December 2011
48 posts
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"A debris field the size of California...." →
Physicist Michio Kaku said Thursday that it is vital to understand the sheer size of the Japanese debris field in the Pacific Ocean. “First, you have to understand the size and scope of this problem. The debris field from this Japanese tragedy is the size of the state of California,” he said.
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Love Love Letters →
The Missouri History Museum Archives has many collections that provide firsthand accounts of the Civil War. One such collection is the James E. Love Papers. James enlisted with a Union regiment in St. Louis in May 1861. When his regiment left St. Louis in June 1861, James started writing letters home to his fiancée, Eliza Mary “Molly” Wilson. James continued to write these letters...
Me Sad →
Cheetah the chimpanzee, who acted in classic Tarzan movies in the early 1930s, died of kidney failure Saturday at Suncoast Primate Sanctuary in Palm Harbor, a sanctuary spokeswoman said.
Update: PALM HARBOR, Florida (AP) — Evidence and other accounts are contradicting a Florida animal sanctuary’s claim that a chimpanzee that portrayed Cheetah, Tarzan’s sidekick in movies of the...
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Driving, Chick Sexing, Plane Spotting and... →
CONSIDER THE SIMPLE act of changing lanes while driving a car. Try this: Close your eyes, grip an imaginary steering wheel, and go through the motions of a lane change. Imagine that you are driving in the left lane and you would like to move over to the right lane. Before reading on, actually try it. more….
A Xmas Story →
He came down the back drive just before midnight on Christmas Eve. I was out in the shop, about to call it a night when I heard the unmistakable sound of a Volkswagen running on three cylinders. Bad valve. more…..
Mansion made of Glass →
The property boasts a staggering 11,000 square feet - with four bedrooms and six baths, several fireplaces, a guest house, and an infinity pool
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2077803/Mansion-glass-goes-steal-14-1m—reduced-45m-asking-price-owner-wont-privacy.html#ixzz1hPR4XZkt
“The gay and lesbian community of Minnesota has issued a letter of apology to...”
– Gay community apologizes to Amy Koch for ruining her marriage - Minneapolis News - The Blotter
“It’s Babarba Billingsley’s birthday. Everybody talk jive”
– pourmecoffee @pourmecoffee
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A DIY Space Capsule Requires DIY Parachutes →
“….one thing is theory and formulas. Another thing is creating the parachutes and practical experience.”
"There's a reason you separate military and the...
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A Persian Schindler →
Thousands of Iranian Jews and their descendants owe their lives to a Muslim diplomat in wartime Paris. Abdol-Hossein Sardari risked everything to help fellow Iranians escape the Nazis.
….he told the Nazis, at some later point a small number of Iranians began to find the teachings of the Prophet Moses attractive - and these Mousaique, or Iranian Followers of Moses, which he dubbed...
Aluminum Cloud aka buff →
In 1948, six Boeing engineers checked into a hotel with slide rules and balsa wood. They emerged three days later with the B-52, which is still flying after its last designer died this month.
“The idea that “the protester” can be “the face of the...”
– Laurie Penny : The Independent
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NASA Shuts Doors, Pulls Plug on Shuttle Discovery... →
With every ending comes a new beginning….
NASA powered down the space shuttle Discovery for a final time Friday (Dec. 16), more than 28 years after the agency’s retired fleet leader first came alive. The vehicle was “unplugged” inside Orbiter Processing Facility-1 (OPF-1) at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.
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Physics.... →
So this is Christmas.... →
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“And the commercialization of space travel begins. Wonder where D.D. Harriman is?”
–
“Pending all the final safety reviews and testing, SpaceX will send its Dragon spacecraft to rendezvous with the International Space Station in less than two months,” said NASA’s No. 2, deputy administrator Lori Garver. “So it is the opening of that new commercial cargo...
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They Lost Jesus Again! →
hippiewitch:
So, I’m standing at a bus stop and they pull up. A car load of well meaning, bible thumping nut cases that are just frantic! The middle aged professionally dressed woman rushes forward…She takes my arm and with trembling voices she asks….”Have you found Jesus?” Her eyes plead with an…
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Water →
“This is the single most powerful piece of evidence for liquid water at Mars that has been discovered by the Opportunity rover,” Steve Squyres of Cornell University, Opportunity’s principal investigator, told reporters here today during the 2011 winter meeting of the American Geophysical Union.
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“A Visit from St. Prick
Twas the night before Wednesday, and all through...”
– DailyKos
Col. Potter: R.I.P. →
I’m old. I remember many, many Harry Morgan roles. Col. Potter was the best.
Harry Morgan, the prolific character actor best known for playing the acerbic but kindly Colonel Potter in the long-running television series “M*A*S*H,” died Wednesday morning at his home in Los Angeles.
The Symbolism Survey →
In 1963, a sixteen-year-old San Diego high school student named Bruce McAllister sent a four-question mimeographed survey to 150 well-known authors of literary, commercial, and science fiction. Did they consciously plant symbols in their work? he asked. Who noticed symbols appearing from their subconscious, and who saw them arrive in their text, unbidden, created in the minds of their readers?...
High Integrity, Moral Decency Has Cost Idiot Man... →
godsworship:
The idiot
CHARLESTON, SC—With its firm grounding in honesty, loyalty to friends, and a strong spirit of generosity, the asinine ethical code of Kevin Premus has cost the 42-year-old idiot millions of dollars over the years, reports confirmed…
Institutional Amnesia →
“I had naively hoped digitization would solve our problems forever. My manager was reading a dense book about it that I picked up out of curiosity. It had seemed persuasive. But, the old-fashioned phone and email tree worked a bit better. The old research division is still mostly intact, and their physical library exists. … The paper documents tauntingly sport IDs announcing that...
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A comment on organized religion:
I was walking across a bridge one day, and I saw a man standing on the edge, about to jump off. So I ran over and said, "Stop! don't do it!" "Why shouldn't I?" he said. I said, "Well, there's so much to live for!" He said, "Like what?" I said, "Well...are you religious or atheist?" He said, "Religious." I said, "Me too! Are you Christian or Buddhist?" He said, "Christian." I said, "Me too! Are...
Penn Jillette: An Atheist's Guide to the 2012... →
Are they REALLY batshait crazy?
Crowdsource Whale (Dolphin) Songs →
The folks at Zooniverse have a new citizen science project for you to play with — matching up whalesong to try and analyze the watery leviathans’ language.
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