tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-91200040451206673902024-03-05T01:25:25.284-08:00Oblate Spheroid... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.comBlogger126125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-979981302064000962018-03-31T07:04:00.002-07:002018-03-31T07:22:53.783-07:00Oblate Spheroid? - Got A Flat Earth Explanation Right Here Via Aqua-Optics<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUWGYFVT8NfDycBf1YoCv-Df34cfHJLzTb1dWk83-MvLdq2yF5Eq8ItVT9dLccAI9WxvoYup-iOU3D3K8vkZ42Y1Ad8uvhyx65XMzomEHkt6siYAgkN1G8pfeEwZkgq7H8Lq3K-MZQPcwB/s1600/flat-earth-theory_Fotor.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="552" data-original-width="800" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhUWGYFVT8NfDycBf1YoCv-Df34cfHJLzTb1dWk83-MvLdq2yF5Eq8ItVT9dLccAI9WxvoYup-iOU3D3K8vkZ42Y1Ad8uvhyx65XMzomEHkt6siYAgkN1G8pfeEwZkgq7H8Lq3K-MZQPcwB/s400/flat-earth-theory_Fotor.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Flat Earth ... it's still a thing. Image Credit: Gizmodo Australia</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b>Oblate Spheroid? - Got A Flat Earth Explanation Right Here Via Aqua-Optics</b>
<br />
<br />
The Earth isn't flat, or so we are told.<br />
<br />
We have gone through many explanations on what the shape of the Earth actually is.<br />
<br />
First, we were told the Earth is flat and that the water just simply dropped off of the edge into space. We all knew there were many problems with this explanation because it never dealt with the issue of the continued volume of water ... save for a recirculating pump that had not been yet invented.<br />
<br />
Second, we were told the the Earth was spherical as in a basketball. Equal roundness from all sides. This explanation was bolstered through the exploits of explorers, <a href="https://www.history.com/news/10-things-you-may-not-know-about-christopher-columbus" target="_blank">Italy's Columbus, backed by Spanish money</a>, being the chief among them in the search for a faster way to trade in India and China.<br />
<br />
Last, satellites confirm that the actual shape of the Earth is more of that like someone sitting on a beach ball where the top to the bottom are closer to each other than from side to side. The technical name for this shape is Oblate Spheroid where it actually places that point that is closest to the heavens and stars as <a href="http://oblate-spheroid.blogspot.com/2007/03/oddball-earth.html" target="_blank">being around the Equator</a> as opposed to being the recognized tallest mountain in the world, Mt. Everest.<br />
<br />
This video has another idea ...<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allow="autoplay; encrypted-media" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/78OyHkGh04o" width="560"></iframe></div>
<br />
So, the Earth may be flat and that we are all suffering a case of optical illusion. It's an oddball planet we all are passengers on, especially when humans attempt to distort provable reality through entertaining narratives.<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;">[ht: <a href="https://www.facebook.com/JustinofAmerica/posts/10213483593595775" target="_blank">Justin Nuyens</a>]</span><br />
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<br />
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<i><b>TAGS: </b>Earth, Edmund Jenks, Mount Chimborazo, Oblate Spheroid, Tallest Point, Flat Earth, Water Distortion</i>... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-87387723001004685902016-06-20T12:42:00.000-07:002016-06-20T12:46:14.033-07:00Olli - Olly Oxen Free Autonomy Hits The Streets<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI-5UTuV9F-m2_nzMvUhQX-acKepqf29Alaav7Na24hsC0Na6cHFl2FWoXIZMpdinZSYSmOhi2r5M3FwdlG6vjEXLneoM-6MX7yGg4N0Bg8GudA6uVDum_kGl2gN6U1uMyVnte-pY_nZc/s1600/Capture+-+EcoSystem+-+Local+Motors+-+800px.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="186" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhI-5UTuV9F-m2_nzMvUhQX-acKepqf29Alaav7Na24hsC0Na6cHFl2FWoXIZMpdinZSYSmOhi2r5M3FwdlG6vjEXLneoM-6MX7yGg4N0Bg8GudA6uVDum_kGl2gN6U1uMyVnte-pY_nZc/s400/Capture+-+EcoSystem+-+Local+Motors+-+800px.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: medium; text-align: start;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">I'm symbolic. Image Credit: Local Motors (2016)</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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<b>Olli - Olly Oxen Free Autonomy Hits The Streets</b><br />
<br />
Local Motors, in partnership with computer giant IBM through Watson, introduces an organic small group/mass autonomous transportation solution perfect for most any community.<br />
<br />
No oxen were used in this creation - Actually, "Olly Olly Oxen Free" is a catchphrase used in such children's games as hide and seek, capture the flag, or kick the can to indicate that players who are hiding can come out into the open without losing the game, that the position of the sides in a game has changed, or, alternatively, that the game is entirely over (ht: <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Olly_olly_oxen_free" target="_blank">Wikipedia</a>).<br />
<br />
In this case the Olli is the name given to a driverless/autonomous vehicle that seats 12 people which through its computer partner, <a href="https://www.ibm.com/blogs/think/2016/06/16/ibm-olli/" target="_blank">IBM's Watson</a>, can interact with passengers and navigate the streets and deliver the people riding inside to their destination.<br />
<br />
The game of driverless/autonomous vehicles has changed with the Olli concept because this application does not currently partner with a software services company like Google or Yahoo that are focused on individual transportation pods thus removing any pursuit of happiness from the process of actual driving.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="236" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/K564rXrlZbc" width="420"></iframe></div>
<br />
<b>This excerpted and edited from Electric Cars Report -</b><br />
<b><br /></b>
<b><i>Local Motors Debuts First Self-driving Vehicle to Tap the Power of IBM Watson IoT</i></b><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Local Motors, the creator of the world’s first 3D-printed cars, today introduced the first self-driving vehicle to integrate the advanced cognitive computing capabilities of IBM Watson.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The vehicle, dubbed ‘Olli,’ was unveiled during the grand opening of a new Local Motors facility in National Harbor, MD, and transported Local Motors CEO and co-founder John B. Rogers, Jr. along with vehicle designer Edgar Sarmiento from the Local Motors co-creation community into the new facility.</i><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuKHmBdvvRU0fYa3i1moUmTmKaCtbFUQ76Xz0lBxTNiGGY5zrhcVVwkc9Fce6Yh5HRGAvbAOvcU1hPLmyZhJZ1PYKTNOkeHuPShYtGCGL3DoHQKSP3sojaGcx9_PR4mVtrvg36AN91Yxw/s1600/olli+-+exterior+-+Local+Motors+-+800px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjuKHmBdvvRU0fYa3i1moUmTmKaCtbFUQ76Xz0lBxTNiGGY5zrhcVVwkc9Fce6Yh5HRGAvbAOvcU1hPLmyZhJZ1PYKTNOkeHuPShYtGCGL3DoHQKSP3sojaGcx9_PR4mVtrvg36AN91Yxw/s400/olli+-+exterior+-+Local+Motors+-+800px.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Olli exterior. Image Credit: Local Motors (2016)</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i><br /></i>
<i>The electric vehicle, which can carry up to 12 people, is equipped with some of the world’s most advanced vehicle technology, including IBM Watson Internet of Things (IoT) for Automotive, to improve the passenger experience and allow natural interaction with the vehicle.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Olli is the first vehicle to utilize the cloud-based cognitive computing capability of IBM Watson IoT to analyze and learn from high volumes of transportation data, produced by more than 30 sensors embedded throughout the vehicle.</i><br />
<i>----</i><br />
<i>Furthermore, the platform leverages four Watson developer APIs — Speech to Text, Natural Language Classifier, Entity Extraction and Text to Speech — to enable seamless interactions between the vehicle and passengers.</i><br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPFFPt5eGsE2YZLh_odpiT7E27wn6YVNtx8jlXE60SFPemB58NkyEcpr2AMHjyasW74qwtewpbRe_0U7G0ClF-T4bVskTe2bnKW4zxOhynRdOKeVf9EPOAct6AEKF6HmdWtOBJQhdZtaI/s1600/olli+-+interior+-+Local+Motors+-+800px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="245" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjPFFPt5eGsE2YZLh_odpiT7E27wn6YVNtx8jlXE60SFPemB58NkyEcpr2AMHjyasW74qwtewpbRe_0U7G0ClF-T4bVskTe2bnKW4zxOhynRdOKeVf9EPOAct6AEKF6HmdWtOBJQhdZtaI/s400/olli+-+interior+-+Local+Motors+-+800px.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: 12.8px;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">Olli interior. Image Credit: Local Motors (2016)</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i><br /></i>
<i>Passengers will be able to interact conversationally with Olli while traveling from point A to point B, discussing topics about how the vehicle works, where they are going, and why Olli is making specific driving decisions. Watson empowers Olli to understand and respond to passengers’ questions as they enter the vehicle, including about destinations (“Olli, can you take me downtown?”) or specific vehicle functions (“how does this feature work?” or even “are we there yet?”).</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Passengers can also ask for recommendations on local destinations such as popular restaurants or historical sites based on analysis of personal preferences.</i><br />
<i>----</i><br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirwtQNfOOrqNCK-pqJKyfihg6nZndyP1_ccKvPB50_O76tuPXQKIYror-Hp6gSYDr7yTiN8dUjvN6fKYQBpOcKGuuY2Q5Wkgay9kkomgl1Ngec54gULplOIG0Mj8oNji_JHuCKj1MLMxk/s1600/National+Harbor+-+Local+Motors+-+800px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="225" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEirwtQNfOOrqNCK-pqJKyfihg6nZndyP1_ccKvPB50_O76tuPXQKIYror-Hp6gSYDr7yTiN8dUjvN6fKYQBpOcKGuuY2Q5Wkgay9kkomgl1Ngec54gULplOIG0Mj8oNji_JHuCKj1MLMxk/s400/National+Harbor+-+Local+Motors+-+800px.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>It's a beautiful Father's Day in #NationalHarbor! Catch up with CEO @johnbrogers & #meetolli- our latest innovation. Image Credit: Local Motors via @localmotors</i></span></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<i><br /></i>
<i>As part of Olli’s debut, Local Motors officially opened its new National Harbor facility in Maryland to serve as a public place where co-creation can flourish and vehicle technologies can rapidly advance. The company’s 3D-printed cars are on display, along with a large-scale 3D printer and an interactive co-creative experience that showcases what the future of the nation’s capital might look like.</i><br />
<i>----</i><br />
<i>Olli features a 15 kWh battery pack powering a 20 kW continuous, 30 kW max electric motor that delivers 125 N·m of torque. Maximum speed is 20 km/h (12 mph) and all-electric range is 58 km (32.4 miles). Olli is equipped with 2 Velodyne VLP16 LiDAR units, 2 IBEO ScaLa laser scanners, 2 ZED optical cameras and an Ellipse N GPS.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The very first Olli will remain in National Harbor this summer, and the public will be able to interact with it during select times over the next several months.</i><br />
[<a href="http://electriccarsreport.com/2016/06/local-motors-debuts-first-self-driving-vehicle-tap-power-ibm-watson-iot/" target="_blank">Reference Here</a>]<br />
<br />
Now, riding around on this Oblate Spheroid, we say "Olli Olli Oxen Free" - <i>to indicate that players who are hiding can come out into the open without losing the game, that the position of the sides in a game has changed, or, alternatively, that the game is entirely over</i> - community driverless/autonomous transportation has arrived with a form factor and application that allows everyone the pursuit of happiness while pushing the technology envelope of possibilities forward.<br />
<br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>TAGS:</b> <i>Local Motors, Watson, Cloud Computing, Internet of Things, IoT, driverless, autonomous, vehicle, Olli, 3D-printed cars, 3D printer, electric motor, ZED optical camera, Ellipse N GPS, Speech to Text, Natural Language Classifier, Entity Extraction, Text to Speech, National Harbor, Maryland</i></span>... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-7595277389870861502015-07-13T11:41:00.000-07:002015-07-13T11:41:23.762-07:00Waving Wind Sticks Can Replace Windmills<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRaIRs5lSCdX4an88IN-y5WXiWT5WApGGgIAN-33k8oR1PYuPiQVEDMSn_l6MKQSdFvJjZleaOJAHfWy98arZ-N3Cz5ybvmTxj2oQii-i4cECa1dhDecHAxVX__rGyfNInCyBgJujUI98S/s1600/vortex_bladeless+-+800px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhRaIRs5lSCdX4an88IN-y5WXiWT5WApGGgIAN-33k8oR1PYuPiQVEDMSn_l6MKQSdFvJjZleaOJAHfWy98arZ-N3Cz5ybvmTxj2oQii-i4cECa1dhDecHAxVX__rGyfNInCyBgJujUI98S/s400/vortex_bladeless+-+800px.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Sticks planted in the ground get moved by the wind where the movement is captured and converted to electricity. Image Credit: Vortex Bladeless (2015)</span></i></td></tr></tbody></table>
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<b>Waving Wind Sticks Can Replace Windmills</b><br />
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There is a new wind energy capture technology in town and it deserves a serious look. The form factor is a stick that is effected by the wind as was the Tacoma Bridge on November 7, 1940.<br />
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<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="360" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/XggxeuFDaDU" width="480"></iframe><br /></div>
<br />
Most people are familiar with a technology that was popularized by the Dutch in recent centuries which was used to move water from or around land and perform many labor tasks in their culture ... and has become the iconic symbol of all things Dutch - the Windmill. Of the 10,000 windmills in use in the Netherlands around 1850, about 1000 are still standing.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixTV1O8KQecRDef1KFq32CZH3wEteq428SWGIoIH-8RXY2OwcuH7-rIl1N-Y75q_bW5UfWga8o7Si5gzpZKjdlaKKSPi2L-_YRMh2UV37_cyXJQWi9WnP6stavDOVgtYJfHAUNyOHHE_-J/s1600/Mulino+-+zingrate+-+Windmills+In+Holland.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEixTV1O8KQecRDef1KFq32CZH3wEteq428SWGIoIH-8RXY2OwcuH7-rIl1N-Y75q_bW5UfWga8o7Si5gzpZKjdlaKKSPi2L-_YRMh2UV37_cyXJQWi9WnP6stavDOVgtYJfHAUNyOHHE_-J/s400/Mulino+-+zingrate+-+Windmills+In+Holland.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">The total number of wind-powered mills in Europe is estimated to have
been around 200,000 at its peak, which is modest compared to some
500,000 waterwheels. Image Credit: Zingrate.com</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
Capturing the power of the wind through blades and transferring the motion created through a bar shaft to pump mechanisms, generators, or grinders, that once required human effort, to have the benefit of function.<br />
<br />
Growing interest in alternative energy sources has made the three-pronged metal and composite wind turbines planted across open, wind-driven landscapes, a familiar sight. <br />
<br />
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRdruotfR_1ncjyf0Sc56X8ioozM7uevw2hJPxAFISkcahAkxb1hI3Qx7593KdVjcgBIf-is1HhWVzNoRtNdk4LuSnoXpdgA40blE9JRFULsShx4f6AHSEwiykKsMABEWO2hmbqdUoilYB/s1600/Coachella+Palm+Springs+Train+Station+Windmills+corrected+-+Edmund+Jenks+%25282011%2529+-+800px.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjRdruotfR_1ncjyf0Sc56X8ioozM7uevw2hJPxAFISkcahAkxb1hI3Qx7593KdVjcgBIf-is1HhWVzNoRtNdk4LuSnoXpdgA40blE9JRFULsShx4f6AHSEwiykKsMABEWO2hmbqdUoilYB/s400/Coachella+Palm+Springs+Train+Station+Windmills+corrected+-+Edmund+Jenks+%25282011%2529+-+800px.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Electric power windmills have been a feature in the Palm Springs entrance to Coachella Valley for at least 20 years. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2011)</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
<br />
There is a company in Spain that wishes to have this display become less noisy, labor intensive, and cluttered through grabbing the wind energy through vibration or oscillation of a single stick.<br />
<br />
<div style="text-align: center;">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="270" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/WqcNc9bKlNY" width="480"></iframe> </div>
<br />
<b>This excerpted and edited from Quartz -</b><br />
<br />
<b><i>HOWLIN' - This wind turbine generates power without blades</i></b><br />
<i><span style="font-size: x-small;">By Zach Wener-Fligner for Quartz - May 19, 2015</span> </i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>Thanks to a Spanish energy startup known as Vortex Bladeless, there’s a new type of turbine with a rather different look.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>With the potential to be cheaper and more reliable. Vortex’s generator resembles a giant straw in the ground and harnesses wind energy without the need for rotating windmill blades. <a href="http://www.engineering.com/DesignerEdge/DesignerEdgeArticles/ArticleID/10223/Vortex-Bladeless-Generates-Power-from-Wind-without-Blades.aspx">It’s designed to vibrate in the wind as much as possible</a>, like a guitar string; those vibrations are then converted into stored energy.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>According to the company’s website, the Vortex turbines are 53% cheaper to manufacture and 51% cheaper to operate than traditional wind turbines. This is in part due to their lack of moving parts—there just aren’t that many components to break. Their current model, the 41-foot Vortex Mini tube, captures around 30% less energy than a traditional wind turbine, but can also be packed more densely into a given space.</i><br />
<i><br /></i>
<i>The company has raised about $1 million from the Spanish government and private investors, according to Wired; it says it will begin raising more money via crowdfunding on June 1.</i><br />
[<a href="http://qz.com/406984/this-wind-turbine-generates-power-without-blades/" target="_blank">Reference Here</a>]<br />
<br />
Windmills and solar panel farms are popping up everywhere creating an aesthetic eyesore, backed through the infusion of public monies. It is time to consider a cheaper, quieter, and more artful way to capture alternative (to petroleum) energy to fuel our lives.<br />
<br />
Most like the concept of converting the lessons learned through the Tacoma Narrows Bridge disaster to achieve artful display landscapes, here on this Oblate Spheroid, that deliver on the promise of a better way to convert wind to energy for the good of all.<br />
<br />
<br />
<span style="font-size: x-small;"><b>TAGS:</b> <i>windmills, solar panels, Tacoma Bridge, oscillation, wind stick, Vortex Bladeless, turbines, electricity, power generation, Oblate Spheroid, crowd-funding,</i></span> ... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-429251942426457252015-05-26T10:49:00.002-07:002015-05-26T18:33:22.152-07:00Anywhere Grid-Less Hosteling For One With Ecocapsule<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzf6YxOJvqvq_Feq3WrJEVg8ffBpBJ6T3CQOfmQO3lfxCkHvmwmlPy23N-z7k5DeO_eSeytq2CIjKu5j5WdUngro-bbztfA-vMyOL2_Gik9p_3Bl-YoKeoGLv2lM28wVBfB9qOfwkeAeSW/s1600/Ecocapsule+-+Under+The+Stars.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzf6YxOJvqvq_Feq3WrJEVg8ffBpBJ6T3CQOfmQO3lfxCkHvmwmlPy23N-z7k5DeO_eSeytq2CIjKu5j5WdUngro-bbztfA-vMyOL2_Gik9p_3Bl-YoKeoGLv2lM28wVBfB9qOfwkeAeSW/s400/Ecocapsule+-+Under+The+Stars.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Ecocapsule is smart house powered purely by the solar and wind energy. It allows people to reach<br />the frontiers with the luxury of the hotel room. It can serve as micro-house, cottage, pop-up hotel<br />or even as charging station for electromobiles. </span></i><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Image Credit: Nice Architects</span></i></td></tr>
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<b>Anywhere Grid-Less Hosteling For One With Ecocapsule</b><br />
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Ever wonder how hard it would be to live in a space without access to electricity wires from a pole, or water from a pipe, supplied by a societal utility - and further, once achieved, hard hard it would be to replicate the solution?<br />
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A group of folks located in the Slovak Republic known as Nice Architects have created an egg shaped living space that hopes to make a living off-the-grid "audience-of-one" a reality and it goes by the name of Ecocapsule.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJQg-QvfOxh1FGNXh7P08ZindysXsrZIgspxpn1czaUFhp6E90F375N_PUBVjfWPICM__2y37k4nhpFVQAXqZaGzrRMyk9ahiyn-d78ZBwPhoSVCjcTEiMLQSM2stgUNsleQyde9-m6okW/s1600/Capture+-+EcoCapsule+2D+Graphic+-+800px.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="250" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiJQg-QvfOxh1FGNXh7P08ZindysXsrZIgspxpn1czaUFhp6E90F375N_PUBVjfWPICM__2y37k4nhpFVQAXqZaGzrRMyk9ahiyn-d78ZBwPhoSVCjcTEiMLQSM2stgUNsleQyde9-m6okW/s400/Capture+-+EcoCapsule+2D+Graphic+-+800px.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">A 2D top-down view schematic of the Ecocapsule's living space floorplan. Image Credit: Nice Architects</span></i></td></tr>
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This egg-shaped living space is set to be debuted in Vienna, Austria this month (May 28 & 29, 2015) at a start up show that began in 2012 and has become what Forbes magazine calls "<a href="http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenniferhicks/2013/10/30/pioneers-festival-a-smarter-sxsw-takes-its-place-in-europe/">a smarter SXSW</a> (Austin, TX)", the <a href="http://pioneers.io/festival2015/" target="_blank">Pioneers Festival</a>.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeHEH5Gga83wvXjT-T1ycBPMzaNxOxoIbSkmnGG82fkpZMexjjryWD_wB3h4l-LaAixUlINidsBgBGa2XSu8s6ppO6oMrFBTekHTNlbZIijw060eJyDJBTfYQ3Btz0mbKjtQZplRc8k-ij/s1600/Capture+-+EcoCapsule+Pioneers+-+800px.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgeHEH5Gga83wvXjT-T1ycBPMzaNxOxoIbSkmnGG82fkpZMexjjryWD_wB3h4l-LaAixUlINidsBgBGa2XSu8s6ppO6oMrFBTekHTNlbZIijw060eJyDJBTfYQ3Btz0mbKjtQZplRc8k-ij/s400/Capture+-+EcoCapsule+Pioneers+-+800px.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">First functional prototype of the independent micro-house Ecocapsule will be exhibited in the<br />foyer of the Hofburg palace as a part of Pioneers festival 2015 event in Vienna. Image Credit: Nice Architects</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Each unit is equipped with solar panels, a retractable wind-turbine, and a design that captures rain water. </span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivN6ZxQjB3eW89DFYLLrwleQmGcgNG4N37r_2OvcgysWLkJLEIAWXhwUYRnMMP2X_jR6n0yzbTlw8LauzqnQhEesEhDyynPc6BuZU6FoRX8iQpZfBKEyZFQCxi8ZZLfSon9UHtlRS9_IHX/s1600/Schemes+-+Energo.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="120" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivN6ZxQjB3eW89DFYLLrwleQmGcgNG4N37r_2OvcgysWLkJLEIAWXhwUYRnMMP2X_jR6n0yzbTlw8LauzqnQhEesEhDyynPc6BuZU6FoRX8iQpZfBKEyZFQCxi8ZZLfSon9UHtlRS9_IHX/s400/Schemes+-+Energo.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Solor and wind power conversion included. The egg shape enhances water capture from dew or rain which is stored in a tank located underneath the floor and pumped for use in the sink, toilet, or shower. Image Credit: Nice Architects</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Inside, the design includes a kitchenette with running water, a flushing toilet, and hot shower.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVwClNaOtWl9CnuBC1XKHjmgIBeqPmI-OzcnKsHt8NVNFK33S6_IV-y88_U-kNJLkQQR6wMcndK4iwYqOIq609bveXKJEHeaAJ8DxhdNixTPjlpKeACM6fPTn0ShVZsPrRaUsJHwy2l3SQ/s1600/Ecocapsule+-+Interior.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhVwClNaOtWl9CnuBC1XKHjmgIBeqPmI-OzcnKsHt8NVNFK33S6_IV-y88_U-kNJLkQQR6wMcndK4iwYqOIq609bveXKJEHeaAJ8DxhdNixTPjlpKeACM6fPTn0ShVZsPrRaUsJHwy2l3SQ/s400/Ecocapsule+-+Interior.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: x-small;">Interior view from the storage end of the Ecocapsule. One has a hands on environment where one can sleep, cook, shower, deal with personal waste & cleanliness, and have little worry about power assisting in maintaining basic living needs. Image Credit: Nice Architects</span></i></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">The Ecocapsule is suitable for a wide range of human-living applications. Suggestions by Nice Architects include independent research station, a tourist lodge, emergency housing, a humanitarian-action unit ... or as we might suggest at Oblate Spheroid, a personal/office space to be placed in the backyard which eliminates the cost and time consumed complying for the need of permits required by the local government offices. </span><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSR_-bLSF7oZXg8e2a_IMBUTVOLTeEClSa7H4vYQ1ZxkaIXaaGfWyGO_pXwLToyNnZlTM3YYXW6lDzVy8xeFDF0hZO3P05UtHfWhJyF9VsEVcM9wVrw9Zbs0vknks4KgsbFnKcBXVxWcdN/s1600/Ecocapsule+-+Urban+Setting.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="266" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjSR_-bLSF7oZXg8e2a_IMBUTVOLTeEClSa7H4vYQ1ZxkaIXaaGfWyGO_pXwLToyNnZlTM3YYXW6lDzVy8xeFDF0hZO3P05UtHfWhJyF9VsEVcM9wVrw9Zbs0vknks4KgsbFnKcBXVxWcdN/s400/Ecocapsule+-+Urban+Setting.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Urban elbow room without the hassles associated with dealing with permitting. Image Credit: Nice Architects</i></span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-size: small;">Place the Ecocapsule on a flatbed trailer, and now one has an actual trailer for grid-less, energy assisted, hosteled comfort for almost any application including ... just camping.</span><br />
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS9c_DZ3KohBx1HBndmNkj01EeqI6kNf-FHsWpeTq59evHxQFjo99hCad8FpNbtilid6JhKWAKSqfXNbY3fLtiTMbAxUsX3sYHpZxhz0YwR8EtIkPUxKzLDhvGUHhtXFhOyNmRWsz-Ozk6/s1600/Capture+-+EcoCapsule+Exterior+Angle+-+Storage+and+Bed.PNG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="393" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiS9c_DZ3KohBx1HBndmNkj01EeqI6kNf-FHsWpeTq59evHxQFjo99hCad8FpNbtilid6JhKWAKSqfXNbY3fLtiTMbAxUsX3sYHpZxhz0YwR8EtIkPUxKzLDhvGUHhtXFhOyNmRWsz-Ozk6/s400/Capture+-+EcoCapsule+Exterior+Angle+-+Storage+and+Bed.PNG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: x-small;"><i>Exterior view shows external and interior storage plus bed. Image Credit: Nice Architects</i></span></td></tr>
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Those interested in buying one will be able to pre-order at the end of 2015, with delivery in the first half of 2016.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: large;">FAQ Section </span></b><br />
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What is the price of the Ecocapsule? <br />
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<i>Price of the Ecocapsule will be announced in the last quarter of the 2015. </i><br />
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When will be Ecocapsule available for purchase? <br />
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<i>We will start taking pre-orders in the last quarter of the 2015. We expect to start delivering first produced units in the first half of the 2016. </i><br />
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Shipping price - Ecocapsule can fit info standard shipping container, keeping shipping cost low. Here are examples of approximate shipping fees: <br />
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Slovakia -New York 2393 USD 2200 Euro <br />
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Slovakia-Buenos Aires 1958 USD 1800 Euro <br />
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Slovakia-Johannesburg 2937 USD 2700 Euro <br />
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Slovakia - Melbourne 1631 USD 1500 Euro <br />
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Camper version - We are still developing chassis for the capsule and hopefully we will be ready in late 2016. <br />
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Custom versions: <br />
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We will be initially offering one version of the Ecocapsule. Later we will extend customization options. <br />
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Where can we see it? <br />
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<i>First public display of the Ecocapsule will be during Pioneers festival in Vienna (28-29th May 2015). <br /><br />Later it will be displayed in Slovak national pavilion at Expo 2015. </i><br />
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<span style="font-size: large;"><b>Basic Specifications</b></span>: <br />
<span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-size: x-small;">(ht: Nice Architects)</span><br /><br />Dimensions: </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: small;">W - 8.366 Feet - 2.55m </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">L - 14.599 Feet - 4.45m </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">H - 7.381 Feet - 2.25m or 14.763 Feet - 4.5m with extended pole <br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Weight: 3307 lbs. - 1500kg <br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Installed power output: wind 750W / solar 600W <br /> </span><br />
<span style="font-size: small;">Battery capacity: 9744Wh </span><br />
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<span style="font-size: x-small;">TAGS: <i>Ecocapsule, Pioneers Festival, SXSW, Forbes, Slovak Republic, Nice Architects, Vienna, Austria,</i></span>... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-74974845351616017782014-04-18T12:24:00.000-07:002014-04-18T14:28:05.135-07:00Progressive Water Resource Management Gone Wild<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizz9L6D8EX23_vf9rbFfu_qeduDMalsEiwRR1zF8qF55FMH6jAOdy48tNUwXLqzGXQH2t27oZpmIqWHm9K3vTCOMqpJl_DW5xwB1-Jni4sz38sigIWvYZ8Bt-B6VP_hU5HP7KkhqmkQEIT/s1600/mount-tabor-reservoirjpg-+Credit+The+Oregonian+-+file.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizz9L6D8EX23_vf9rbFfu_qeduDMalsEiwRR1zF8qF55FMH6jAOdy48tNUwXLqzGXQH2t27oZpmIqWHm9K3vTCOMqpJl_DW5xwB1-Jni4sz38sigIWvYZ8Bt-B6VP_hU5HP7KkhqmkQEIT/s400/mount-tabor-reservoirjpg-+Credit+The+Oregonian+-+file.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mt. Tabor Reservoir. Image Credit: File Photo – The Oregonian</td></tr>
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<b>Progressive Water Resource Management Gone Wild</b><br />
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Here in California, the Delta Smelt, a non-indigenous (imported) fish, is given grand reverence over the human need to grow and harvest food for living and profit. We are very familiar with the over-reach of power over common sense in the pursuit of progressive political perception.<br />
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Just this week in Portland Oregon, it was discovered via a review of surveillance camera video, a teen-aged male was captured emptying his bladder into the Mount Tabor Reservoir, an open air facility established during the period of 1894 through 1911 and used to hold a portion of the city of Portland’s water fed into the home delivery water resource system.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP9iMVx0lMhW-dIc1nB5svDvxb0bCBd9khxqX47OOggWxN-2Y9RWsewTrfzf5mVcGqehKcVCgeLAdj3x6SVGUbs7iOK2rJGoOvdg7q3mDog6GCwDcacCPFE8hUGB7liOUV47nxOAOKO4dn/s1600/mt_tabor_reservoir+-+Credit+KBOO.FM.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhP9iMVx0lMhW-dIc1nB5svDvxb0bCBd9khxqX47OOggWxN-2Y9RWsewTrfzf5mVcGqehKcVCgeLAdj3x6SVGUbs7iOK2rJGoOvdg7q3mDog6GCwDcacCPFE8hUGB7liOUV47nxOAOKO4dn/s400/mt_tabor_reservoir+-+Credit+KBOO.FM.jpg" height="271" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Mt. Tabor Reservoir. Image Credit: KBOO.FM</td></tr>
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<b>This excerpted and edited from Oregon Public Broadcasting -</b><br />
<blockquote class="tr_bq">
<i> <b>Portland To Empty Water In Mt. Tabor Reservoir After Contamination</b><br /> <span style="font-size: x-small;">OPB | April 16, 2014 1:42 p.m. | Updated: April 17, 2014 6:39 a.m. | Portland</span><br /><br /> The Portland Water Bureau was forced to shut down one of its Mount Tabor reservoirs early Wednesday. A trespasser urinated into one of the reservoirs.<br /> —-<br /> Bureau officials say about 50 million gallons of drinking water were isolated at Reservoir No. 5. None of the contaminated supply was distributed to customers.<br /><br /> David Shaff is with the Portland Water Bureau. He says water quality samples have been taken for safety reasons.<br /><br /> “I’m still going to empty the reservoir, clean it, and re-fill it. And the reason I’m going to do that is because I have customers who have an expectation that I’m not going to deliberately deliver water that has been contaminated by someone peeing into the reservoir,” Shaff said.<br /><br /> “The basic commandment of the Water Bureau is to provide clean, cold and constant water to its customers,” Shaff said Wednesday. “And the premise behind that is we don’t have pee in it.”<br /><br /> The open reservoirs hold water that has already been treated and goes directly into mains for distribution to customers.<br /><br /> The urine poses little risk — animals routinely deposit waste without creating a public health crisis — but Shaff said he doesn’t want to serve water that was deliberately tainted.<br /><br /> “There is at least a perceived difference from my perspective,” Shaff said. “I could be wrong on that, but the reality is our customers don’t anticipate drinking water that’s been contaminated by some yahoo who decided to pee into a reservoir.”<br /> —-<br /> The three unidentified men were cited for trespassing after being stopped at the site early Wednesday morning. One was also cited for public urination.<br /><br /> The Multnomah County District Attorney’s Office will decide whether to pursue criminal charges.<br /> —-<br /> The reservoir is one of five the city is in the process of replacing with underground storage to comply with federal regulations.<br /><br /> Floy Jones, co-founder of the group Friends of the Reservoirs, criticized the decision to drain the reservoir, saying there’s no evidence any urine reached the water and it wouldn’t harm anyone if it did.<br /><br /> “It’s extremely wasteful,” she said.<br /><br /> In June 2011, the city drained a 7.5 million-gallon reservoir at Mount Tabor in southeast Portland. This time, 38 million gallons from a different reservoir at the same location will be discarded after a 19-year-old was videotaped in the act.<br /><br /> The man who urinated into Portland’s water supply in June 2011 eventually pleaded guilty to misuse of a reservoir and was sentenced to community service.</i><br />
[<a href="http://www.opb.org/news/article/mt-tabor-reservoir-to-be-emptied-because-of-contamination/" target="_blank">Reference Here</a>]</blockquote>
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This is another situation where common sense and the progressive application of power collide in the wasteful pursuit of perception. The cost to drain and re-clean the reservoir (that had its bi-annual cleaning process completed about three weeks ago according to Water Bureau records) is referenced in Wikipedia as being around $36,000 for the 2011 incident.<br />
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Has anyone around here heard of Bear Grylls? Edward Michael “Bear” Grylls is a British adventurer, writer and television presenter and is best known for his internationally syndicated television series Man vs. Wild, also known originally as Born Survivor.<br />
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On his program, he was famous for a survivalist meme of showing people that urine is, when all else is not available, a hydrating substance. He would show that one would not die, or become ill, in drinking pee straight out of a container in order to keep alive and to not having bodily functions shut down due to a lack of water for a short period of time.<br />
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Does it taste good straight – NO, it tastes as one would expect pee to taste.<br />
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Can one taste human urine when it is diluted in, say, EIGHT MILLION GALLONS OF WATER?<br />
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A better question that should be asked is – what percentage of contamination does this known human urine waste cast-off represent to the overall unmeasured wildlife/animal waste cast-off (urine and solid waste sewage) of all birds, bats, rats, squirrels, dogs, cats, and etc. that make it into the Portland water supply through the feeder system and the reservoirs as well … before delivery into the system?<br />
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‘Infinitesimal’ is the word that comes to mind.<br />
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Save the $36,000.00+ of public money on the perception of power and show real power through the education of all who use the public water system that employs open air reservoirs on this Oblate Spheroid. This is still a water system, without filtration, that will always be classified until changes are made, as … “Gone Wild.”<br />
<br />... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0City of Portland Reservoir Number 6, Portland, OR 97215, USA45.5110246 -122.600484345.508242599999996 -122.6055268 45.5138066 -122.5954418tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-8881013513256221292014-01-01T08:00:00.000-08:002014-01-02T09:44:16.837-08:00Happy New Year 2014 - Fireworks Display Via GIF<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://24.media.tumblr.com/3287d3e682528979885755a484e3e900/tumblr_mfwnf2gmQO1qegyoeo1_r1_500.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/3287d3e682528979885755a484e3e900/tumblr_mfwnf2gmQO1qegyoeo1_r1_500.gif" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">New Year in the Philippines - The view of the Metro Manila skyline from Monterey Hills in San Mateo, Rizal. Credit: Paolo Nacpil via 24.media.tumblr.com</td></tr>
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<b>Happy New Year 2014 - Fireworks Display Via GIF</b><br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.musicsongz.com/wp-content/uploads/Happy-New-Year-Special-2.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://www.musicsongz.com/wp-content/uploads/Happy-New-Year-Special-2.gif" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Fireworks at the end of a rope. Credit: musicsongz.com</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.9to5gifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/happy-new-year-2014-celebration-fireworks.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="195" src="http://www.9to5gifs.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/happy-new-year-2014-celebration-fireworks.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Simultaneous color bursts all in one line. Credit: 9to5gifs.com</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_leadqutb7Q1qa37qv.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="http://media.tumblr.com/tumblr_leadqutb7Q1qa37qv.gif" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Random explosions in light blue-white. Credit: media.tumblr.com</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.twodelighted.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/fireworks-gif.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="400" src="http://www.twodelighted.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/fireworks-gif.gif" width="285" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Single red, white, and blue spherical burst. Credit: twodelighted.com</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdcr91pwh41r8bvzso1_500.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_mdcr91pwh41r8bvzso1_500.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Cityscape fireworks at waters edge. Credit: 24.media.tumblr.com</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://f.ptcdn.info/864/012/000/1386005390-tumblrlhz0-o.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://f.ptcdn.info/864/012/000/1386005390-tumblrlhz0-o.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Random spray burst fireworks at waters edge. Credit: f.ptcdn.info</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://gifs.gifbin.com/012012/1328206471_firworks.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="223" src="http://gifs.gifbin.com/012012/1328206471_firworks.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Single rocket multiple burst cascade firework. Credit: gifs.gifbin.com</td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://www.announcingit.com/invitations-blog/wp-content/uploads/Paris-fireworks.gif" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="216" src="http://www.announcingit.com/invitations-blog/wp-content/uploads/Paris-fireworks.gif" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Eiffel Tower with superimposed white burst 'twilight sky' effect over Paris display. Credit: announcingit.com</td></tr>
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Have a Happy and Abundant 2014 here on this Oblate Spheroid shaped blue orb!<br />
<br />... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-90032671628081707072013-09-27T08:16:00.002-07:002013-09-27T08:16:36.551-07:00Popular Science Settles On Consensus Over Reporting Fact<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimF4OM6hAXYxNXeBJfJlNoNSWFVqDBtl9PNtxWE_T2100yspLsR7-AkMb2NO9XvKBirYnVuRJ6syGCZTgHVH7yMyrt3QWaN6NR-MXhibRtV7UlEF_agfXg4ZksqmWs5C-yKcmmpPJsg7gC/s1600/popular-science-calls-mindmeld-one-of-2013s-h-L-0gCTOE.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="398" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEimF4OM6hAXYxNXeBJfJlNoNSWFVqDBtl9PNtxWE_T2100yspLsR7-AkMb2NO9XvKBirYnVuRJ6syGCZTgHVH7yMyrt3QWaN6NR-MXhibRtV7UlEF_agfXg4ZksqmWs5C-yKcmmpPJsg7gC/s400/popular-science-calls-mindmeld-one-of-2013s-h-L-0gCTOE.png" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Popular Science magazine cover that has as an article, "How to Prevent America's Next TRAIN CRASH" - funny, how now Popular Science is about trying to prevent the crash in the flow of America's research funding through shutting off comments that expose fraud. Image Credit: m5.paperblog.com</td></tr>
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<b>Popular Science Settles On Consensus Over Reporting Truth Based In Facts</b><br />
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This week saw an actual sea change and weak stomach for debate on consensus over publishing comments that argue for scientific method derived facts and the truth.<br />
<b><br />This excerpted and edited from PopularScience.com - </b><br />
<span style="font-size: large;"><b><br /><i>Why We're Shutting Off Our Comments </i></b></span><i><br /><span style="font-size: xx-small;">By Suzanne LaBarre - Posted 09.24.2013 at 8:15 am </span><br /><br />Starting today, PopularScience.com will no longer accept comments on new articles. Here's why.<br /><br />Comments can be bad for science. That's why, here at PopularScience.com, we're shutting them off.<br />----<br />Another, similarly designed study found that just firmly worded (but not uncivil) disagreements between commenters impacted readers' perception of science.<br /><br />If you carry out those results to their logical end--commenters shape public opinion; public opinion shapes public policy; public policy shapes how and whether and what research gets funded--you start to see why we feel compelled to hit the "off" switch.<br /><br />A politically motivated, decades-long war on expertise has eroded the popular consensus on a wide variety of scientifically validated topics. Everything, from evolution to the origins of climate change, is mistakenly up for grabs again. Scientific certainty is just another thing for two people to "debate" on television. And because comments sections tend to be a grotesque reflection of the media culture surrounding them, the cynical work of undermining bedrock scientific doctrine is now being done beneath our own stories, within a website devoted to championing science.</i><br />
[<a href="http://www.popsci.com/science/article/2013-09/why-were-shutting-our-comments?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+mycentech+%28MyCen+Tech%29" target="_blank">Reference Here</a>]<br />
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<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right; margin-left: 1em; text-align: right;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq-5EVM-LTk8VcO9urfr6gAVUJoi0hY4GFrAEyCu0GYnmLU9xXNu9JvB07j-Pqs7E0kqQp_eKoCZXru9W8ge2wUpHyhKBbEXrU9k9T4dmOsVGC0W8vRNDWVnIwlkIVrvfc1yVZb3hwoVjd/s1600/Popular+Science+settles+on+consensus+over+reporting+truth+based+in+facts.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjq-5EVM-LTk8VcO9urfr6gAVUJoi0hY4GFrAEyCu0GYnmLU9xXNu9JvB07j-Pqs7E0kqQp_eKoCZXru9W8ge2wUpHyhKBbEXrU9k9T4dmOsVGC0W8vRNDWVnIwlkIVrvfc1yVZb3hwoVjd/s1600/Popular+Science+settles+on+consensus+over+reporting+truth+based+in+facts.jpg" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"How It Works" - Credit: Popular Science</td></tr>
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The 'money quote' has to be:<br />
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<i>popular consensus on a wide variety of scientifically validated topics</i><br />
<br />
This is what Popular Science, the magazine and website, bases all of it opinion and articles on ... popular consensus. The fact that Popular Science is shutting down comments to their consensus derived articles proves that they admit to publishing Consensus over Scientific Method derived facts.<br />
<br />
Since WHEN is Consensus a substitute for Scientific Method?<br />
<br />
Not once is Scientific Method mentioned as the basis of information their articles are based upon. Their statement only alludes to popular consensus and scientifically validated topics.<br />
<br />
Further, the editors admit to trying to shape public opinion through their publishing silo with this observation - <i>"commenters shape public opinion; public opinion shapes public policy; public policy shapes how and whether and what research gets funded--you start to see why we feel compelled to hit the "off" switch."</i> - and therein lays the rub. <br />
<br />
Who holds the scientific community's feet to the fire when mathematical formulas and data are shaped so that results reflect the intent of the politically-motivated public policy. Follow the money.<br />
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The biggest problem with Popular Science is that the editors are nothing more than Progressive-Minded J-School Stenographers who report what has been bought-and-paid-for Consensus objectives, rooted in politically-motivated public policy, as opposed to reporting Scientific Method derived FACTS!!!<br />
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Does the mathematical fraud perpetrated by the University of East Anglia ever get reported and calculated into the Consensus equation? At Popular Science, now that they have hit the "off" switch on comments to their published articles - we, at Oblate Spheroid, think not!<br />
<br />... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0New York, NY, USA40.7143528 -74.005973140.3291643 -74.65142010000001 41.0995413 -73.3605261tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-54966903754636792572013-08-09T09:57:00.000-07:002013-08-14T08:35:07.160-07:00Auto Show In The Mountains At Big Bear Lake's 24th Annual Fun Run<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXu7GhHiQVOjiv5DU8xqfaiU9Bt0k6t7x8CGT07Z3GBOgfPIL5irvYaNoaRgMd_r-4LJxxCro-4ta23Na-TyHNtciYt_g1-5hjXXtmw74WcKQPmZg7z-0YrihIbMr4QuNnsGnH8gpimXZ5/s1600/DSC03448.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhXu7GhHiQVOjiv5DU8xqfaiU9Bt0k6t7x8CGT07Z3GBOgfPIL5irvYaNoaRgMd_r-4LJxxCro-4ta23Na-TyHNtciYt_g1-5hjXXtmw74WcKQPmZg7z-0YrihIbMr4QuNnsGnH8gpimXZ5/s400/DSC03448.JPG" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Crowds viewing the classic cars, hot rods, custom
paint jobs, wheels, tires and chrome all in one place, the parking
spaces in the Village of Big Bear Lake! Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2013) </span></i></td></tr>
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<b>Auto Show In The Mountains At Big Bear Lake's 24th Annual Fun Run</b><br />
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Join the Antique Car Club for the 24th Annual Fun Run! The show takes
place all around a closed-down Big Bear Lake Village on the South shore
of Big Bear Lake. All of the cars in the show are staged/parked in the
commercial parking spaces and Chamber of Commerce parking lot in and
around the village.<br />
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The competition is limited to 500 entries and the admission to the car show is free!<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFP8wmkG9g5301xMdQX7a_UqcZQKuxJQXY4s3OSr8H7NQfs0g9Xah0oYNfc4TfXJpulCIfa0ZZPSn_0l4h7x20JyqpRZRLWFOZeFRslvvgbuY9ndKtheY8p3vE7HlOsH5USCGmrrWgWAlf/s1600/DSC03547.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFP8wmkG9g5301xMdQX7a_UqcZQKuxJQXY4s3OSr8H7NQfs0g9Xah0oYNfc4TfXJpulCIfa0ZZPSn_0l4h7x20JyqpRZRLWFOZeFRslvvgbuY9ndKtheY8p3vE7HlOsH5USCGmrrWgWAlf/s400/DSC03547.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">Special commemorative Big Bear Fun Run artwork adorns T-shirts for sale to help raise money for many local charities. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2013)</span></i></td></tr>
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The Big Bear Lake Antique Car Club was founded in 1982 by a group of
people who shared a common interest in “vintage automobiles.” The
purpose of the club is to indulge this common interest and raise money
for charities in the Big Bear valley, California.<br />
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One of the greatest spectacles of this vintage motor culture display
and the reason the event is dubbed "Fun Run" is when all of the vehicles
that are in the show competition take to the road that circumnavigates
the lake and drive to both the delight of the owners and spectators. The
cars and motorcycles leave at 3:45 PM on Saturday, August 10, 2013
(This time is FIRM) and the West gate will open for the "Cruise around
the Lake" or "Fun Run."<br />
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People who are aware of what is about to take place, set up perches
around the roads waiting to see and hear their favorite vehicle(s) and
greet them with enthusiastic waves. This cruise for the participants who
are driving takes about 30 minutes ... but for the spectator, the
parade of the "Fun Run" or "Cruise around the Lake" lasts over an hour.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDSOWxuTj6n8OKjpv8B0eJ_MJhI5_puXDKjZ0B8_t0i7EXSrhg2qGVAoaXFl017idFH8KBcB-tfqx9EnMu-F5zNIIA3dRtg9mmQkbjPH_8Y0td9UnompsTPR_hpehA-QVRvV6Ngp2mT204/s1600/CATLbigZoom1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="177" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgDSOWxuTj6n8OKjpv8B0eJ_MJhI5_puXDKjZ0B8_t0i7EXSrhg2qGVAoaXFl017idFH8KBcB-tfqx9EnMu-F5zNIIA3dRtg9mmQkbjPH_8Y0td9UnompsTPR_hpehA-QVRvV6Ngp2mT204/s400/CATLbigZoom1.jpg" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Route map of the actual Big Bear Fun Run ... the rolling display is why, for 24 years, this car show remains a must do summertime Southern California attraction. Image Credit: Big Bear Fun Run</i></span></td></tr>
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The run will go West from the Village entrance on Hwy. 18 for about 4
miles and North across the Dam, turn right or East on Hwy. 38 through
Fawnskin (for about 5 miles). Then continue on Northshore, turn right on
Northshore lane, pick-up their commemorative mugs, and turn right on
North Shore (Hwy 38) to Stanfield Cut-Off and turn right, go across the
cutoff road to Big Bear Blvd. and turn right, and back to the Village.
Any roadside perch is a good spot to see all of the vehicles as they
roll around the Lake.<br />
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcGmFFTTPqsCfepl-YIqiiJeoPnccsU5lqlRZJigkWe6Oi6L0wAaiMm-ODFqwnns8KGD2UntlJg-HR2qBtFQsoosrNOcJBURX1x3E7i16fR6lMrM2Ut8xbnM6iPSdNWhsawBWI4Wec_t27/s1600/DSC03776.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="265" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjcGmFFTTPqsCfepl-YIqiiJeoPnccsU5lqlRZJigkWe6Oi6L0wAaiMm-ODFqwnns8KGD2UntlJg-HR2qBtFQsoosrNOcJBURX1x3E7i16fR6lMrM2Ut8xbnM6iPSdNWhsawBWI4Wec_t27/s400/DSC03776.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">When the cars that were on display, take to the road for the roughly 15 mile parade, clock-wise around this San Bernardino mountians 'blue jewel', this is when the fun really begins ... what a treat. Image Credit: Edmund Jenks (2013)</span></i></td></tr>
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<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody>
<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEenRmsPiKBh55wVYP29BE_C10qDdWc8V_Fj-g4zego9azggAIZezmQxwLxGEMqIQx1YHQPYbcGXpYOzpOV3fvC51j4oO5-T1H0KOVso32GIsGd2g8taL59Mv6DAehqpGwAWj3rW3BEC7P/s1600/Capture+-+BBL+Fun+Run+Aug+13,+2011+-+Fawnskin+2+-+vegaslugnut+via+YouTube.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="213" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgEenRmsPiKBh55wVYP29BE_C10qDdWc8V_Fj-g4zego9azggAIZezmQxwLxGEMqIQx1YHQPYbcGXpYOzpOV3fvC51j4oO5-T1H0KOVso32GIsGd2g8taL59Mv6DAehqpGwAWj3rW3BEC7P/s400/Capture+-+BBL+Fun+Run+Aug+13,+2011+-+Fawnskin+2+-+vegaslugnut+via+YouTube.JPG" width="400" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The cars parade through Fawnskin on the North shore of Big bear Lake here on August 13, 2011. Image Credit: vegaslugnut via YouTube</span></i></td></tr>
</tbody></table>
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For 23 years, people have come up to the mountain air and Ponderosa
pines of the San Bernardino national forest and enjoyed the classic
cars, hot rods, custom paint jobs, wheels, tires and chrome all in one
place, Big Bear Lake! Come on up and bring a camera because this is the
kind of event around the Oblate Spheroid that never disappoints. <br />
<br />
<br />... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-79240808200786990662013-01-29T09:33:00.000-08:002013-01-29T09:34:44.230-08:00Umbrella Public Relations Stunt Achieves World Record Claim<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguyerMPC2dIPa9ER4uefqO4V_sBv1uQ3w3EowrR3zXF4D_YNdi_t9LGViivhTeusfM23-aHQLYfZDNJaK53nD9qYir7zVjcimcPLm-reOqvu8YzqjcoVS4ej12cNNEQ5cdS5mX_sLlmqOE/s1600/World's+Largest+QR+Code+-+China+-+1-28-2013.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="288" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEguyerMPC2dIPa9ER4uefqO4V_sBv1uQ3w3EowrR3zXF4D_YNdi_t9LGViivhTeusfM23-aHQLYfZDNJaK53nD9qYir7zVjcimcPLm-reOqvu8YzqjcoVS4ej12cNNEQ5cdS5mX_sLlmqOE/s400/World's+Largest+QR+Code+-+China+-+1-28-2013.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Umbrella display: Located within the volcanic region of exotic Hainan Island, Mission Hills Resort Hainan marks a magnificent addition to Hainan's tropical island paradise. Boasting an exceptional variety of world-class lifestyle, recreation and wellness facilities, the Resort is poised to be one of China's most sought-after leisure destinations. Caption and Image Credit: Mission Hills Resort Hainan
</i></span><br />
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<b>Umbrella Public Relations Stunt Achieves World Record Claim</b><br />
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Yesterday, at what has been billed as the world’s largest golf facility, Mission Hills Shenzhen, China, people holding umbrellas on the fairway of a picturesque golf link, claimed a world record by creating a “human” displayed QR Code.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdS7JxkiYeiV4nYR8spR3WTxhO2-UcHQGd8hf3nNckSx0ViLyLHedPE3OhwcKqL7wIFUErbGgtV8iKvv2wfk-dKN0n-3DTlHAawTu9sQVNjONZ3tIBnj7epNdLgw8F8VDyxiion_rzPQMX/s1600/World's+Largest+QR+Code+-+mission-hills-umbrella-qr-code-detail.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="287" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjdS7JxkiYeiV4nYR8spR3WTxhO2-UcHQGd8hf3nNckSx0ViLyLHedPE3OhwcKqL7wIFUErbGgtV8iKvv2wfk-dKN0n-3DTlHAawTu9sQVNjONZ3tIBnj7epNdLgw8F8VDyxiion_rzPQMX/s400/World's+Largest+QR+Code+-+mission-hills-umbrella-qr-code-detail.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Close-up detail. Image Credit: Mission Hills Resort Hainan</i></span>
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The QR Code was formed by nearly 2,000 staff carrying umbrellas and an aerial photograph was taken from a height of 270 feet so that the <a href="http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/worlds-largest-golf-club--spa-resort-creates-worlds-biggest-qr-code-188652541.html" target="_blank">code could be used in Press Releases</a>. <br />
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The purpose of this PR effort is designed to promote sustainable eco-tourism ... and in celebration of Mission Hills' 20th anniversary, the Group is giving away <a href="http://www.missionhillschina.com/en-US/?gclid=CNLKpcrijbUCFexxQgodaAsAfA" target="_blank">twenty 3 day / 2 night Romantic Premier Spa Suite Getaway packages at Mission Hills Haikou Resort</a> on the tropical island of Hainan. <br />
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When users scan the QR Code, they will be directed to a campaign website to answer three simple questions related to sustainable eco-tourism. Those who complete the questions with the correct answers will be entered into the draw for a chance to win one of the Mission Hills Micro Holiday packages valued at US$2,600.<br />
(ht: PR Newswire)<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjof3o77H8Dbu4d11K-PjiK9QaKg3Lb6NEORG0A-pYKLzStztqiZ1iof5drUKaoFKkqMcBaSPF49ptExZDBI7aOPFoX-5xnGpRsEVU__3pyppA7ppfxigmFG4wZQs2R4nl6ESjevn3mu3ge/s1600/World's+Tiawan+umbrella-qr-code-sideview-1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="267" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjof3o77H8Dbu4d11K-PjiK9QaKg3Lb6NEORG0A-pYKLzStztqiZ1iof5drUKaoFKkqMcBaSPF49ptExZDBI7aOPFoX-5xnGpRsEVU__3pyppA7ppfxigmFG4wZQs2R4nl6ESjevn3mu3ge/s400/World's+Tiawan+umbrella-qr-code-sideview-1.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<span style="font-size: xx-small;"><i>Say Hi to the world, 1,369 people love Taiwan, the arrangement of the world's largest human OR Code, hands in the air to empty footage Say Hi to let the world see Taiwan, to show the enthusiasm of the people of Taiwan. Caption and Image Credit: Wen Shiren Cultural Foundation and the Taiwan Foundation (taiwansayhi.com)
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4_DNDgLQg2vAy7bPFMIDB4lkqq9aTNLTWQOwCkX7GmNKJKuTwa0-jZqILhS4elwN800MUgGf_iwIDOjhQaPrPy2D8sGdXJN0cvvZadi_bGsE8Vs3bNYcjAnJ3jZUugnlAmuvHkNbgKlKu/s1600/World's+Tiawan+umbrella-qr-code-view-2.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj4_DNDgLQg2vAy7bPFMIDB4lkqq9aTNLTWQOwCkX7GmNKJKuTwa0-jZqILhS4elwN800MUgGf_iwIDOjhQaPrPy2D8sGdXJN0cvvZadi_bGsE8Vs3bNYcjAnJ3jZUugnlAmuvHkNbgKlKu/s400/World's+Tiawan+umbrella-qr-code-view-2.jpg" width="400" /></a></div>
<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">QR display detail - </span></i><i><span style="font-size: xx-small;"><span style="font-weight: normal;"><span class="watch-title long-title yt-uix-expander-head" dir="ltr" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px none; color: black; cursor: pointer; letter-spacing: -0.05em; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;" title="Wen i Taiwan ‧ wonderful movie tidbits Say Hi to the world activities"><span style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;"><span class="" style="background-color: transparent; border: 0px none; margin: 0px; padding: 0px;">Wen i Taiwan ‧ wonderful movie tidbits Say Hi to the world activities </span></span></span></span><b><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=jwOc95S0TVQ" target="_blank">Video posted January 16, 2013</a></b>. Image Credit: Wen Shiren Cultural Foundation and the Taiwan Foundation (taiwansayhi.com)
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This is not the first time people holding umbrellas stand in a predetermined pattern in order to form a QR Code upon which folks with camera/QR enabled smart phones could scan the code created and be directed to a website to qualify or buy something of value or interest. At the beginning of December last year, 1369 people raised black, white and blue umbrellas to form a QR Code directing people to a website that promotes Taiwan culture and tourism - http://www.taiwansayhi.com.<br />
(ht: 2d)<br />
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">** Article first published as <a href="http://technorati.com/technology/it/article/umbrella-public-relations-stunt-achieves-world/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">Umbrella Public Relations Stunt Achieves World Record Claim</a> on Technorati **</span></i>... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0Mission Hills Golf Driving Range, Bao'an, Shenzhen, China, 51811022.7203649 114.0766742999999222.7185339 114.07415279999992 22.7221959 114.07919579999992tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-47747037444710553952012-06-14T15:53:00.000-07:002012-06-14T17:06:47.627-07:00City Block Size Asteroid Comes Near-Earth To Oblate Spheroid<div class="firstPar">
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<i><span style="font-size: xx-small;">The asteroid, which is 10 times the size of an Olympic swimming pool, is one of 9,000 "near-Earth objects" recorded by Nasa. It will not be visible to the naked eye but stargazers can watch a live broadcast and catch a glimpse of it passing by Earth online. Named LZ1, the asteroid is 500m (1,650ft) wide and is likely to get only within 14 times the moon's distance from Earth. Image Credit: The Telegraph </span></i></div>
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<b>City Block Size Asteroid Comes Near-Earth To Oblate Spheroid</b><br />
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An asteroid the size of a city block discovered by astronomers in Canberra will zoom past Earth but poses no risk of a collision.<br />
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The "unusually large" asteroid will not be visible to the naked eye but asteroid enthusiasts may watch it pass by during a live online broadcast, said Patrick Paolucci, president of the skywatchers' site, Slooh.<br />
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NASA has already cataloged 9000 such Near-Earth Objects, but astronomers are always on the lookout for new ones.<br />
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"Once in awhile one will come out of nowhere like this one, which is actually pretty big," Paolucci told AFP.<br />
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"We were like, 'Wow, we should track this one."'<br />
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The asteroid, named 2012 LZ1, is thought to be about 500 metres wide, and is expected to pass within 14 times the Moon's distance from the Earth.<br />
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The massive object was discovered just days ago by Scottish-Australian astronomer Rob McNaught and colleagues at the Research School of Astronomy and Astrophysics of the Australian National University.<br />
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The asteroid qualifies as a Near-Earth Object because of its size and proximity - more than 152 metres wide and within a distance of 7.5 million kilometres from Earth.<br />
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Paolucci said the asteroid's fly-by would be covered in real-time with footage from an observatory in the Canary Islands at <b><a href="http://www.slooh.com/">Slooh.com</a></b> beginning at 10am (AEST) on Friday.<br />
[<a href="http://m.smh.com.au/technology/sci-tech/unusually-large-asteroid-the-size-of-a-city-block-to-buzz-past-earth-20120615-20drz.html" target="_blank">Reference Here</a>]... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-19169850319558683472012-01-14T15:47:00.000-08:002012-01-14T16:32:58.544-08:00Hubble Captures Oldest On Record Galaxy - 13.1 Billion Light Years Away<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCP35BE9MikHobxwYsfakvIZKNH8kY3eQgflpckNLQwoROumtnuINODHN-C429sjP0zL8b9GPxmgJoAwo07T0yyJbUd1wH5-9Ojx3vgc6lGRQIBCkMlpnmaAZBWCiggSEoe3FyUJ99Z8pl/s1600/229b2_space-hubble-300x214.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 300px; height: 214px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhCP35BE9MikHobxwYsfakvIZKNH8kY3eQgflpckNLQwoROumtnuINODHN-C429sjP0zL8b9GPxmgJoAwo07T0yyJbUd1wH5-9Ojx3vgc6lGRQIBCkMlpnmaAZBWCiggSEoe3FyUJ99Z8pl/s400/229b2_space-hubble-300x214.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5697644022793290034" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Image Credit: NASA</span><br /><br /><br /><span style="font-weight:bold;">Hubble Captures Oldest On Record Galaxy - 13.1 Billion Light Years Away</span><br /><br />NASA Hubble Space Telescope has captured an image of the oldest galaxy on record, the space administration announced January 10, 2012.<br /><br />The space administration said it has captured an image of a group of galaxies located 13.1 billion light years away. The team said the galaxies represent a cluster in the initial stages of development.<br /><br />The space administration notes that galaxy clusters are among the largest structures in the universe, comprising hundreds to thousands of galaxies bound together by gravity. The developing cluster, or protocluster, is seen as it looked over 13 billion years ago.<br /><br />“These galaxies formed during the earliest stages of galaxy assembly, when galaxies had just started to cluster together,” said Michele Trenti of the University of Colorado at Boulder and the Institute of Astronomy at the University of Cambridge in the U.K. “The result confirms our theoretical understanding of the buildup of galaxy clusters. And, Hubble is just powerful enough to find the first examples of them at this distance.”<br /><br />Hubble spotted the five galaxies while performing a random sky survey in near-infrared light. The newly found galaxies are small, ranging from 10 percent to 50 percent the size of our own Milky Way. But they are similar in brightness to the Milky Way, said astronomers NASA says the galaxy has likely grown into one of today’s massive “galactic cities,” comparable to the nearby Virgo cluster of more than 2,000 galaxies.<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object name="kaltura_player_1326559009" id="kaltura_player_1326559009" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allownetworking="all" allowfullscreen="true" data="http://cdnapi.kaltura.com/index.php/kwidget/wid/0_ng4btp8h/uiconf_id/6501231" height="221" width="392"><a href="http://corp.kaltura.com/solutions/video_solution">video solutions</a></object></div><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">This excerpted and edited from NASA -</span><br style="font-weight: bold;"><br style="font-weight: bold;"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">The Age of the Universe ... Then vs. Now</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">Before 1999, astronomers had estimated that the age of the universe at between 7 to 20 billion years. With advances in technology and the development of new techniques we now know the age of the universe is 13.7 billion years, with an uncertainty of only 200 million years. So how did this understanding come to be?</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Early estimates of the Age of the Universe</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">In the 1920's Edwin Hubble discovered the expansion of the universe. He found that galaxies which are further away are moving at a higher speed following the law, v=Hod, where v is the velocity in km/s, d is the distance in Mpc, and Ho is the Hubble constant in km/s/Mpc. By independently measuring the velocity and distances to galaxies, the value of Ho could be determined. Astronomers further determined that the age of the universe is related to Hubble's constant, and that it is between 1/Ho and 2/3Ho depending on cosmological models adopted. The velocity could be determined via the redshift in the spectrum. The distance to the galaxy can be determined using observations of certain types of pulsating stars, called Cepheids, whose instrinsic brightness is related to the period of their brightness variation. However, the accuracy of the distance measurement was hampered by how faint ground based telescopes could see. Up until the 1990's, the best estimates for Ho were between 50 km/s/Mpc and 90 km/s/Mpc, giving a range on the age of the universe between 7 and 20 billion years.</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Enter the Hubble Space Telescope</span><br style="font-style: italic;"><br style="font-style: italic;"><span style="font-style: italic;">So in 1993, the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope began a "key project" to obtain distances to the Cepheids in 18 galaxies. Astronomers were able to obtain for the first time more precise distances, and a more accurate value of Ho. In 1999 after several years of observations with HST astronomers were able to estimate Ho to be 71 km/s/Mpc within 10% uncertainty, one of the greatest achievements of modern astronomy. Extrapolating back to the Big Bang, that value of Ho implied an age between 9 and 14 billion years old.</span><br />[<a href="http://imagine.gsfc.nasa.gov/docs/features/exhibit/tenyear/age.html">Reference Here</a>]<br /><br />Astronomers note that most galaxies in the universe reside in groups and clusters, and astronomers say discovering clusters in the early phases of construction has been a challenge due to the fact that they are rare, dim and widely scattered across the sky. The new find helps demonstrate that galaxies build up progressively over time, researchers said. It also provides further evidence for the hierarchical model of galaxy assembly.<br /><br />The team of astronomers are scheduled to deliver the results of the findings Tuesday at the American Astronomical Society meeting in Austin, Texas. The study will also be published in an upcoming issue of The Astrophysical Journal.<br /><br />“Records are always exciting, and this is the earliest and the most distant developing galaxy cluster that has ever been seen,” said Michael Shull, a member of the team who discovered the protocluster. “We have seen individual galaxies this old and far away, but we have not seen groups of them in the construction process before.”<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">(<span style="font-style: italic;">ht: </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://www.thestatecolumn.com/science/hubble-snaps-photo-to-13-billion-year-old-galaxy-oldest-on-record/#ixzz1jRvMj2RJ">The State Column</a>)</span>... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-9199015223340806932011-12-24T14:48:00.000-08:002011-12-24T15:18:18.217-08:00An American President's Christmas Message From America To All<div style="text-align: center;"><iframe src="http://www.youtube.com/embed/ECw26FPJ6rk" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="301" width="400"></iframe><br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">An American President's Christmas Message From America To All</span><br /><br />It may amaze one to ponder that only 30 years ago (December 23, 1981), a President of the United States felt it was his leadership duty to speak directly about the reason for the season and assure all, whether they believed in Christianity or not, that our country and its citizens were protected here as one, under "Faith and Freedom" ... regardless of belief or circumstance.<br /><br />May God bless the memory of Ronald Reagan. A message as poignant and timeless in 1981 as it is here in 2011.<br /><br />Merry Christmas to all, and to all a good night!... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-80713414730799956302011-12-01T10:25:00.000-08:002011-12-02T15:52:21.903-08:00Permafrost Estimates Increase Its Potential Contribution To Climate Change Theory<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4LTqdggKkrjoXyybv2PEqRIi80pVjR-b_2JAW729alPhE95qyRIQlWGT03dOoQGnap09ztX7TFwkgiGfSXKSaejGhT17tl2TJ5rX8lMZLP0sfm6BNJAm6wJFiz91sc4BzQGHQ3mNnM3k8/s1600/melting-permafrost1.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 266px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh4LTqdggKkrjoXyybv2PEqRIi80pVjR-b_2JAW729alPhE95qyRIQlWGT03dOoQGnap09ztX7TFwkgiGfSXKSaejGhT17tl2TJ5rX8lMZLP0sfm6BNJAm6wJFiz91sc4BzQGHQ3mNnM3k8/s400/melting-permafrost1.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5681210916468303938" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Melting permafrost makes the ground cave in, creating a ribbon or pocket of collapsed land called thermokarst. Scientists at Toolik are studying this to see how often they find it and what impacts it has on surrounding environments. Image Credit: trendsupdates.com</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Permafrost Estimates Increase Its Potential Contribution To Climate Change Theory</span><br /><br />All climate change attributed to the concept that "greenhouse gasses" are the main change agent may not be associated with actual human activity at all. A major contributor to Carbon and Methane gas released in our atmosphere may actually come from Earth's natural processes as the Earth goes through its cycles of hot and cold aided by the activity of our solar system's Sun.<br /><br />What the release of this information does not do, as nearly all Global Warming articles that put forward the conclusion that Human Activity is the primary reason for Earth's climate of change, is point out that <a href="http://maxine-log.blogspot.com/2010/03/agw-datasets-discovery-75-of-all.html">the math, most of the climate change projection in time models are based upon, is a fraud</a> that was exposed in November 2009 with the <a href="https://www.google.com/search?q=University+of+East+Anglia%2C+AGW&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a">unauthorized release of emails from the University of East Anglia in Great Britain</a>. That the theory, Anthropomorphic Global Warming (AGW) is just an effort fueled by the money from Governments and Institutions (in the form of grants) that get there power to do things by proving AGW actually exists.<br /><br />Take for example this article from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner. As it is written, it stands as a cheer-leading news piece without the balance of stating that all AGW/Climate Change studies are based upon a theory ... not a fact. The article referenced below has inclusions that help to bring balance to the article with "[called-out inclusions]".<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">This excerpted and edited from the Fairbanks Daily News-Miner -</span> <span style="font-size:130%;"> <span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;"><br /><br />New estimate boosts permafrost contribution to climate change</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">by Jeff Richardson / jrichardson@newsminer.com</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">A survey of 41 </span>[grant-paid]<span style="font-style: italic;"> scientists — including seven University of Alaska Fairbanks researchers — estimates the amount of carbon released from thawing permafrost by 2100 will be 1.7 to 5.2 times larger than previously estimated.<br /><br />Their conclusions, reported Wednesday in the scientific journal Nature, describe permafrost thawing as a likely accelerator of </span>[the unproven concept on]<span style="font-style: italic;"> global warming.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />In most soils such material is typically in the top several feet, but in frozen soils those carbon-filled sediments can be much deeper.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />Because of that, the estimated amount of carbon stored in northern soils has tripled in recent years, to roughly 1,700 billion tons. That’s four times more than all the carbon emitted by human activity since the Industrial Revolution and twice as much as is currently present in the atmosphere.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />“Soils in the north are cold,” said Ben Abbott, a UAF doctoral student at the Institute of Arctic Biology and co-author of the Nature article. “It’s like a big refrigerator, and all that material is just stored.”</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />With that much carbon-filled material present, a small change in the estimated amount released could make a notable difference in climate change projections. Most scientists </span><span>[an untrue assumption]</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> believe gases such as carbon dioxide and methane, both of which are released by warming permafrost, contribute to global warming</span> [an unproven concept]<span style="font-style: italic;">.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />But researchers studying northern areas with permafrost have admittedly sparse data </span>[not enough for true conclusions]<span style="font-style: italic;">, said Ted Schuur, a University of Florida professor who co-authored the article. Because of that, he said, numerous members of the Permafrost Carbon Research Network were surveyed to collect a larger picture, combining scientific data with their predictions. A National Science Foundation grant paid for the work </span>[as in, follow the money]<span style="font-style: italic;">.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">“We don’t know exactly what’s going to happen, but these are probably the best people to ask </span>[a collection of people who get paid to come up with these conclusions]<span style="font-style: italic;">,” Schuur said.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />----</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br />Ben Abbott, the UAF doctoral student at the Institute of Arctic Biology and co-author of the Nature article mentioned above said he and other researchers have more work ahead to test their hypotheses </span><span>[again, not factual conclusions]</span><span style="font-style: italic;"> through field research. He’s spent recent summers at Toolik Field Station, a research center north of the Brooks Range, and said he’s looking forward to another season of testing soil cores and water samples for gas emissions </span>[no mention that the most abundant greenhouse gas that exists on Earth is Water Vapor]<span style="font-style: italic;">.</span> <span style="font-style: italic;"><br /><br />Other UAF researchers who participated in the survey included Terry Chapin, IAB professor emeritus; Guido Grosse, research assistant professor at the Geophysical Institute; Dave McGuire, professor of ecology; Chien-Lu Ping, natural resources professor; Vladimir Romanovsky, Geophysical Institute professor; and Katey Walter Anthony, research assistant professor with the International Arctic Research Center.</span><br />[<a href="http://newsminer.com/bookmark/16613931-New-estimate-boosts-permafrost-contribution-to-climate-change">Reference Here</a>]<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Biggest Take-Away:</span> <span style="font-style: italic;">"The estimated amount of carbon stored in northern soils has tripled to roughly 1,700 billion tons. That’s four times more than all the carbon emitted by human activity since the Industrial Revolution and twice as much as is currently present in the atmosphere."</span><br /><br />What this information proves is that "greenhouse gasses" and their regulation may do nothing to curb the changes in a system of changing climate found here on this Oblate Spheroid.<br /><br />Live cleanly? ... Yes!<br /><br />Live under the cloud of regulation based on the grant-fueled, unproven theory that Human Activity and its control can effect climate here on Earth? ... No!<br /><br />Lest one wants to put forward the additional theory that Man, and his activity, are the small rock that has turned into this larger problematic snowball, check out this article that was written before the discovery of the FRAUD that became "Climategate" in November 2009, by the <a target="_blank" href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html" href="http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/02/070228-mars-warming.html">National Geographic about Polar Ice Caps</a>!<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /><<em>first seen as <a href="http://technorati.com/technology/article/permafrost-estimates-increase-its-potential-contribution/">Permafrost Estimates Increase Its Potential Contribution To Climate Change Theory</a> at Technorati</em><span style="font-style: italic;"> and<a href="http://politisite.com/2011/12/01/permafrost-estimates-increase-its-potential-contribution-to-climate-change-theory/"> Politisite</a></span>></span>... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-1885136345026361492011-11-18T09:45:00.000-08:002011-11-18T11:03:52.447-08:00Matter/ Antimatter - Atom Smasher Makes New Discovery<br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dugIjlKXv0ZE3PNEObx7O4rEndNB84wTHEbJbmJDqQLPdrPMgeVhoHCx23GciMXt3JPr1vPXsk6XfUttUjHS1fdFne4vfEsmc6I76Mj_NctxnANIsEUF6WfjRhqfhk4JdWsP0vVi0Siz/s1600/LHCb-cern.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 258px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi1dugIjlKXv0ZE3PNEObx7O4rEndNB84wTHEbJbmJDqQLPdrPMgeVhoHCx23GciMXt3JPr1vPXsk6XfUttUjHS1fdFne4vfEsmc6I76Mj_NctxnANIsEUF6WfjRhqfhk4JdWsP0vVi0Siz/s400/LHCb-cern.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5676358332001509170" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">The LHCb team stands in front of their experiment, the LHCb detecor, at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva. Image Credit: CERN/Maximilien Brice, Rachel Barbier</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Matter/ Antimatter - Atom Smasher Makes New Discovery</span><br /><br />An atom smasher based near Geneva, Switzerland conducted an experiment recently and found that there may be bits of matter that don't mirror the behavior of their antimatter counterparts.<br /><br />This observance is unexpected, in that scientists have operated under the theory the universe started off with roughly equal amounts of matter and antimatter where particles of antimatter have the same mass of their twins but an opposite charge. They theorized that over the ensuing 14 billion years, most of the antimatter was destroyed, leaving a leftover universe of mainly matter.<br /><br />After many experiments, in Switzerland, using the Large Hadron Collider, the 17-mile (27 km) circular particle accelerator, researchers are reporting that some matter particles produced inside the machine appear to be behaving differently from their antimatter counterparts, which might provide a partial explanation to the mystery of antimatter.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpY0YUHecqr0p8HcSuiTlLTk8Exk3IIqACKEE0U-JGPw5-Zyd8WApC2dsNtag1V4YK8-KJ3BzI3q41ms-nDpS14NkkAG-Af8AGmkx3J9UHXoF7pRjpsHygf3XMqqVHYprMFPV8LCCAgl84/s1600/antihelium-rhic+-+web.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 364px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpY0YUHecqr0p8HcSuiTlLTk8Exk3IIqACKEE0U-JGPw5-Zyd8WApC2dsNtag1V4YK8-KJ3BzI3q41ms-nDpS14NkkAG-Af8AGmkx3J9UHXoF7pRjpsHygf3XMqqVHYprMFPV8LCCAgl84/s400/antihelium-rhic+-+web.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5676371915529232066" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Roughly equal amounts of matter and antimatter are created in the collision of energetic gold nuclei inside the particle accelerator dubbed RHIC, but because the fireball expands and cools quickly, antimatter can survive longer than that created in the big bang. In this collision an ordinary helium-4 nucleus (background) is matched by a nucleus of antihelium-4 (foreground). Image Credit: STAR Collaboration and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">This excerpted and edited from LiveScience.com - </span><br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-style: italic; font-weight: bold;">Is the New Physics Here? Atom Smashers Get an Antimatter Surprise</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-style: italic;">By lt | LiveScience.com</span></span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">One potential explanation for this outcome is called "charge-parity violation." CP violation means that particles of opposite charge behave differently from one another.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The LHCb researchers found preliminary evidence that this is happening when particles called D-mesons, which contain "charmed quarks," decay into other particles. The whimsically named charmed quarks, like many exotic particles, are so unstable, they last only a fraction of a second. They quickly decay into other particles, and it is these products that the experiment detects. ("LHCb" is short for LHC-beauty, another flavor of quark.)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">From the experiment, the researchers found a 0.8 percent difference in the probabilities that the matter and antimatter versions of these particles would decay into a particular end state.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The new finding ranks as a "3.5 sigma" result, meaning the statistics are solid enough that there is only a 0.05 percent likelihood that the pattern they see isn't really there. For something to count as a true discovery in particle physics, it must reach a 5 sigma level of confidence.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"It's certainly exciting, and certainly worth pursuing," LHCb researcher Matthew Charles of England's Oxford University told LiveScience. "At this point it's a tantalizing hint. It's evidence of something interesting going on, but we're keeping the champagne on ice, let's say."</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">If the finding is borne out, it would be a big deal, because it would mean the reigning theory of particle physics, called the Standard Model, is incomplete. Currently the Standard Model does allow for some minor CP violation, but not at the level of 0.8 percent. To explain these results, scientists would have to alter their theory or add some new physics to the existing picture.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">One possible example of the kind of new physics that might explain such CP violation is called supersymmetry. This theory suggests that in addition to all the known particles, there are supersymmetric partner particles that differ by half a unit of spin. Spin is one of the fundamental characteristics of elementary particles.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">So far, no one has found direct evidence of supersymmetry. But if supersymmetric particles exist, they might be created instantaneously and disappear again during the particle-decay process. That way they could interfere with the decay process, potentially explaining why matter and antimatter decay differently.</span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">[<a href="http://news.yahoo.com/physics-atom-smashers-antimatter-surprise-232412931.html">Reference Here</a>]</span><br /><br />As the old saying goes ... the more man gains answers to questions, the more questions to be answered are raised here ... on this <a href="http://oblate-spheroid.blogspot.com/">Oblate Spheroid</a>.<br /><br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /><<span style="font-style: italic;">Article seen first as </span><a style="font-style: italic;" href="http://technorati.com/technology/article/matter-antimatter-atom-smasher-makes-new/">Matter / Antimatter - Atom Smasher Makes New Discovery</a><span style="font-style: italic;"> at Technorati</span>></span>... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-89047263210940612902011-08-02T07:19:00.000-07:002011-08-03T07:48:53.058-07:00Toyota (TMG - Europe) To Attempt New Speed Record For Electric-Powered Vehicle<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiViQf73U_uYtt2wJ_GdixkpoulixmcnA4r9BJUMUvIaLWl3sZmSWpYSLNfezPp3TbkczYCp3KIvgAolJdMmmBzmBo-XJRYGeoFo-uve1SOB1ZHNZA3rdgv020UikZebFQd01FM4EMTyu0C/s1600/header_alpha1srf_01.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 132px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiViQf73U_uYtt2wJ_GdixkpoulixmcnA4r9BJUMUvIaLWl3sZmSWpYSLNfezPp3TbkczYCp3KIvgAolJdMmmBzmBo-XJRYGeoFo-uve1SOB1ZHNZA3rdgv020UikZebFQd01FM4EMTyu0C/s400/header_alpha1srf_01.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5636263557240291378" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">No official photos of the Toyota EV racer yet, but the car is expected to be similar to this e-Wolf ALPHA·1 SRF. The "e-Wolf" features two high-capacity electric-powered engines that catapult the ALPHA 1 SRF to 100 km/h (62.137 mph) in less than 4 seconds. This vehicle was conceived for application on a full racing distance. Image Credit: ewolf-car.com</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Toyota (TMG - Europe) To Attempt New Speed Record For Electric-Powered Vehicle</span><br /><br />Toyota Motorsport GmbH (TMG) will attempt to set a new electric vehicle (EV) lap record at the legendary Nürburgring Nordschleife. The current record is held by e·WOLF, a Germany based pioneer in the area of street-legal electric vehicles.<br /><br />TMG has developed a high-performance electric powertrain and this will form the basis of the record attempt, which is provisionally scheduled for the end of August.<br /><br />The TMG 100% electric car, which is based on a two-seater sportscar chassis fitted with TMG’s exclusive EV technology, has a top speed of 260km/h and can travel from 0 to 100km/h in 3.9 seconds.<br /><br />This car is ideal for a single-make EV championship and TMG aims to prove that green-thinking motorsport can generate emotion among fans by using innovative technology to deliver high performance.<br /><br />Its challenge is to break the existing EV lap record of 9min 1.338secs set earlier this year. Already the TMG electric powertain has bettered this time during unofficial testing and it is expected to make a significant improvement during the official timed laps.<br /><br />Rob Leupen, TMG’s Director of Business Operations, said: <span style="font-style: italic;">“We are extremely confident we can break the record by some distance, which is an indication of how EV performance is continuously improving. TMG is a leader in high-performance powertrains and we want to show the world how far this technology has developed. Our mission is to advance this technology, not only in motorsport but in the automotive sector in general, to deliver products with more performance and better durability for our customers.”</span><br /><br />Ludwig Zeller, TMG’s General Manager Electrics and Electronics, said: <span style="font-style: italic;">“TMG has developed a very robust and reliable electric powertrain, which has been proven in several products already. We have built up a tremendous amount of knowledge about such high-performance powertrains, particularly battery management systems and vehicle control units, during our development programmes. Our lap record attempt brings together this knowledge and it should clearly show the great potential of high-performance electric powertrains.”</span><br /><br />Further details about the project, including photographs and a timetable for the record attempt, will follow in the coming days.<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">(<span style="font-style: italic;">ht: TMG</span>)</span><br /><br />... notes from The EDJE<br /><br /><span style="font-size:78%;"><br />[<em>Article first published as <a rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://technorati.com/technology/article/new-speed-record-attempt-for-electric/">New Speed Record Attempt For Electric-Powered Vehicle At Nurburgring</a> on Technorati</em>]</span>... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-75378447880638384782011-08-02T06:00:00.000-07:002011-08-02T17:15:07.874-07:00Twisting Buzz Lightyear ... "To Beyond, And Infinity"<br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbFncJa-FaSRcMb4BV3WvVZtOr6IsrTRe4SUp_fyPKd14smipUqTCdtoxix3q1Eg3duhdzAF7wYFSCpEv5upX5OdXbHZDJYyyAuNORlD8YWX-KvloGPzGqRnxttu8jh6itbfSBG-U4UeIs/s1600/nhsc2011-013a1-Sm.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhbFncJa-FaSRcMb4BV3WvVZtOr6IsrTRe4SUp_fyPKd14smipUqTCdtoxix3q1Eg3duhdzAF7wYFSCpEv5upX5OdXbHZDJYyyAuNORlD8YWX-KvloGPzGqRnxttu8jh6itbfSBG-U4UeIs/s400/nhsc2011-013a1-Sm.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5636104495511185746" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Using the infrared Herschel Space Observatory, Astronomers have discovered this ring of gas at the center of our Milky Way that looks like an infinity symbol - image annotated. The image was taken using two of Herschel's instruments -- the photodetector array camera and spectrometer (70-micron-light is coded blue; 160-micron light is coded green) and the spectral and photometric imaging receiver (350-micron light is red). Image Credit: ESA/NASA/JPL-Caltech</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Twisting Buzz Lightyear ... "To Beyond, And Infinity"</span><br /><br />In a strange twist of science, astronomers using the Herschel Space Observatory have discovered that a suspected ring at the center of our galaxy is warped for reasons they cannot explain. The above image reveals the ring with greater clarity than ever before. It can be seen as the yellow loop that appears to have two lobes, highlighted here with a white ribbon overlay. In fact, the ring, which is a collection of very dense and cold gas and dust, is twisted so that part of it rises above and below the plane of our Milky Way galaxy.<br /><br />Astronomers aren't sure how rings like this form in galaxies but some theories suggest they arise out of gravitational disturbances with neighboring galaxies. New stars are thought to be forming in the dense gas making up the ring.<br /><br />According to NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, Calif., astronomers were shocked by what they saw when they aimed the telescope at the galaxy's inner ring.<br /><br />"[The] <span style="font-style: italic;">ring, which is in the plane of our galaxy, looked more like an infinity symbol with two lobes pointing to the side,"</span> JPL officials said in a statement. <span style="font-style: italic;">"In fact, they later determined the ring was torqued in the middle, so it only appears to have two lobes. To picture the structure, imagine holding a stiff, elliptical band and twisting the ends in opposite directions, so that one side comes up a bit."</span><br /><br />Previous observations to date had only revealed portions of the ring. The Herschel Space Observatory, an infrared European Space Agency-led mission with important NASA contributions, sees long-wavelength infrared light, which can penetrate through the murky region at the center of our galaxy, allowing Herschel to get a more complete view.<br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"This is what is so exciting about launching a new space telescope like Herschel,"</span> said Sergio Molinari of the Institute of Space Physics in Rome, lead author of a new paper on the ring in the journal Astrophysical Journal Letters. <span style="font-style: italic;">"We have a new and exciting mystery on our hands, right at the center of our own galaxy."</span><br /><br />The ring stretches across more than 300 light-years of space, and is about 15 Kelvin (that's minus 433 degrees Fahrenheit here on the Oblate Spheroid). The warmest material in this picture is blue, and the coldest is red.<br /><br />The twist in the ring is not the only mystery to come out of the new Herschel observations. Astronomers say that the center of the torqued portion of the ring is not where the center of the galaxy is thought to be, but slightly offset. The center of our galaxy is considered to be around "Sagittarius A*," where a massive black hole lies. According to Alberto Noriega-Crespo of NASA's Infrared Processing and Analysis Center at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena, it's not clear why the center of the ring doesn't match up with the assumed center of our galaxy. <span style="font-style: italic;">"There's still so much about our galaxy to discover," </span>he said.<br /><br />Oh, and the reference to Toy Story's Buzz Lightyear? ... Whenever he launched himself to be in flight, he would always exclaim, "To infinity, and beyond!" Little did the writers and creators of Toy Story know that there was actually a destination as ... Infinity.<br /><br />An abstract and full PDF of the Astrophysical Journal Letters study is online at <a href="http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.5486">http://arxiv.org/abs/1105.5486</a>.<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">(ht: herschel.caltech.edu & space.com)<br /><br />[<span style="font-style: italic;">Article first published as </span><a style="font-style: italic;" rel="nofollow" target="_blank" href="http://technorati.com/technology/article/twisting-buzz-lightyear-to-beyond-and/">Twisting Buzz Lightyear ... "To Beyond, And Infinity"</a><span style="font-style: italic;"> on Technorati</span></span><span style="font-size:78%;">]<br /></span>... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-9969994967876831782011-05-13T09:56:00.000-07:002011-05-13T10:14:24.028-07:00Google's Blogger Down For Over 24 Hours!<br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgasO38SWbyy02fufkeOBOf8XMK2-V6HpIMBaP0eB9RvpXOqLSw1jj3LQVlFSZSD0CpNvLNTT92gvCC6_lOIedBYmwsGpvtaJvTqoWx8RuQzZF0J13ONozdSVCZUQ8mBe9WS4MyIOPM8ukF/s1600/Blogger+Logo.jpg"><img style="display:block; margin:0px auto 10px; text-align:center;cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 225px; height: 224px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgasO38SWbyy02fufkeOBOf8XMK2-V6HpIMBaP0eB9RvpXOqLSw1jj3LQVlFSZSD0CpNvLNTT92gvCC6_lOIedBYmwsGpvtaJvTqoWx8RuQzZF0J13ONozdSVCZUQ8mBe9WS4MyIOPM8ukF/s400/Blogger+Logo.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5606247176495985058" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Blogger Logo - Image Credit: Blogger.com</span><br /><br /><p style="font-weight: bold;">Google's Blogger Down For Over 24 Hours!</p><p>Blogger ... Google's web log hosting portal, has been down for a full 24 hours at the time of this posting.</p><p>This seems like a modern era record for this usually very reliable communications service and personal publishing arm of the giant search powerhouse, Google.</p><p>With all of the push Google has been putting in on Chrome, one has to ask - Is Blogger now becoming just an ugly stepchild to the array of focused services that Google has to offer? What - isn't Blogger sexy enough for Google to keep outages down to a minimum?</p><p>If this is the case, Google's shine is losing its luster.</p><p style="font-weight: bold;">This excerpted from Blogger's Status Link:</p><div id="header"><div id="h2"><div id="h3"> <a href="http://www.blogger.com/" id="logo" title="Blogger"><img src="http://www2.blogger.com/img/logo40.gif" alt="Blogger" height="40" width="150" /></a> <p id="tag"><em>Push-Button Publishing</em></p> </div></div></div> <h1>Blogger <strong>Status</strong></h1> <h2>Friday, May 13, 2011</h2> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:100%;">We’ve started restoring the posts that were temporarily removed and expect Blogger to be back to normal soon. </span></div> <p style="padding-left:20px;border-bottom:solid 1px #F5EDE3;margin-bottom:2em;padding-bottom:10pxfont-size:85%;"><span style="font-size:100%;"> Posted by at <a href="http://status.blogger.com/2011/05/weve-started-restoring-posts-that-were.html" title="permanent link">06:07</a> PDT </span></p> <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size:100%;">To get Blogger back to normal, all posts since 7:37am PDT on Weds, 5/11 have been temporarily removed. We expect everything to be back to normal soon. Sorry for the delay.</span></div><p><span style="font-size:100%;"> Posted by at <a href="http://status.blogger.com/2011/05/to-get-blogger-back-to-normal-all-posts.html" title="permanent link">04:25</a> PDT</span></p><p>----</p><p><span style="font-size:130%;"><strong>UPDATE May 13, 2011 - 9:50am PT:</strong></span><br /></p><p>Blogger back online after nearly 30 hours of non-service.<br /></p>Thanks, Google ... but we will be keeping an eye on you.... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-33691553824274336702011-03-29T18:00:00.000-07:002011-03-29T19:32:45.154-07:00First Image Of Mercury From NASA Spaceship In Orbit Around Planet<div><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbe6ZDKH2oY7nchje1IphTkeEJerbUPUp81NTvwSv1LxodL1ZFT2SUEDmbkZ4btxDMVRHfHEb9ZLYf0Te3cIiZQf00_uB429-oJ23fYcdw_LYvEZjaNnrUbPX-Vb_Xzh6MI8xc_0uZaTPH/s1600/EW0209877871I_cal.png"><img style="text-align: center; margin: 0px auto 10px; width: 400px; display: block; height: 400px;" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5589682658027722834" alt="" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbe6ZDKH2oY7nchje1IphTkeEJerbUPUp81NTvwSv1LxodL1ZFT2SUEDmbkZ4btxDMVRHfHEb9ZLYf0Te3cIiZQf00_uB429-oJ23fYcdw_LYvEZjaNnrUbPX-Vb_Xzh6MI8xc_0uZaTPH/s400/EW0209877871I_cal.png" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Image Credit: NASA/Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory/Carnegie Institution of Washington </span></div>
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<br />First Image Of Mercury From NASA Spaceship In Orbit Around Planet</span>
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Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin-top:0in; mso-para-margin-right:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:10.0pt; mso-para-margin-left:0in; line-height:115%; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:11.0pt; font-family:"Calibri","sans-serif"; mso-ascii-font-family:Calibri; mso-ascii-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font:minor-fareast; mso-hansi-font-family:Calibri; mso-hansi-theme-font:minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-theme-font:minor-bidi;} </style> <![endif]--> <p class="MsoNormal"><b>Date acquired:</b> March 29, 2011
<br /><b>Image Mission Elapsed Time (MET):</b> 209877871
<br /><b>Image ID:</b> 65056
<br /><b>Instrument:</b> Wide Angle Camera (WAC) of the Mercury Dual Imaging System (MDIS)
<br /><b>Center Latitude:</b> -53.3°
<br /><b>Center Longitude:</b> 13.0° E
<br /><b>Resolution:</b> 2.7 kilometers/pixel (1.7 miles/pixel)
<br /><b>Scale:</b> Debussy has a diameter of 80 kilometers (50 miles)
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<br /><b>Of Interest:</b> Early this morning, at 5:20 am EDT, MESSENGER captured this historic image of Mercury. This image is the first ever obtained from a spacecraft in orbit about the Solar System's innermost planet. Over the subsequent six hours, MESSENGER acquired an additional 363 images before downlinking some of the data to Earth. The MESSENGER team is currently looking over the newly returned data, which are still continuing to come down. Tomorrow, March 30, at 2 pm EDT, <a href="http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/messenger/media/Telecon20110328.html">attend the NASA media telecon</a> to view more images from MESSENGER's first look at Mercury from orbit.
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<br />The dominant rayed crater in the upper portion of the image is <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?image_id=385">Debussy</a>. The smaller crater <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?image_id=390">Matabei</a> with its unusual dark rays is visible to the west of Debussy. The bottom portion of this image is near Mercury's south pole and includes a region of Mercury's surface not previously seen by spacecraft. Compare this image to <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/gallery/sciencePhotos/image.php?image_id=429">the planned image footprint</a> to see the region of newly imaged terrain, south of Debussy. Over the next three days, MESSENGER will acquire 1185 additional images in support of MDIS commissioning-phase activities. The year-long primary science phase of the mission will begin on April 4, and the orbital observation plan calls for MDIS to acquire more than 75,000 images in support of MESSENGER's science goals.
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<br />On March 17, 2011 (March 18, 2011, UTC), MESSENGER <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/news_room/details.php?id=162">became the first spacecraft to orbit the planet Mercury</a>. The mission is currently in its commissioning phase, during which spacecraft and instrument performance are verified through a series of specially designed checkout activities. In the course of the one-year primary mission, the spacecraft's <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/instruments/index.html">seven scientific instruments and radio science investigation</a> will unravel the history and evolution of the Solar System's innermost planet. Visit the <a href="http://messenger.jhuapl.edu/why_mercury/index.html">Why Mercury?</a> section of this website to learn more about the science questions that the MESSENGER mission has set out to answer.</p>
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<br />UPDATES To Follow ...
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<br />... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-55618382470953838412011-02-18T08:00:00.000-08:002011-05-18T06:01:02.816-07:00Anti-Laser - The "Coherent Perfect Absorber" Is Born<br><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJvGw85DLnfPL2-RGUihZwF8Z2Ad0sEcKrXOrxGkDQ5MPwc7CjfhGMO2xpbnyDi3GrVYr-BpeVwM8Q6g3VfWDhJ8rIhhTLJFgOkMcyp46oRI06llfVTzy6GpJc1UY5YKSLsqVjqRh8nJQK/s1600/CPA+Graphic+-+Science.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 207px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhJvGw85DLnfPL2-RGUihZwF8Z2Ad0sEcKrXOrxGkDQ5MPwc7CjfhGMO2xpbnyDi3GrVYr-BpeVwM8Q6g3VfWDhJ8rIhhTLJFgOkMcyp46oRI06llfVTzy6GpJc1UY5YKSLsqVjqRh8nJQK/s400/CPA+Graphic+-+Science.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575049600848347826" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">In the anti-laser, incoming light waves are trapped in a cavity where they bounce back and forth until they are eventually absorbed. Their energy is dissipated as heat. Image Credit: Yidong Chong/Yale University</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Anti-Laser - The "Coherent Perfect Absorber" Is Born</span><br /><br />Everyone is familiar with laser light emitting devices such as pointers used in presentations and lectures, lightshows performed at events, openings, and concerts, even with the red-light that hits a barcode on the front of one's morning newspaper and pastry purchase at the corner 7-11 ... but this was not the case 51 years ago.<br /><br />Now there is a new tool that has been developed through the the use of focused wavelength of light but unlike with the laser, where the focused wavelength is passed through a material that amplifies the light, the anti-laser utilities the opposite concept of passing a focused wavelength of light through material that absorbs the light. The process has been given the name "Coherent Perfect Absorber" giving a new, future meaning to the an-acronym "CPA".<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc-Q6Ms0rX6Nx_KZpEq_AHh2-3jOnOHpZyEEQtpAheaotC4v0G_Zg_QD0KctM95EJo43vvUNH4UcswZG5R_cEjDzaR3mGrGbZDJue2HtlLmHWpDo9nUzYLQJ7EsIrSCK4GaEsPRNvLlA7i/s1600/CPA+Computer+Graphic.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 236px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhc-Q6Ms0rX6Nx_KZpEq_AHh2-3jOnOHpZyEEQtpAheaotC4v0G_Zg_QD0KctM95EJo43vvUNH4UcswZG5R_cEjDzaR3mGrGbZDJue2HtlLmHWpDo9nUzYLQJ7EsIrSCK4GaEsPRNvLlA7i/s400/CPA+Computer+Graphic.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575046188162013218" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">In an anti-laser, or coherent perfect absorber, the outgoing laser beams are replaced by incoming ones, and light flows into a light-absorbing material instead of out of a light-amplifying one. Image Credit: Science/AAAS</span><br /><br />When the laser was first conceptualized and developed into a working device, no one knew that it would eventually lead to replacing records and needles when one listens to music or film projectors when one watches a home movie transferred from a computer to a laser/DVD disc. The same could be said at the dawn of the anti-laser CPA process, No one knows what this new tool will bring to the tool-box, and what new applications can be developed, to solve the many problems we encounter that make our lives easier and more efficient.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLyzZL5irIprY__L4Uz9-a8RRrGpQNMoorNyz3DxdGR8YGX4nPK0VHSC4RYHOQwaeGFv_RcP5Zax1ACqgfZoLyoLGdYVt5mdApLJgChwPiwjRYpkndPxVbaE4kphuRZT4i9qca9WR8VfeX/s1600/CPA+Graph.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 166px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgLyzZL5irIprY__L4Uz9-a8RRrGpQNMoorNyz3DxdGR8YGX4nPK0VHSC4RYHOQwaeGFv_RcP5Zax1ACqgfZoLyoLGdYVt5mdApLJgChwPiwjRYpkndPxVbaE4kphuRZT4i9qca9WR8VfeX/s400/CPA+Graph.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575046188557999954" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Coherent light is incident on an absorbing material in a resonator formed by two parallel reflective surfaces or mirrors. The interplay of absorption and interference leads to perfect absorption of the incoming radiation and its conversion into other forms of energy1. The schematic of a laser would be entirely analogous, with only the arrows for light and energy reversed: energy pumped in would result in coherent light out. Image Credit: Nature Volume: 467, Pages: 37–39 Date published: (02 September 2010)</span><br /><br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHQwkCRlDUsHP2dP9XWuAfejBCS1OPOxZjgB6g-BDqV8PC-MoHvWxi3Qbh2jkmioxSW7HoKZ-Mn3_ubnxLDicN6HvJXOUMsylCbJIbUzhZx9wfs2zsyS5alFec_zdiBUaYrfvwpgMUyxal/s1600/Dr.+Wenjie+Wan+-+Stephen+Dunn%252C+Hartfors+Courant.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 305px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjHQwkCRlDUsHP2dP9XWuAfejBCS1OPOxZjgB6g-BDqV8PC-MoHvWxi3Qbh2jkmioxSW7HoKZ-Mn3_ubnxLDicN6HvJXOUMsylCbJIbUzhZx9wfs2zsyS5alFec_zdiBUaYrfvwpgMUyxal/s400/Dr.+Wenjie+Wan+-+Stephen+Dunn%252C+Hartfors+Courant.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5575046183207496114" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Dr. Wenjie Wan, a Phd from Princeton University, is a post-doctoral associate in applied physics at Yale. In photo, Wan works with the optical set up for an anti-laser experiment in the applied physics lab at Yale which involves prisms, mirrors and silicon. An anti-laser (or, in technical terms, "coherent perfect absorber") works in the reverse of a conventional laser. Instead of emitting a beam of light, it absorbs it. Two laser beams with the exact same frequencies are emitted into a silicon wafer. The silicon aligns the light waves so that they become interlocked and oscillate until they are absorbed and transformed into heat. The concept is in it's infancy and may be adapted to new computer technology down the road. Image Credit: STEPHEN DUNN, Hartford Courant (2011)</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">This excerpted and edited from the Hartford Courant -</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Anti-Laser Is Here</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:78%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Yale researchers butild device that absorbs light</span><br />By William Weir - Hartford Courant - Feb. 17, 2011</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">A. Douglas Stone, a physicist, and his team describe the anti-laser in Friday's issue of Science.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The possibility of an anti-laser had been suggested by other scientists, but only in passing, Stone said. And other physicists have stumbled upon the basic premise while working on other projects, he said, but they did not follow through.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"Nobody took it serious, until us," Stone said. "It was literally a footnote."</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Any dark material can absorb light — a car's black interior on a summer day, for instance — but to absorb near 100 percent of the light of a laser beam requires a bit more precision. The difference in the anti-laser is that instead of using an amplifying material, it uses one that absorbs it — or a "loss medium." After his research team did the math, Stone said, they decided that silicon was the best choice.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The anti-laser is set up to split a single laser beam into two and direct the two beams to head toward each other, meeting at the paper-thin silicon wafer. The light's waves are precisely tuned to interlock with each other and become trapped. They then dissipate into heat.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Perhaps the most novel part of the device is that it allows the operator to tune the light's wavelengths and determine how much of the laser light is absorbed. That allows the device to work as an on-off switch for light.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Stone first proposed the idea last year, in a paper published in the journal Physical Review Letters. But it's one thing to write about it and do the math, and it's another to actually create it. That's where Stone's collaborators came in, a team of applied physicists headed by Hui Cao and Wenjie Wan. The divide between theoretical physics and applied physics is a stark one. As of Wednesday, Stone hadn't yet seen the finished device, built in another building on campus</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Wan said it took about a year to build the device. Pointing at the mirrors, prism, beam splitter and the silicon wafer that make up the device's basic components, he said the design is fairly simple. But achieving the necessary level of precision was a challenge. Even now, they're fine-tuning it.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Now that the anti-laser has been built, what exactly do you do with it? Its best potential use, so far, appears to be in optical switches, used in the next generation of computers, which operate on light as well as electrons. Cao also has suggested that it could be useful in radiology, capturing images of human tissue normally too deep to see.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">But as with much of science, the practical applications will be for others to figure out.</span><br /><a href="http://www.latimes.com/health/hc-weir-yale-reverse-laser-0218-20110217,0,7472127.column">Reference Here</a>>>... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-6303237634699633052010-12-01T08:32:00.000-08:002010-12-02T14:19:53.672-08:00The Circular Nature Of Homo Sapiens<br><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="325" width="400"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/hDV3Kpvx5jw?fs=1&hl=en_US"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/hDV3Kpvx5jw?fs=1&hl=en_US" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="325" width="400"></embed></object><br /></div><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">The Circular Nature Of Homo Sapiens</span><br /><br />Humans can't walk in a straight line. If there's no fixed point of reference, <a href="http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2010/11/03/131050832/a-mystery-why-can-t-we-walk-straight">our species just walk in circles</a> and inevitably … get lost. Nobody knows why, but researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Biological Cybernetics have confirmed this tendency in several experiments.<br /><br />If one walks, drives or sails wearing a blindfolded, in the middle of a fog occurrence, or at night without stars in sight, a human will not be able to keep moving in a direction that would be a straight line. No matter how hard one tries, humans will end up going in a circular direction because, for some mysterious reason, humans always have the tendency to lean (and thereby move) toward one side more than the other.<br /><br />Some people speculate that this is because one side of the brain is dominating the other one. While other people speculate that the reason may be purely mechanical reasoning (with their reasoning side of the brain) that one of our legs is always sightly shorter than the other. But, according to the results of the study, these are not the causes for this unique behavior. At least, there's not one single explanation and it may be a combination of many.<br /><br />Whatever the reasons are, don't get placed into a dark forest blindfolded and without a compass – however … <a href="http://gizmodo.com/5655527/man-drowns-after-gps-guides-him-into-a-lake">screw the GPS</a> when navigating around this Oblate Spheroid.<p></p>... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-27476691756259509952010-10-28T05:48:00.000-07:002010-10-28T07:47:26.685-07:00Virgin Galactic - Commercial Space Flight Celebrates Two Milestones<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv2QvzW-LLubs_qabTwrSD1aFTsySXVLcMBk9-MOAMIfZRZyrahSSwfWppJb8y2Twd56LOGrEPCYal7bzzU1xoMyoqquqJ0mGLYAzx-om3Ldj2fVzzkwJMLm6XbyY1PLYHoxRfXtTXs14d/s1600/621105963842_10+-+Married+Pair.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 257px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhv2QvzW-LLubs_qabTwrSD1aFTsySXVLcMBk9-MOAMIfZRZyrahSSwfWppJb8y2Twd56LOGrEPCYal7bzzU1xoMyoqquqJ0mGLYAzx-om3Ldj2fVzzkwJMLm6XbyY1PLYHoxRfXtTXs14d/s400/621105963842_10+-+Married+Pair.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5533098084175595538" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">The Virgin Galactic VSS Enterprise spacecraft, carried by Mothership Eve, prepares to during the Spaceport America runway dedication ceremony near Truth or Consequences and Las Cruses, N.M. Image Credit: Mark Rakston/AFP/Getty Images</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Virgin Galactic - <a href="http://www.examiner.com/motor-culture-in-los-angeles/virgin-galactic-commercial-space-flight-celebrates-two-milestones">Commercial Space Flight Celebrates Two Milestones</a></span><br /><br />Richard Bransom's dream to bring space flight to paying customers just notched two milestones this month over the deserts of California and New Mexico.<br /><br />Launched from Mojave, California where the Virgin Galactic SpaceShip2 (VSS Enterprise) and its launch platform "mothership", WhiteKnight2 (Eve) were created, the first test flight took place on October 11, 2010. Virgin Galactic's space tourism rocket airship achieved its first solo glide flight marking another step in the company's eventual plans to fly paying passengers.<br /><br />The rocket airship was carried aloft by its mothership to an altitude of 45,000 feet and released on a sunny Sunday day over the Mojave Desert. After the separation, SpaceShipTwo, manned by two test pilots, flew freely for 11 minutes before landing at an airport runway followed by the WhiteKnight2 mothership. The entire test flight process lasted about 25 minutes.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy45XODCnTxrCfQRYrZPUq6F6E4ZbkzMBjO85b0W5RyAmX2hCGloFOHa5c7ELN6725U-G65BdI88S-lLQ4UUGWb0B1iFXSJvmhPCGNGqQkcfaOMLUxDDbEEGmTEIMCzPuO7ysAjjLjeE7e/s1600/spaceportopens.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 265px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjy45XODCnTxrCfQRYrZPUq6F6E4ZbkzMBjO85b0W5RyAmX2hCGloFOHa5c7ELN6725U-G65BdI88S-lLQ4UUGWb0B1iFXSJvmhPCGNGqQkcfaOMLUxDDbEEGmTEIMCzPuO7ysAjjLjeE7e/s400/spaceportopens.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5533094211246153266" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">The Virgin Galactic SpaceShipTwo, "VSS Enterprise", married up with the WhiteKnightTwo mothership "Eve", flies over its new hangar as it prepares to land during the Spaceport America runway dedication in the southern New Mexico desert on October 22, 2010. Image Credit: Mark Rakston/AFP/Getty Images</span><br /><br />Eleven days later, on October 22, 2010 near Las Cruces and Truth Or Consequences , N.M., the New Mexico Spaceport Authority dedicated the nearly two-mile-long runway at Spaceport America. Spaceport America has been providing commercial launch services for rockets since 2006 and is scheduled to become fully operational with the inclusion of the Virgin Galactic operation next year.<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpjCdtEsGG5MxzkQt3CW9WgFYf2R-eFkdUpWxeKjw-Zy48l81oPavGRU7F3cpx8sv12Pb9EZ8OmKqmewli9LK8N0yQnAV9jd2eRuY9FJveavaDLblcB9ScMkwgliZuvCRoTzWBe2olCJKe/s1600/621105967476_10.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 265px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgpjCdtEsGG5MxzkQt3CW9WgFYf2R-eFkdUpWxeKjw-Zy48l81oPavGRU7F3cpx8sv12Pb9EZ8OmKqmewli9LK8N0yQnAV9jd2eRuY9FJveavaDLblcB9ScMkwgliZuvCRoTzWBe2olCJKe/s400/621105967476_10.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5533095557372416546" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Virgin Galactic's new terminal hangar at Spaceport America is seen during the Spaceport America runway dedication ceremony near Truth or Consequences, N.M. Image Credit: Mark Rakston/AFP/Getty Images</span><br /><br />Officials from Virgin showed off its new terminal hangar, which is nearing completion. The building is designed to house up to two WhiteKnightTwo motherships, five SpaceShipTwo space flight airships , Virgin's astronaut preparation facilities, and SpaceShip2 mission control operations.<br /><br />The event featured Billionaire and Virgin Galactic founder Richard Branson haming it up with New Mexico Govenor Bill Richardson, for whom the "Governor Bill Richardson Spaceway" is named.<br /><span style="font-style: italic;"><br />"We are celebrating the world's first spaceway at the world's first purpose-built, commercial spaceport," </span>Richardson said, according to a news release. <span style="font-style: italic;">"New Mexico is not only helping to launch the commercial spaceflight industry, but we are launching new jobs and opportunities for the people of southern New Mexico."</span><br /><br />Branson said: <span style="font-style: italic;">"Our spaceship is flying beautifully and will soon be making powered flights, propelled by our new hybrid rocket motor, which is also making excellent progress in its own test program. The investment deal with our new partners Aabar has successfully closed, securing funding for the remainder of the development program and we are seeing unprecedented numbers of people coming forward to secure their own reservations for this incredible experience."<br /></span><br />Tickets to ride aboard SpaceShipTwo cost $200,000. It is understood that 370 customers have already plunked down deposits totaling about $50 million, according to Virgin Galactic.<br /><br />NASA Deputy Administrator Lori Garver said: <span style="font-style: italic;">"With the recent signing of the NASA Authorization Act of 2010 by President Obama, it is clear that our nation's future space efforts will be working even more closely than with the growing commercial space transportation industry. Innovative approaches that foster this new commercial industry will bring more competition and opportunities that will lower the costs of spaceflight and payload services for America's aerospace programs, and introduce new human space transportation systems."</span><br /><br />Virgin Galactic plans to fly commercial customers into space from the Spaceport and landed its SpaceShipTwo, the "VSS Enterprise," carried by WhiteKnightTwo mothership "Eve," during the ceremony held here at the New Mexico desert on this Oblate Spheroid.<br /><br /><a style="font-weight: bold;" href="http://www.examiner.com/motor-culture-in-los-angeles/virgin-galactic-commercial-space-flight-celebrates-two-milestones">ADDITIONAL PHOTOS</a><span style="font-weight: bold;">>></span><br /><p></p>... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-47504810493746470132010-09-30T06:17:00.000-07:002010-09-30T08:29:42.076-07:00Earth 2.0 ... Life Possible On Gliese 581g, 20.5 Light-Years Away<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnhCrlTz5nnCFSelI-uVGBI_1YwaaJxdfHKu-O64HamDL8kxL0H-_Ms3y5nCJNLm9jTVSux0tTxzAtxpdrOmHwW-rmtbZedXOlue4jIDFiHYiIxe4dDKBBt6bJzaKmsOC9Jn6YLb3RzmFL/s1600/30PLANET-popup.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 309px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnhCrlTz5nnCFSelI-uVGBI_1YwaaJxdfHKu-O64HamDL8kxL0H-_Ms3y5nCJNLm9jTVSux0tTxzAtxpdrOmHwW-rmtbZedXOlue4jIDFiHYiIxe4dDKBBt6bJzaKmsOC9Jn6YLb3RzmFL/s400/30PLANET-popup.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5522696553549160178" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">A planet, as depicted in this rendering, orbits the habitable zone of a star 20 light years from Earth, meaning it could have water on its surface. Image Credit: National Science Foundation and NASA </span><br /><br /><a href="http://www.examiner.com/conservative-in-los-angeles/earth-2-0-life-possible-on-gliese-581g-20-5-light-years-away"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Earth 2.0 ... Life Possible On Gliese 581g, 20.5 Light-Years Away</span></a><br /><br />Astronomers at the Keck telescope in Hawaii, during a study that has been underway for more than a decade, have identified a solar system that has a planet they suspect could support life as we know or understand it here on our Oblate Spheroid.<br /><br />Let's call it Earth 2.0. It is a planet that is circling a Sun named Gliese, that is located a little over twenty light years away (the time it would take to get there if one could travel in a craft at the speed of light and carry enough food and etc. to sustains one's life to arrive and observe this suspect orb on site).<br /><br /><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwNMg5JB_ic&feature=player_embedded"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 251px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh7Bi6iPWC-CdiAElZhZYgqb79bTOI-Zkk8yXZtzOnjUX_cjUSzbSruibzJlaTtMkbdHRe-XOFB1AkiKBC3iG-hjtfQ2xPFNhQeDaOBLfAu88420DpJ3swSdI_eug-de-fymcmGJisgza7w/s400/Astronomers+Find+Earth.2.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5522710659612314322" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">Carbon copy? The Gliese 581 solar system resembles our own but on a much smaller scale. Planet "G" is located in the "Goldilocks" zone of this sun's solar system [<a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwNMg5JB_ic&feature=player_embedded">CTRL-CLICK photo to launch YouTube video</a>]. Image Credit: Zina Deretsky/National Science Foundation</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">This excerpted and edited from All Voices news webportal -</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Discovered Planet Zarmina (Gliese 581g) Is 'Habitable' For Human Life</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:78%;" >By ryangeneral - Honolulu : HI : USA | Sep 30, 2010</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The planet lies near the middle of the Goldilocks zone, or habitable zone of its parent star, and the presence of liquid water is considered a strong possibility. The discovery of Gliese 581 g was announced in September 2010, and is believed to be the first Goldilocks planet ever found, the most Earth-like planet, and the best exoplanet candidate with the potential for harboring life found to date.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The planet was detected using radial velocity measurements combining the data from the HIRES instrument of the Keck 1 telescope and the HARPS instrument of ESO's 3.6m telescope at La Silla Observatory. The planet is believed to have a mass of three to four times that of the Earth and an orbital period of just under 37 days. </span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Steven Vogt, the co-discoverer, unofficially named the planet "Zarmina", after his wife.</span><br /><a href="http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6893170-discovered-planet-gliese-581g-is-habitable-for-human-life">Reference Here</a>>><br /><br />The Goldilocks zone refers to a story that parents read to their children that goes by the formal title "The Story Of The Three Bears". This fable, often referred to as "Goldilocks and the Three Bears" is a <a linkindex="8" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Children%27s_literature" title="Children's literature">children's story</a> first recorded in narrative form by English author and poet <a linkindex="9" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robert_Southey" title="Robert Southey">Robert Southey</a> and first published in a volume of his writings in 1837. The same year, writer George Nicol published a version in <a linkindex="10" href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhyme" title="Rhyme">rhyme</a> based upon Southey's prose tale, with Southey approving the attempt to bring the story more exposure. Both versions tell of three bears and an old woman who trespasses upon their property.<br /><span style="font-size:78%;">(ht: wikipedia)</span><br /><br />In the fable, Goldilocks is hungry and stumbles upon a home of Bears where three bowls of soup or porridge are on the table. Goldilocks helps herself to eating some of the porridge and discovers that one bowl of the food mixture is too hot, one is too cold, and one ... the one she presumably eats all up is ... Just Right!<br /><br />This planet discovery is in a solar system zone that is just right given our knowledge of the origins of life as we know it here on Earth.<br /><br />We wonder if the shape of this Gliese 581g orb is the same Oblate Spheroid shape of our own Earth. Welcome Zarmina ... welcome Earth 2.0.... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-88997656625601775402010-05-06T21:29:00.000-07:002010-05-07T10:18:31.774-07:00Of Neanderthals & Homosapiens - The Nanderthal In Most All Of Us<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9yDQ5TuAzIOsvcoVbZrexX_RdrpdYlr3IYz08TDI8OcaulUD705js1xDfUN6q2-1m70lGjBC_to0gShfkistGg7fx82fb7Flqdv0Ep0tf_1OiqmWrTfK7U6RaKP_PGP7X6HlBElwH3eRM/s1600/neanderthal_narrowweb__300x3400_xlarge.jpeg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 300px; height: 340px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi9yDQ5TuAzIOsvcoVbZrexX_RdrpdYlr3IYz08TDI8OcaulUD705js1xDfUN6q2-1m70lGjBC_to0gShfkistGg7fx82fb7Flqdv0Ep0tf_1OiqmWrTfK7U6RaKP_PGP7X6HlBElwH3eRM/s400/neanderthal_narrowweb__300x3400_xlarge.jpeg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5468577711908372034" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">The Neanderthal project, which took four years and involved 57 scientists, is the latest and most astonishing example of the recovery of scientifically useful information from ancient DNA. Image Credit: <a href="http://www.smh.com.au/ffximage/2007/10/26/neanderthal_narrowweb__300x340,0.jpg">Sydney Morning Herald</a></span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Of Neanderthals & Homosapiens - The Nanderthal In Most All Of Us</span><br /><br />When someone makes a simple mistake, some people call out the person making the mistake by saying, "You Neanderthal!" Growing up this was a typical degrading accusation heard along the way but as it turns out ... this statement might have held more truth than we even knew.<br /><br />It has been discovered through studies with DNA genomes that interbreading between Neanderthals and Homosapiens did indeed take place and as a result, 1 to 4 percent of the genes carried by non-African people are traceable to the much-caricatured, belittled, and large-browed cavemen.<br /><br />So now when one makes a mistake and gets accused of being a Neanderthal, if the person has Caucasian DNA, one has to ask ... are they the one, two, three, or four percent type of Neanderthal?<br /><br /><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="385" width="480"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/rfBmFx-g13Q&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/rfBmFx-g13Q&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="385" width="480"></embed></object><br /></div><br />This excerpted and edited from All Headline News -<br /><span style="font-size:130%;"><br /><span style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;">Study: Neanderthals Interbred With Homosapiens</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:78%;" >Windsor Genova - AHN News News Writer - May 6, 2010 5:49 p.m. EST</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The findings was the result of the comparison of the genomes of modern human and the burly and big-brained Neanderthal conducted by geneticist Svante Pääbo at the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany. The findings were published Thursday in the journal Science.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Neanderthal originated from Europe, Russia and the Middle East. They existed 400,000 to 30,000 years ago. Modern humans are said to have originated from Africa and the two species encountered each other in the Middle East and limited interbreeding occurred.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Pääbo constructed the Neanderthal genome using fossil DNA from three Neanderthal women who lived in Croatia between 38,000 and 45,000 years ago.</span><br /><a href="http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7018620382?Study:%20Neanderthals%20Interbred%20With%20Homosapiens#ixzz0nDH1vou1">Reference Here</a>>><br /><br />All this study really proves is that it's love ... that makes the Oblate Spheroid go around, you big lugg!<p></p>... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-45162179292957725752010-04-01T09:03:00.000-07:002010-04-01T10:17:09.460-07:00Dew Drops Are Fallin' On My Head ...<a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG-WdoJUisAA8J_Cdv8pUvnYT1WiGBPJlBhA9KTuGJZWAtWGb19tSbOUdz4eUNb2BN03s447ZTG2cNgxHq093UYURWFiUQ_agxr_931G9Z3AnBxEfF2TvCLpjxBBpkpeZkIXF5nXJnbyt6/s1600/article-1260946-08E1130E000005DC-61_964x964.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgG-WdoJUisAA8J_Cdv8pUvnYT1WiGBPJlBhA9KTuGJZWAtWGb19tSbOUdz4eUNb2BN03s447ZTG2cNgxHq093UYURWFiUQ_agxr_931G9Z3AnBxEfF2TvCLpjxBBpkpeZkIXF5nXJnbyt6/s400/article-1260946-08E1130E000005DC-61_964x964.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455210365732637538" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:1.2em;"><span style="font-size:78%;">Stunning: Droplets of water bead on the head of this blue dragonfly as it slumbers on a leaf. Image Credit: Miroslaw Swietek</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Dew Drops Are Fallin' On My Head ...</span><br /><br />When someone mentions bugs ... flies, moths, dragonflies and the like, one congers up mental images of prickly, dirty, and somewhat mono-colored nuisances that have to be sprayed or flicked away in order for one not to be bothered while around them and in their element. They are not welcome in the house, or tent, and they definitely never exude any beauty!<br /><br />The stunning micro-photography of </span><span style="font-size:1.2em;">Miroslaw Swietek from around the</span><span style="font-size:1.2em;"> Polish countryside on this Oblate Spheroid might just be changing minds when they are lingered over and studied on every detail. Just beautiful.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">This excerpted and edited from The Daily Mail - </span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">W</span>ould dew believe it: The stunning pictures of sleeping insects covered in water droplets</span><br /><span style="font-size:78%;">By Daily Mail Reporter - Last updated at 11:29 AM on 31st March 2010<br /><br /></span></span> <div class="float-r hidden" id="digg-button"> <script src="http://scripts.dailymail.co.uk/js/diggthis.js" type="text/javascript"></script> </div> <span style="font-size:1.2em;"> </span><p><span style="font-size:1.2em;">Glistening in the early morning, these insects look like creatures from another planet as dew gathers on their sleeping bodies.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:1.2em;">Captured in extreme close-up, one moth appears to be totally encrusted in diamonds as it rests on a twig.</span><br /></p><div class="clear"> </div> <p><span style="font-size:1.2em;">Dragonflies, flies and beetles also take on an unearthly quality as the water droplets form on them.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:1.2em;">These remarkable photographs were taken by physiotherapist Miroslaw Swietek at around 3am in the forest next to his home.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:1.2em;">Using a torch, the 37-year-old amateur photographer hunts out the motionless bugs in the darkness before setting up his camera and flash just millimetres from them.</span><br /></p><div class="clear"> </div><div><p style="text-align: left;" class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size:1.2em;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoRvN5bbGsCxSIyFpLg4YYNwcE0IQ9USbtx85VAByE-N823u5-375VKxH37L3SKUFKwRR0y-I00SCqUf5e2zdtFlp9qyiicXLpYasvbCDhsEZVxu2ul8De26dUFE-UCnuU55ukKyYp4F3M/s1600/2-article-1260946-08E11297000005DC-785_964x614.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 255px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjoRvN5bbGsCxSIyFpLg4YYNwcE0IQ9USbtx85VAByE-N823u5-375VKxH37L3SKUFKwRR0y-I00SCqUf5e2zdtFlp9qyiicXLpYasvbCDhsEZVxu2ul8De26dUFE-UCnuU55ukKyYp4F3M/s400/2-article-1260946-08E11297000005DC-785_964x614.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455210369216220962" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Close up:</span> Amateur photographer Miroslaw Swietek captured this common fly slumbering on top of a plant as the water condenses on its body</span></span><br /><br /></p></div> <p> </p><div class="clear"> </div><div><p style="text-align: left;" class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size:1.2em;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg11khvC6a3yN6kQ72C-iLz9OaCrvX7Qi_WQq3n4QlWK1zQq8xmUMxHKUHG5bcrKIF9wSijNX2kUrptJxlT1-Eao5g91-RNN6GsXAoFnRY1wknjbZ5KPpLtq517AGAeBG_1gsOnPU4enpe9/s1600/3-article-1260946-08E1118E000005DC-963_964x694.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 288px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg11khvC6a3yN6kQ72C-iLz9OaCrvX7Qi_WQq3n4QlWK1zQq8xmUMxHKUHG5bcrKIF9wSijNX2kUrptJxlT1-Eao5g91-RNN6GsXAoFnRY1wknjbZ5KPpLtq517AGAeBG_1gsOnPU4enpe9/s400/3-article-1260946-08E1118E000005DC-963_964x694.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455210371426328466" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Bejewelled:</span> This month looks like it has been encrusted in diamonds as it rests on a twig</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:1.2em;"><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></span></p></div> <p><span style="font-size:1.2em;">Mr Swietek said: 'I took up photography as a relaxing hobby two and a half years ago and I particularly like taking pictures of insects and lizards.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:1.2em;">'I photograph them in their natural environment in the forest next to my village. </span> </p><p><span style="font-size:1.2em;">'They all are covered in dew because I go to the forest in the morning at around 3am.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:1.2em;">'At 3am to 4am insects are sleepy and taking photos of them is easy, but it is very difficult to find them.</span></p><div class="clear"> </div><div><br /><p style="text-align: left;" class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size:1.2em;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix3eUz7N3ATdZqwnKcgT64vhBKIxWYFqSP946HfbwX4WkKVFO4lZ04yNUbP3jT5HLn34NLmPyO0-wTzQVP-7263R-CSXp8PVKttFZPcEZqufLtBH4UmjvcaN-J64JP_Nvkx_bA70Ds8mm0/s1600/4-article-1260946-08E113A1000005DC-584_964x773.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 321px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEix3eUz7N3ATdZqwnKcgT64vhBKIxWYFqSP946HfbwX4WkKVFO4lZ04yNUbP3jT5HLn34NLmPyO0-wTzQVP-7263R-CSXp8PVKttFZPcEZqufLtBH4UmjvcaN-J64JP_Nvkx_bA70Ds8mm0/s400/4-article-1260946-08E113A1000005DC-584_964x773.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455210381944116850" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Close up:</span> The insects appear to be completely drenched in water as they rest while the sun is down</span></span></p></div> <p> </p><div class="clear"> </div><div><br /><p style="text-align: left;" class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size:1.2em;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIPXwDXClWorawv_5p3MfDR9KlXzRqgskuBB_PK_PKZ1YkXElIhp-QCa_3XXq04HV-Q9uMdd867f-y0wmDVP3-NnyzIPtmx0wvpK8EQ7leZRpdYpm3Q32NCosYhQOkokxzdL6KXyRMEg2F/s1600/5-article-1260946-08E11469000005DC-460_964x888.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 368px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiIPXwDXClWorawv_5p3MfDR9KlXzRqgskuBB_PK_PKZ1YkXElIhp-QCa_3XXq04HV-Q9uMdd867f-y0wmDVP3-NnyzIPtmx0wvpK8EQ7leZRpdYpm3Q32NCosYhQOkokxzdL6KXyRMEg2F/s400/5-article-1260946-08E11469000005DC-460_964x888.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455210386962430194" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Shower time: </span>Mr Swietek gets up at 3am to capture the insects while they are less active in a forest near his home</span></span><br /><span style="font-size:1.2em;"><span style="font-size:78%;"><br /></span></span></p></div> <p><span style="font-size:1.2em;">'You must be very fast taking the photos because the dew quickly disappears.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:1.2em;">'It is very satisfying getting a good shot of an insect which I have had to hunt out.</span></p><p><span style="font-size:1.2em;">'I have books which help my identify insects but because they are all covered in dew I find it almost impossible to know which types they are.'</span></p><p><span style="font-size:1.2em;">Although insects do not 'sleep' in the same sense as humans, they enter a state of torpor where they are virtually immobile and much less sensitive to external stimuli.<br /></span></p><p><span style="font-size:1.2em;">Mr Swietek lives with his wife and teenage son in Jaroszow, a village in Poland around 30 miles from the city of Wroclaw.</span></p><div class="clear"> </div><div><br /><p style="text-align: left;" class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size:1.2em;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivtvh8UMygOwiIwidizRrinaHpiU3xRAKPoT-AZjHootRK3XVZP0Rg1ME4ZmLLFq2bSrg6EC-lpBuH2u0OXARjII1rUcCG8MaugP3Cjst0MG40s_a13xyecI6pYhM8C2Og0cFJ7THm1Dc4/s1600/6-article-1260946-08E1143D000005DC-807_964x542.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 225px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEivtvh8UMygOwiIwidizRrinaHpiU3xRAKPoT-AZjHootRK3XVZP0Rg1ME4ZmLLFq2bSrg6EC-lpBuH2u0OXARjII1rUcCG8MaugP3Cjst0MG40s_a13xyecI6pYhM8C2Og0cFJ7THm1Dc4/s400/6-article-1260946-08E1143D000005DC-807_964x542.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455213357038900194" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Clinging on:</span> The amateur photographer searches for the insects using a torch and then sets up his camera and flash right next to them</span></span></p></div> <p> </p><div class="clear"> </div><div><br /><p style="text-align: left;" class="imageCaption"><span style="font-size:1.2em;"><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn3K73JOxi-U75NTkprosrDATDRocNSCC6blZeB3qWvlD2VzPEWWqXqtdflO7-sSGoJ496C1YIbi4FHTlkKD_6CiTD8E3J1_6oZhBok4OtdDxkBdeCWPb9Tyyl2_PbFH1QL2dSTkTOAR2x/s1600/7-article-1260946-08E116E2000005DC-0_964x964.jpg"><img style="display: block; margin: 0px auto 10px; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 400px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgn3K73JOxi-U75NTkprosrDATDRocNSCC6blZeB3qWvlD2VzPEWWqXqtdflO7-sSGoJ496C1YIbi4FHTlkKD_6CiTD8E3J1_6oZhBok4OtdDxkBdeCWPb9Tyyl2_PbFH1QL2dSTkTOAR2x/s400/7-article-1260946-08E116E2000005DC-0_964x964.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5455213368528610194" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;"><span style="font-weight: bold;">Hobby: </span>Another dragonfly enjoys an early morning wash. Mr Swietek only took up photography two and a half years ago</span></span></p></div><div id="TixyyLink" style="overflow: hidden; color: rgb(0, 0, 0); background-color: transparent; text-align: left; text-decoration: none; border: medium none;"><a href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1260946/The-stunning-pictures-sleeping-insects-covered-early-morning-dew.html#ixzz0jrgrTJCv">Reference Here</a>>><a linkindex="264" href="http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1260946/The-stunning-pictures-sleeping-insects-covered-early-morning-dew.html#ixzz0jrgrTJCv"></a><br /></div><p></p>... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-9120004045120667390.post-36777906947911406782010-02-23T04:15:00.000-08:002010-02-23T06:10:52.128-08:00Blobfish ... what's not to love?<p></p><a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FSIGmX45gBo"><img style="margin: 0px auto 10px; display: block; text-align: center; cursor: pointer; width: 400px; height: 281px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj9O-ET2U-Kq0BOyARAtLP4rHd5WabFgTDsAmLrwKEoXFFc5-tJFlFywoL46RxR5eVtl0ZMb5VdiyHvJWOYZllsEJUqEZ_Po7lJcKZNsuTjVaAuLlybr6RQZDmPXaI9fnA4AT_ybaaU6ZKX/s400/BlobFish+-+NOAA+-+In+Water+-+2-15-2010+-+52271615.jpg" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5441412245909650210" border="0" /></a><span style="font-size:78%;">"Whadda you lookin' at?" - The rare and oddly human-looking Blobfish (Psychrolutes Marcidus) [CTRL-CLICK image to see and hear our friend speak]. Image Credit: NOAA</span><br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">Blobfish ... what's not to love?</span><br /><br />With a face only a mother could love, the Blobfish was only recently discovered this last decade when fishing trawlers using deep sea drag nets brought up a few specimen along with their intended catch.<br /><br />Blobfish are found at about 2,400 feet deep where the pressure is several dozens of times higher than at <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_level" title="Sea level">sea level</a>, which would likely make <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gas_bladder" title="Gas bladder" class="mw-redirect">gas bladders</a> inefficient. To remain buoyant, the flesh of the Blobfish is primarily a gelatinous mass making the body <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Density" title="Density">density</a> slightly less than that of salt water; this allows the fish to float above the sea floor without expending any energy on swimming. It just floats ... to eat.<br /><br />While not terribly aggressive, this fish has caught the attention and imagination of a whole class of humans recently, primarily due to the one really good photo found on the internet that had been issued by the <span class="credit"><span class="photographer">National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration as a handout photo</span> / <span class="dateMonth">February </span><span class="dateDay">15</span><span class="dateYear">, 2010</span></span> (above). A fish with a somewhat human-looking face ... the Blobfish.<br /><br /><object height="344" width="425"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/o8YvbtC3Elw&hl=en_US&fs=1&"><param name="allowFullScreen" value="true"><param name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"></object><div style="text-align: center;"><object height="344" width="425"><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/o8YvbtC3Elw&hl=en_US&fs=1&" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" height="344" width="425"></embed></object><br /></div><br />It spawned this prose from the LA Times.<br /><br /><span style="font-weight: bold;">This excerpted and edited from the LA Times -</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:130%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">Fear the blobfish</span></span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;font-size:78%;" ><span style="font-weight: bold;">With its humanlike face, the blobfish is a creature of nightmares, and who knows what terrors it could bring upon us</span><br />By John Kass - February 17, 2010</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">As you can see from the accompanying photograph, the cunning blobfish (Psychrolutes marcidus) is the most terrifying fish in the world.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">And if you're not afraid of it yet, you should be, because there's always something lurking out there that can get you.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Its hideously deformed body is quite boneless, a gelatinous orb hovering in the deep, covered in slime and mucus. But there's something even worse.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Its face.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">A blobfish looks like some fat, drunken judge and may be highly intelligent. And therefore quite dangerous.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">It frowns. It leers. Sometimes, it even drools.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">American journalism has a formula for stories designed to whip up panic about highly adaptive species. For "balance," you insert a quote or two from some learned biologist who tells readers not to worry.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Some marine biologist might reassure readers that the blobfish lives far away, in the deep waters off the coast of Tasmania — some 9,600 miles away — and therefore could never find its way into the Chicago River or the ship canal.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yeah, right.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">It's not impossible (perhaps even likely) that schools of bloodthirsty blobfish may be blobbing their way up the Mississippi River, their big noses leaving wakes behind them, and roiling trails of foam. And then they'll be oozing from your kitchen tap.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">The blobfish is boneless. It's a blob.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">So, theoretically, it might squeeze through all the protective filters and screens, and then, with a grunt, pop right out of your stylish Swedish designer faucet, its ugly face first.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Or perhaps out of your toilet bowl when you're at your most vulnerable, sleepy in the middle of the night.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Or what about your pulsating-massage shower head? Just imagine the beast squeezing from the shower head, hurtling at your face, or worse, into your open mouth, your muffled screams unheard by your loved ones.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">So don't give me the pious ramblings of scientific bureaucrats telling us not to panic over the dreaded beast.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Sadly, information regarding the terror of the blobfish is scarce, perhaps by design.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">"As the blobfish is comprised of a gelatinous substance, they actually have no muscles at all, and they just float in the same spot most of the time, waiting for their next meal."</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">It's said the blobfish eats mostly mollusks, but it's only a matter of time until it develops a hunger for human snacks, first Cheez-Its and Slim Jims, then maybe veal chops, before lunging up the food chain.</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Yet with an imminent blobfish invasion, we'll have to come up with new recipes. Try broiled blobfish on a buttered baking sheet, sprinkled with Japanese-style breadcrumbs, the crunchiness contrasting pleasantly with all that goo underneath.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Or how about sauteed blobfish, with lemon and capers?</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">----</span><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">So be afraid.</span><br /><br /><span style="font-style: italic;">Be very much afraid.</span><br /><a href="http://www.latimes.com/ct-met-kass-0217-20100217,0,5490895,full.column">Reference Here</a>>><p></p>... notes from The EDJEhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/11357069669582242997noreply@blogger.com0