark only 18 are known to be dangerous to man
Did you know an ostriches can outrun a horse
Did you know ostriches can live up to 75 years old
Did you know sheep won't drink from running water
Did you know squirrels can climb trees faster than they can run on the ground
Did you know wild cobras can live up to 20 years old
Did you know the average cow produces 40 glasses of milk a day
Did you know a blue whale can weigh as much as 30 elephants and as long as 3 large tour buses
Did you know the greyhound is the fastest dog and can reach speeds of up to 72kph (45mph)
Did you know the fastest fish in the sea is the swordfish and can reach up to speeds of 108kph (68mph, 59knots)
Did you know female condors lays a single egg once every 2 years
Did you know hippopotamuses have skin 3.8cm (1.5in) thick
Did you know an arrow frog has enough poison to kill over 2,200 people
Did you know whales have the slowest metabolism of all animals
Did you know penguins are only found in the southern hemisphere primarily in Antarctica (excluding zoos above the equator)
Did you know toads only eat moving prey
Did you know when born a baby giraffe is 1.8m (6ft) tall
Did you know a bear in hibernation loses up to 25% of its body weight
Did you know pandas spend 12 hours a day eating bamboo
Did you know crocodiles continually grow new sets of teeth to replace old ones
Did you know the skeleton of an African elephant accounts for about 15% of its body weight
Did you know there are over 1,600 known species of starfishes
Did you know there are over 320 species of parrots
Did you know there are over 40,000 muscles tendons in an elephant's trunk
Did you know there are over 690 known species of bats
Did you know there are over 130 species of owl
Did you know a garfish has green bones
Did you know a camel can shut its nostrils during a desert sandstorm
Did you know a cat can keep purring while inhaling and exhaling
Did you know a fox litter is 10 to 15 pups
Did you know the spikes of a newborn hedgehog begin to appear within 24 hours
Did you know camels can drink 94 litres (25 gallons) of water in less than 3 minutes
Did you know you can smell a skunk 1.6km (1 mile) away
Did you know chicken drumsticks contain the least amount of meat on a chicken
Did you know more people are allergic to cows milk than any other food
Did you know a bumble bee flaps its wings at 160 times a second
Did you know a dragonfly can fly at 40kph (25mph)
Did you know flies can react to an object it sees and change direction in less than 30 milliseconds
Did you know a queen bee can lay up to 3,000 eggs in one day
Did you know ants can lift 50 times their own weight
Did you know bees can see ultraviolet light
Did you know 80% of the world's food crops are pollinated by insects
Did you know 10% of with world's food supply is consumed by insects
Did you know it takes 110 silkworm cocoons to make an average tie
Did you know queen termites can live up to 50 years
Did you know most spiders have transparent blood
Did you know caterpillars have over 2,000 muscles
Did you know the fastest insect is the Australian dragon fly (its top speed is 57 km/h (35mp/h))
Did you know honey bees kill more people each year than snakes
Did you know there are over 100,000 different species of butterflies
Did you know there are over 80,000 different species of ants
Did you know it takes 5 years for an oyster to produce a medium sized pearl
Did you know moths have white blood
Did you know dolphin's can detect underwater sounds from 24 km (15 miles) away
Did you know dinosaurs lived on Earth for over 165 million years before they became extinct
Did you know jellyfish have been on Earth for over 650 million years
Did you know only pregnant females polar bears hibernate
Did you know polar bears are strictly carnivores
Did you know some dinosaurs had tails over 13m (45 feet) long
Did you know the average age of a polar bear in the wild is 17 years
Did you know the tallest mammal is the giraffe
Did you know warthogs can reach speeds of 48km/h (29mph)
Did you know warthogs live for 15 years
Did you know when baby polar bear cubs are born they cannot see or hear for their first month
Did you know less than 20% of shark attacks are fatal
Did you know chameleons can move their eyes in two directions at the same time
Did you know a chameleon's tongue is twice as long as its body
Did you know a newborn kangaroo is about 1 inch in tall
Did you know a woodpecker can peck 20 times a second
Did you know catfish have over 100,000 taste buds
Did you know it takes 40 minutes to hard boil an ostrich egg
Did you know the world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat of Thailand
Did you know mosquitoes dislike citronella because it irritates their feet
Did you know mosquitoes prefer children to adults and blondes to brunettes
Did you know no two spider webs are the same
Did you know there are over 900,000 known species of insects
Did you know worker ants may live for 7 years and the queen up to 15
Did you know the study of insects is called entomology
Did you know the average life span of a mosquito is 2 weeks
Did you know there are over 900 species of bats
Did you know after bananas a zoo gorilla's favorite food is celery
Did you know the African Rock Python can survive 2 years without eating
Did you know ostrich meat is the leanest of all red meats
Did you know gatophobia is the fear of cats
Did you know helminthophobia is the fear of worms
Did you know herpetophobia is the fear of reptiles
Did you know hippophobia is the fear of horses
Did you know ichthyophobia is the fear of fish
Did you know melissophobia is the fear of bees
Did you know myrmecophobia is the fear of ants
Did you know ornithophobia is the fear of birds
Did you know zoophobia is the fear of animals
Did you know a lions feed once every 3 to 4 days
Did you know lion's can't roar until the age of 2
Did you know all owls lay white eggs
Did you know all snakes are carnivorous
Did you know the tentacles of the giant arctic jellyfish can reach 36.6 meters (120 feet)
Did you know cheetahs can accelerate from 0 to 70 km/h (43mp/h) in 3 seconds
Did you know the oldest cockroach fossils are over 280 million years old
WHEW..... I THINK I HURT MYSELF!
whew ,what a bunch. I knew a good handful.There is at least one there twice and I think the ostrich would be insulted at the duck egg.HA! I used to use these a lot in the classroom. Fun and kept the kids on their toes...love this kind of thing! By the way, a group of geese in the air is called a skein. Did you know that,while not common,human fraternal twins can have different fathers?
(http://www.snopes.com/graphics/header/snopes_02.gif)
Did You Know This? IRAQ!
Claim: Messages chronicle U.S. accomplishments in rebuilding Iraq since the end of major combat.
Status: Multiple.
Examples: [Collected on the Internet, 2003] Since President Bush declared an end to major combat on May 1... .. the first battalion of the new Iraqi Army has graduated and is on active duty.
.. over 60,000 Iraqis now provide security to their fellow citizens.
.. nearly all of Iraq's 400 courts are functioning.
.. the Iraqi judiciary is fully independent.
.. on Monday, October 6 power generation hit 4,518 megawatts - exceeding the prewar average.
.. all 22 universities and 43 technical institutes and colleges are open, as are nearly all primary and secondary schools.
.. by October 1, Coalition forces had rehab-ed over 1,500 schools - 500 more than scheduled.
.. teachers earn from 12 to 25 times their former salaries.
.. all 240 hospitals and more than 1200 clinics are open.
.. doctors salaries are at least eight times what they were under Saddam.
.. pharmaceutical distribution has gone from essentially nothing to 700 tons in May to a current total of 12,000 tons.
.. the Coalition has helped administer over 22 million vaccination doses to Iraq's children.
.. a Coalition program has cleared over 14,000 kilometers of Iraq's 27,000 kilometers of weed-choked canals which now irrigate tens of thousands of farms. This project has created jobs for more than 100,000 Iraqi men and women.
.. we have restored over three-quarters of prewar telephone services and over two-thirds of the potable water production.
.. there are 4,900 full-service telephone connections. We expect 50,000 by year-end.
.. the wheels of commerce are turning. From bicycles to satellite dishes to cars and trucks, businesses are coming to life in all major cities and towns.
.. 95 percent of all prewar bank customers have service and first-time customers are opening accounts daily.
.. Iraqi banks are making loans to finance businesses.
.. the central bank is fully independent.
.. Iraq has one of the worlds most growth-oriented investment and banking laws.
.. Iraq has a single, unified currency for the first time in 15 years.
.. satellite TV dishes are legal.
.. foreign journalists aren't on 10-day visas paying mandatory and extortionate fees to the Ministry of Information for minders and other government spies.
.. there is no Ministry of Information.
.. there are more than 170 newspapers.
.. you can buy satellite dishes on what seems like every street corner.
.. foreign journalists (and everyone else) are free to come and go.
.. a nation that had not one single element - legislative, judicial or executive - of a representative government, now does.
... in Baghdad alone residents have selected 88 advisory councils. Baghdad's first democratic transfer of power in 35 years happened when the city council elected its new chairman.
.. today in Iraq chambers of commerce, business, school and professional organizations are electing their leaders all over the country.
.. 25 ministers, selected by the most representative governing body in Iraq's history, run the day-to-day business of government.
.. the Iraqi government regularly participates in international events. Since July the Iraqi government has been represented in over two dozen international meetings, including those of the UN General Assembly, the Arab League, the World Bank and IMF and, today, the Islamic Conference Summit. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs today announced that it is reopening over 30 Iraqi embassies around the world.
.. Shia religious festivals that were all but banned, aren't.
.. for the first time in 35 years, in Karbala thousands of Shiites celebrate the pilgrimage of the 12th Imam.
.. the Coalition has completed over 13,000 reconstruction projects, large and small, as part of a strategic plan for the reconstruction of Iraq.
.. Uday and Queasy are dead - and no longer feeding innocent Iraqis to the zoo lions, raping the young daughters of local leaders to force cooperation, torturing Iraq's soccer players for losing games, or murdering critics.
.. children aren't imprisoned or murdered when their parents disagree with the government.
.. political opponents aren't imprisoned, tortured, executed, maimed, or are forced to watch their families die for disagreeing with Saddam.
.. millions of longsuffering Iraqis no longer live in perpetual terror.
.. Saudis will hold municipal elections.
.. Qatar is reforming education to give more choices to parents.
.. Jordan is accelerating market economic reforms.
.. the Nobel Peace Prize was awarded for the first time to an Iranian — a Muslim woman who speaks out with courage for human rights, for democracy and for peace.
.. Saddam is gone.
.. Iraq is free.
.. President Bush has not faltered or failed.
.. Yet, little or none of this information has been published by the Press corps that prides itself on bring you all the news that's important.
Iraq under US lead control has come further in six months than Germany did in seven years or Japan did in nine years following WWII. Military deaths from fanatic Nazi's, and Japanese numbered in the thousands and continued for over three years after WWII victory was declared.
It took the US over four months to clear away the twin tower debris, let alone attempt to build something else in its place.
Now, take into account that almost every Democrat leader in the House and Senate has fought President Bush on every aspect of his handling of this country's war and the post-war reconstruction; and that they continue to claim on a daily basis on national TV that this conflict has been a failure.
Taking everything into consideration, even the unfortunate loss of our sons and daughters in this conflict, do you think anyone else in the world could have accomplished as much as the United States and the Bush administration in so short a period of time?
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Collected on the Internet, 2005] DID YOU KNOW THIS? Did you know that 47 countries have re-established their embassies in Iraq?
Did you know that the Iraqi government employs 1.2 million Iraqi people?
Did you know that 3100 schools have been renovated, 364 schools are under rehabilitation, 263 schools are now under construction and 38 new schools have been built in Iraq?
Did you know that Iraq's higher educational structure consists of 20 Universities, 46 Institutes<.NOBR> or colleges and 4 research centers?
Did you know that 25 Iraq students departed for the United States in January 2004 for the re-established Fulbright program?
Did you know that the Iraqi Navy is operational? They have five 100-foot patrol craft, 34 smaller vessels and a navel infantry regiment.
Did you know that Iraq's Air Force consists of three operation squadrons, 9 reconnaissance and 3 US C-130 transport aircraft which operate day and night, and will soon add 16 UH-1 helicopters and 4 bell jet rangers?
Did you know that Iraq has a counter-terrorist unit and a Commando Battalion?
Did you know that the Iraqi Police Service has over 55,000 fully trained and equipped police officers?
Did you know that there are 5 Police Academies in Iraq that produce over 3500 new officers each 8 weeks?
Did you know there are more than 1100 building projects going on in Iraq? They include 364 schools, 67 public clinics, 15 hospitals, 83 railroad stations, 22 oil facilities, 93 water facilities and 69 electrical facilities.
Did you know that 96% of Iraqi children under the age of 5 have received the first 2 series of polio vaccinations?
Did you know that 4.3 million Iraqi children were enrolled in primary school by mid October?
Did you know that there are 1,192,000 cell phone subscribers in Iraq and phone use has gone up 158%?
Did you know that Iraq has an independent media that consist of 75 radio stations, 180 newspapers and 10 television stations?
Did you know that the Baghdad Stock Exchange opened in June of 2004?
Did you know that 2 candidates in the Iraqi presidential election had a recent televised debate recently?
OF COURSE WE DIDN'T KNOW! WHY DIDN'T WE KNOW? OUR MEDIA WOULDN'T TELL US! Because a Bush-hating media and Democratic Party would rather see the world blow up than lose their power.
Instead of shouting these accomplishments from every rooftop, they would rather show photos of what a few perverted malcontent soldiers have done in prisons in many cases never disclosing the circumstances surrounding the events.
Instead of showing our love for our country, we get photos of flag burning incidents at Abu Ghraib and people throwing snowballs at presidential motorcades.
The lack of accentuating the positive in Iraq serves only one purpose. It undermines the world's perception of the United States and our soldiers.
I AM ASHAMED OF MY FELLOW AMERICANS WHO WOULD RATHER SEE TERRORISM SUCCEED THAN A REPUBLICAN PRESIDENT. Origins: Variations of these items chronicling U.S. accomplishments in rebuilding Iraq have been circulating since mid-2003 and have been forwarded under so many different names (most of them U.S. military personnel serving in Iraq) that it's difficult to determine who the original author was. The earliest known antecedent appears to be a Coalition Provisional Authority briefing given by L. Paul Bremer, the U.S. Presidential Envoy to Iraq (the highest-ranking U.S. civilian official in Iraq) on 9 October 2003. Some of the accomplishments cited in this piece were echoed in an 8 December 2003 Forbes magazine article by Caspar W. Weinberger, who served as Secretary of Defense during the Reagan
administration.
There is a valid point underlying the theme of these messages, that the media tends to report (and the public tends to follow) stories having to do with disaster, tragedy and misfortune far more than stories about good deeds and good works. That has always been the nature of news reporting, however; it's not a new development fostered by the "Bush-hating media." (As one editorial writer put it in a commentary on this phenomenon, "Reporters don't report buildings that don't burn.")
These types of items are generally impossible to categorize with a single truth value because they typically contain a mixture of fact, opinion, subjective statements, inaccuracies, and literally true but often misleading claims. An Iraqi citizen whose response to the earlier piece quoted above was published on the Voices in the Wilderness web site chronicled some of the differences he saw between the claims the pieces offered and his viewpoint as an Iraqi.
Last updated: 21 February 2005
Your Body Is Many Different Ages
(http://i0.wp.com/knowledgenuts.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/08/476093875.jpg?zoom=1.5&resize=1024%2C537)
"I still think of myself as I was 25 years ago. Then I look in a mirror and see an old bastard and I realize it's me." ....Warph
In A Nutshell
How old are you? Whatever you answered, you'll be glad to know that you're not 100 percent correct. Researchers have now developed an algorithm that examines the amount of patterning and chemical buildup in DNA, allowing them to get a look at just how old the different tissues in our bodies actually are. For example, if you're female, your breast tissue is about three years older than the rest of you.The Whole Bushel
(http://images.sciencedaily.com/2013/10/131020203006-large.jpg)
Our age is probably one of the first things we're asked, along with our names and whether or not we'd like to pet the puppy. We're taught to count our age first on our fingers, then in terms of when we can enlist, when we can drive or vote and, perhaps most importantly, when we can legally drink. Most of us are less proud of it as we get older, but it turns out that that number we're taught to recite and the years we've been on this Earth have very, very little in common with the actual age of our body.
This isn't one of those, "Fill in the answers and see how old you really are," types of questions, either; those are based on the idea of the wear and tear we inflict on our bodies with our hobbies and habits. It turns out that the answer to how old we really are is a lot more complicated than that, and it actually has a lot of different answers—to processes that our body does naturally.
It turns out that different parts of our body age at vastly different rates; it's something we might have been suspecting for a long time but science has now proven is true.
Researchers from the University at California have isolated a way to determine just how fast different parts of your body are aging. It involves looking at a person's DNA, and isolating something called methylation patterns. Different types of tissues have different patterns, and these patterns become more and more "methylated" (that is, show a change in the amount of chemical groupings in them) as they age. This allows scientists to determine the actual age of a particular tissue.
Oddly enough, one of the fastest-aging tissues in the human body is female breast tissue. Samples of this tissue taken and viewed through the lens of this methylation pattering method—also called epigenetics—shows that breast tissues appear to be about three years older than the body's actual age. It's thought that this premature aging might be one reason that breast cancer is so prevalent, as cancer cells also show pretty drastic premature aging.
In those cases, cells are up to 36 years older than the rest of the body.
It's not all doom and gloom, though, and researchers also found that there are some tissues that are younger than your numerical age. Heart cells, which are constantly replenished by the presence of stem cells, can be tested as several years younger than you proudly declare yourself to be on each birthday.
The method had been proven extremely accurate across a number of different tissues, such as tissues from the heart, liver, lungs, colon, and even the blood. (Blood cells have different life expectancies, with some lymph cells living for years.)
The discovery has some interesting potential applications, including accelerating the study of aging and age-related diseases. Scientists will be able to pinpoint if the problems a person is suffering in conjunction with aging are impacting the whole body, or only a certain element. It's thought the method may even be able to predict different types of cancers by detecting cells in the body that are aging at an accelerated rate.
The scientists responsible for the discovery have released their algorithm to the public in the hopes that it will help other researchers in their work against age-related illness. Show Me The Proof:ScienceDaily - Scientist uncovers internal clock able to measure age of most human tissues: http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2013/10/131020203006.htm
Genome Biology - DNA methylation age of human tissues and
cell types: http://genomebiology.com/2013/14/10/R115
...that you will watch this Video over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over and over again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and again and...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LibjrXnHVvw
Soooooo..... I'm thinking >>>PHOTOSHOP<<<
No one could do this without winding up in a body cast for the next 5 years or eternally pushing up daisies. So I went to Snopes.Snopes:Megawoosh
(http://www.snopes.com/photos/advertisements/graphics/splash.jpg)
Claim: Vid
eo clip shows a man shooting down a waterslide, flying off a ramp, and landing in a small wading pool. FALSEExample: [Collected via e-mail, August 2009]
A lot of people are emailing this video to me and I just can't believe that it is real but i can not find any information. Is there any chance this is real? Origins: This video clip of a man (engineer Bruno Kammerl) in a neoprene suit shooting down a waterslide, flying off a ramp, traveling an amazingly long distance, and landing smack in the middle of a tiny wading pool hit the Internet in August 2009. It's not a recording of a real event, but rather a viral advertisement for Microsoft Germany accomplished through a combination of video editing techniques, as explained at NewTeeVee.com:
It's a case of creative compositing, meaning that the clip we get to see is based on multiple elements that were combined together to create a final video. A stuntman slides down the slide, secured by a rope. Then there's a body flying through the air, which is animated. And finally, the big splash. "He actually jumped from a wooden ramp into the pool," explained [Maik] Koenigs. Of course, you don't get to see any of this in the final clip, thanks to careful editing that makes it look like a single take.
A clip from a portion of the shoot shows a stuntman going partway down the slide for the initial segment of the video:
Read more at http://www.snopes.com/photos/advertisements/megawoosh.asp#QWjjDre2M2bOdchu.99
World's 15 Most Intelligent Animals
VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VmCc40RmQKs
....that's, Blue Flames Volcano in Kawah Ijen (East Java, Indonesia)... not ice nor lava... that is pure sulphur,
when it hits the air it turns blue:
(http://media-cache-ec0.pinimg.com/736x/cb/5e/de/cb5ede12dc6b940fc98426d8b07a01e5.jpg)
(http://www.natureisawesome.net/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/k01_00000077.jpg)
(http://i1.ytimg.com/vi/dRGYiRUZNK8/maxresdefault.jpg)
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/35/Kawah_Ijen_-East_Java_-Indonesia_-sulphur-31July2009-b.jpg)
Acid Lake in Kawah Ijen
(http://3.bp.blogspot.com/-lCz23LtGapY/TiizORNtsnI/AAAAAAAACBw/YRM4qEucWf8/s1600/Kawah+Ijen.jpg)
(http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ac/Kawah_Ijen_-East_Java_-Indonesia_-sulphur-31July2009.jpg)
Why does a borax bead test come to mind? Ha! Great photos.Thanks.
Franz Josef Glacier in New Zealand
(Click on map):
(http://images.mapsofworld.com/travel/2014/10/Franz-Josef-GlacierNew-Zealand-Map.jpg)
http://www.bing.com/images/search?q=Franz+Josef+Glacier+in+New+Zealand&form=hphot1#view=detail&id=144689F16FFA1C0E7846E590908CA0066C785E38&selectedIndex=0
(http://media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/originals/31/b9/4f/31b94ff7983c66d738bc095a2568183e.jpg)
(http://wanderingjustin.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/01/franz-josef-glacier-1.jpg)
(http://www.heelsandwheelsonline.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/01/franz-josef-glacier.jpg)
(https://farm3.staticflickr.com/2363/2214619922_16958bfd0e_z.jpg)
(http://lodgings.co.nz/product/img/fields/35783_original_size_WestCoast_12Nov2013_FranzJosefGlacier_L167_A3_GarethEyres_Gallery.jpg)
[...]
Bird Intelligence: The New Zealand Kea
(http://www.rainforestretreat.co.nz/assets/Uploads/hpbg3.jpg)
(http://ts4.mm.bing.net/th?id=VN.608050555109378279&pid=15.1)
The Kea (Nestor notabilis) is one clever parrot. Its curiosity and intelligence is important to its survival in the blustery winter environment on the Franz Josef Glacier in New ZealandVIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NpF1HKsrA28
Kea destroying police car VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fBdvRCkCNfo
Kea and Red Bull VIDEO: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CdXUTas4S6I
Hey,that Kea cheated. It watched her set up the puzzle so it knew how it worked.HA! Fun stuff!
How great are these pic's of these black-webbed tree frogs.
(http://i.telegraph.co.uk/multimedia/archive/03180/potd-smiling-frogs_3180853k.jpg)
(http://pix.avaxnews.com/avaxnews/47/ef/0001ef47_medium.jpeg)
(http://pix.avaxnews.com/avaxnews/4d/ef/0001ef4d_medium.jpeg)
(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/01/29/25298D2F00000578-0-image-a-13_1422544480621.jpg)
I've named them, Wilma1, Wilma2, and Wilma3.
(http://i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2015/02/24/26079FAD00000578-0-image-a-55_1424790558307.jpg)
And here is Jarhead and Diane discussing Al Gore's latest global warming news about how frogs will inherit the world in 2025... cute couple.
;D ;D ;D ;D 8)
NAIL IN THE FENCE
There once was a little boy who had a bad temper. His Father gave him a bag of nails and told him that every time he lost his temper, he must hammer a nail into the back of the fence.
The first day the boy had driven 37 nails into the fence. Over the next few weeks, as he learned to control anger, the number of nails hammered daily gradually dwindled down. He
discovered it was easier to hold his temper than to drive those nails into the fence.
Finally the day came when the boy didn't lose his temper at all. He told his father about it and the father suggested that the boy now pull out one nail for each day that he was able to hold his temper.
The days passed and the young boy was finally able to tell his father that all the nails were gone. The father took his son by the hand and led him to the fence. He said, "You have done well, my son, but look at the holes in the fence. The fence will never be the same. When you say things in anger, they leave a scar just like this one. You can put a knife in a man and draw it out. It won't matter how many times you say I'm sorry, the wound is still there."
A verbal wound is as bad as a physical one. Friends are very rare jewels, indeed. They make you smile and encourage you to succeed. They lend an ear, they share words of praise and they always want to open their hearts to us.
Please forgive me if I have ever left a hole in your fence.