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27.8.12

Losing The Man On The Moon

A tribute to Neil Armstrong by Ricky Cadden

Neil Armstrong passed away this weekend. I wasn’t alive when Neil Armstrong walked on the moon – in fact, I don’t even believe that my parents were married at that point in time. However, I’ve known Neil Armstrong’s name for as long as I can remember. He was the first man to walk on the moon. THE MOON. Amazing.

From everything I’ve learned, the 1960s were a crazy time in American history, with the nation alive and full of energy – indeed, lots of projects that built this country were seemingly started in the first half of the century, so that the early part of the second half was full of achievement, especially in the area of new frontiers.

Man on the Moon

Space is something that boggles my mind. It’s too big for me to really grasp everything that’s out there. I can see it, laying by a campfire in the middle of nowhere of Texas country, but from what I’ve been taught, that’s just a part of it, and it’s a delay, at that. The stars that we see today, apparently, may not even exist any longer, as it takes light a certain amount of time to travel such distances.

English: Signature of Neil Armstrong.
English: Signature of Neil Armstrong. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
But Neil, Neil walked on the moon. This makes part of me sad, too. Since then, have we really come that far, as a nation? We certainly haven’t sent more missions to the moon, that’s for sure. We’ve been more earthly-focused, by my estimation. We have made strides, certainly – we’ve got the International Space Station, though honestly I couldn’t tell you what’s going on up there, or if it’s still, in fact, UP there. We did land on Mars – a few times now. Just robotic creatures, at this point, no men. I’m glad that Neil Armstrong was alive long enough to see us land on Mars.

Milky Way

I hope that as my daughter grows up, we’re a country and a people who look towards the unknown with anxiety, excitement. I hope she grows up learning that you can, in fact, do things that many thought (and still, to this day, believe) were impossible. I hope that in the next 20 years, a trip to space isn’t a crazy idea for a weekend getaway. I’d love to be able to introduce my daughter to the Sea of Tranquility in the same month I show her the beauty of East Texas.

In any case, I hope you took a minute to reflect on the passing of Neil Armstrong this weekend, and wonder what you’ve been focused on lately? In the 1960′s, the brightest minds in our world were putting a man on the moon. In 2012, I’m afraid that some of the brightest minds in our world are trying to figure out the best way to get you to click on an ad. I hope I’m wrong. I hope we never stop wanting to explore.





Samsung's new tablet design after Court rule (Fun)

25.8.12

Apple Ever Invented Anything?


Apple has been creating chaos in the courts lately, but did they actually ever invent anything? This video explains that Apple is a recipe company, not an invention company. This does not mean that they do not innovate, it simply means that they are responsible for less than you think.

This video covers the following:
Firewire, Newton, os9, osx, ios, ipad, ipod, ipod dock, 30 pin, mini display port, firewire, newton, pda, gridpad, magic mouse, dogcow, Apple II e card, Apple TV, mp3 players, tablets, etc.


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11.8.12

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10.8.12

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Click and drag his face up and down to the bucket. 

Click and drag his face to the bucket and leave. 

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Enable speaker volume. 

Move your mouse pointer above his head. 

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Enable speaker volume. 

Move your mouse pointer here and there.


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Enable speaker volume. 

Move your mouse pointer here n  there. And click at anywhere.

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Enable speaker volume.
Try to touch his nose with your mouse pointer.


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Newly discovered fossils of 'Homo rudolfensis' suggest 'Early man was not alone'




In general, all non-australopithecine remains from Olduvai Gorge have been assigned to Homo habilis, whereas those from Lake Turkana are attributed to either Homo habilis or Homo rudolfensis.

The type specimen of Homo rudolfensis is Skull 1470 (KNM-ER 1470) found by Bernard Ngeneo at Koobi Fora* in 1972, on the eastern shore of Lake Rudolf, now Lake Turkana, in northwestern Kenya (Leakey et al. 1973). He was working at the time with a group led by Richard and Meave Leakey. The specimen has an age of at least 1.89 million years, although it was initially assigned a far earlier date in error — 3 mya, at the time earlier than any australopithecines known. The result was a storm of debate.




Since it was found 45 m below the KBS tuff, which is known to date to 1.89 mya, the skull may be significantly older than the tuff itself. Conceivably, it could date back to as early as 2.5 mya, which would make it contemporary with the earliest H. habilis specimens. There is no postcranial material known. Nor has much been ascertained about the diet of this hominid on the basis of tooth wear due to the paucity of available fossil remains.

Originally, Skull 1470 was described as Homo habilis, and was first assigned to a newly erected Homo rudolfensis only in 1986. This arrangement has seen increasing favor, but in the last few years some researchers have asserted that 1470 is similar to the more recently discovered fossil KNM-WT 40000, Kenyanthropus platyops (Leakey et al. 2001), and that it should be reclassified as such. However, other specimens, mostly mandibles, have been tentatively assigned to Homo rudolfensis (see table at right). Moreover, it has been questioned whether Kenyanthropus platyops is actually distinct from the contemporaneous Australopithecus afarensis.




Initially, the cranial capacity of KNM-ER 1470 (which stands for Kenya National Museum-East Rudolf) was estimated at 752 cc. But Bromage et al. (2008) reevaluated the skull and moderately reduced the brain-size estimate to 700 cc.

Many paleoanthropologists still do not accept Homo rudolfensis as a valid, distinct type of hominid. Is it, or isn't it? That no doubt will remain the question for some time to come!



Medical: Soviet Surgeon removed his own appendix

Antarctica, 1961: A Soviet Surgeon Has to Remove His Own Appendix

In 1961, Rogozov was stationed at a newly constructed Russian base in Antarctica. The 12 men inside were cut off from the outside world by the polar winter by March of that year. In April, the 27-year-old Rogozov began to feel ill, very ill. His symptoms were classic: he had acute appendicitis. "He knew that if he was to survive he had to undergo an operation," the British Medical Journal recounted. "But he was in the frontier conditions of a newly founded Antarctic colony on the brink of the polar night. Transportation was impossible. Flying was out of the question, because of the snowstorms. And there was one further problem: he was the only physician on the base."
 
There was no question that he'd have to operate. The pain was intolerable and he knew he was getting worse.

Operating mostly by feeling around, Rogozov worked for an hour and 45 minutes, cutting himself open and removing the appendix. The men he'd chosen as assistants watched as the "calm and focused" doctor completed the operation, resting every five minutes for a few seconds as he battled vertigo and weakness.


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