| fun |
come
fly balloons [Xavier]
This site has lots of great photos.
Remember the Darwin Award
entry?
“The most famous cluster balloon flight took place in 1982. Larry
Walters, with no prior ballooning experience, attached 42 helium weather
balloons to a lawnchair, intending to go up a few hundred feet, but instead
soaring to 16,000. Surprisingly, Walters survived his flight.”
Cluster ballooning is now done for real, and under much greater control.
A cluster balloon flight image credit: http://www.clusterballoon.org/
“To control the altitude of the cluster balloon, the pilot takes
off with more balloons than needed to lift his or her weight, and carries
ballast (water or sand) to balance out most of this excess lift. To level
out or descend, the pilot releases or bursts balloons.”
from the film the red balloon
My first notion of such a feat came from the 1956 short film, Le ballon
rouge by Albert Lamorisse. A red balloon befriends the story’s
main character, a boy named Pascal. After the red balloon is stoned by a local
gang of bullies, the other balloons in Paris collect together and take Pascal
on a flight over the city. (Link
to text of the book of the film, which book is heavily illustrated with
film stills.)
 |
VHS:
The red balloon by Albert Lamorisse
(ntsc format) 6303968651 $13.99
book:
Doubleday Books for Young Readers
hbk 1967, 0385003439, $11.53
pbk 1978, 0385142978, $9.71 |
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0409.php#ballooning |
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| a
chess curiosity - chess book rejected by an oregon prison
See item 111, examine reason for rejection!
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0409.php#chess |
mandarin,
tangerine, clementine, satsuma – are they different?
These fruits are cultivated varieties (cultivars) of Citrus reticulata,
a member of the Rutaceae family. In some varieties, particularly
tangerines and satsumas, the peel is loose and can easily be removed by hand.
Other varieties of mandarin are are dancy and tangor.
Mandarins are so named because Chinese high government officials - the mandarins
- used to cultivate these trees commercially.
“The mandarin orange is considered a native of south-eastern Asia
and the Philippines. It is most abundantly grown in Japan, southern China,
India, and the East Indies, and is esteemed for home consumption in Australia.
It gravitated to the western world by small steps taken by individuals interested
in certain cultivars. Therefore, the history of its spread can be roughly
traced in the chronology of separate introductions.” [quoted from
Fruits
of Warm climates by J. Morton]
Mandarin cultivars fall into several classes:
Class I, Mandarin
Class II, Tangerine: includes the clementine and the dancy.
• The clementine is named after a French clergyman, Pierre Clement,
who crossed a mandarin and an orange, making a seedless tangerine in a crossing
experiment around 1900, when he was the leader of the agricultural school
in Oran in Algeria.
• The dancy was first found in the grove of Col. G.L. Dancy at Buena
Vista, Florida.
Class III: Satsuma
The satsuma orange [a mikan in Japanese.] is believed to have originated
in Japan about 350 years ago as a seedling of a cultivar. Satsuma was a
feudal principality in south/west Japan, that now roughly corresponds to
Kagoshima Principality.
Most canned mandarin oranges are satsumas.
All citrus trees are classified within one genus, Citrus. They are
mostly interbreedable: that is to say there is only one “superspecies”.
This superspecies includes lemons and limes, as well as oranges.
Oranges are said to have originated in India (or even Vietnam) and were called
na rangi in Sanskrit. Their Latin labels are Citrus sinensis
and Citrus aurantium.
The original orange is bitter compared to modern varieties and is called
the sour orange, or bitter, bigarade or Seville orange.
The navel orange is the result of a single mutation found in an orchard of
sweet oranges belonging to a Brazilian monastery in 1820.
The grapefruit, Citrus paradis. “About 1948, citrus specialists
began to suggest that the grapefruit was not a sport of the pummelo but an
accidental hybrid between the pummelo and the orange”. Variations include
- Pummelo/Pomelo/Shaddock: the principal ancestor of the grapefruit;
- Minneola: a tangarine/grapefruit cross that can be recognized by "the
little nose".
- Sweeties: a pummelo/grapefruit cross. Looks like a green grapefruit and
tastes sweeter.
Tangelos: a tangerine/grapefruit/orange cross. The ugli is a particular variety.
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0409.php#clementine |
they're
all mad i tell you—$100,000 (so far) for the holy toast
"Sandwich owner Diana Duyser says she spotted the image after she'd
taken a bite out of the sandwich and saw the face staring back at her."
Once bitten ....
Update: this piece of ex-food sold for $71 plus $9.95 delivery.
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0409.php#holy_toast |
bin
liner may be ded - boltneck says it's unfair
“Citing newly declassified intelligence documents, President Bush
told reporters today that al-Qaeda leader Usama bin Laden is "very
likely dead," and that Senator John Kerry "needs to stop his yammering
about our so-called failure in Tora Bora, because such talk demoralizes
the troops and, quite frankly, makes the Senator look like he's got that
big head of his stuffed squarely up his pooper." ”
the web address for the article above is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0409.php#binliner_kerry |
pretty
paintings by raphael
A quick little gallery from the new Raphael exhibition in London.
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0409.php#raphael |
us
voting intention testimonial
Dear Editor,
I am a senior citizen.
During the Clinton Administration I had an extremely good and well paying
job.
I took numerous vacations and had several vacation homes.
Since President Bush took office, I have watched my entire life change
for the worse.
I lost my job.
I lost my two sons in that terrible Iraqi War.
I lost my homes.
I lost my health insurance.
As a matter of fact I lost virtually everything and became homeless.
Adding insult to injury, when the authorities found me living like an
animal, instead of helping me, they arrested me.
I will do anything that Senator Kerry wants to insure that a Democrat
is back in the White House come next year.
Bush has to go.
Sincerely,
Saddam Hussein
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0409.php#voting_intention |
english
usage from the british broadcasting corpse
“A spokesman for Scriptum said: "It features women of various
fame in Jimmy Choo shoes and Cartier jewellery. We are still shooting the
book." ”
Sounds like a richly deserved fate. More fun than burning
it I s’pose, but will it keep you warm?
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0409.php#english_usage |
yeeeeeeeeehhhoooooowwwwwwwwwwwwwww..........
On the 40th anniversary of Dr. Strangelove:
“Dr. Strangelove," Stanley Kubrick's 1964 film about nuclear-war
plans run amok, is widely heralded as one of the greatest satires in American
political or movie history. For its 40th anniversary, Columbia TriStar is
releasing a two-disc special-edition DVD next month.”
—
“Daniel Ellsberg, who later leaked the Pentagon Papers, was a RAND
analyst and a consultant at the Defense Department when he and a mid-level
official took off work one afternoon in 1964 to see the film. Ellsberg recalled
that as they left the theater, he turned to his colleague and said, "That
was a documentary!" ”
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0409.php#strangelove |
how
could we manage without 'them'?
Billions for NASA despite huge cost over-runs and disasters due to mismanagement,
but come the capitalists and the arseoles can’t wait to stcik their
long noses in:
“ While entrepreneurs explore how to put ordinary folks into space,
federal officials are pondering how to regulate the emerging commercial
space industry.
“In the afterglow of Burt Rutan's SpaceShipOne winning a $10 million
prize for the first private reusable spacecraft, House and Senate negotiators
had hoped to be able to get a bill approved this year providing regulatory
guidance for the new space-tourism industry.” [quoted from DailyNews]
SpaceReview
gives a detailed commentary on HR 3752, the Commercial Space Launch Amendments
Act of 2004.
Note that SpaceShipOne
and other sub-orbital craft may have other problems because they are probably
included under the International Trade in Armaments Regulations (ITAR).
And,
it isn't the violence we can’t stand, it’s the s--e--x we jest
cannot tolerate.
“ [...] On film, without the constrictions of TV or a live cast,
there's nothing they won't do for a laugh. "Team America" almost
got the dreaded NC-17 rating
because of, yes, simulated puppet sex. The scene does smolder. It's also
groan-inducingly uproarious. Apparently the marionette-on-marionette violence
didn't bother the ratings board nearly as much. "I think we just truly
are kind of filthy, offensive people," Stone said good-naturedly. "That's
just the stuff we find funny, and ultimately you have to make a movie that
makes you laugh." ” [quoted from boston.com]
More detail:
“South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker have won a censorship
battle with officials at the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA)
after their new puppet film was slapped with a "ridiculous" NC-
17 rating.”
—
“Parker fumes he was particularly upset with censorship surrounding
the sex scene, because, in making the necessary cuts to get an R-rating,
he and his partner have turned the scene into a smutty love-making mess.”
[quoted from iol.ie]
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0409.php#joy_spoilers |
st
bernards to leave st. bernard’s pass
“Switzerland's St Bernard rescue dogs, known for centuries for saving
avalanche victims from snowy Alpine graves, are to be sold by their monk
owners as helicopters and heat sensors take over their work.
At St. Bernard's hospice, cradle of the breed, Augustinian monks want to
devote more time to needy people and less to the 18 dogs -- which will be
sold only to new owners who promise to bring them back each year.
"They (the dogs) need a lot of time and energy. There are only four
of us monks now," [...] ”
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0409.php#st_bernards |
space,
the final frontier
After the success of the first Antari X-prize, what comes next?
the
x-prize continues
“The X Prize, offered to the first team to get into space twice
in a 14-day span, will now evolve into a regular competition called the
X Prize Cup. In May, organizers selected New Mexico to permanently host
the X Prize Cup.”
—
“ Teams will compete in five different categories to win the overall
cup:
- Fastest turnaround time between the first launch and second landing,
- maximum number of passengers per launch,
- total number of passengers during the competition,
- maximum altitude and
- fastest flight time.”
your
next holiday cruise
“[...] fly[ing] under the banner of [Richard Branson's] newly formed
company Virgin
Galactic, the expected price of a ticket will be some US$175,000 per
trip, which, if it is similar to Monday's
flight, would last about 90 minutes.”
—
“ [...] a company called Space
Adventures was busy calling prospective clients and journalists, offering
them the chance of a ride in the record-breaking craft for just US$102,000,
including four days of training.
“There are also numerous other teams work to build reusable, commercially
viable space craft capable of carrying passengers to the edge of space.
They vowed, after the flight, to keep developing their vehicles [...] .”
and
the deep black yonder....
“ "The big guys, the Boeings, the Lockheeds and the nay-saying
people at (NASA headquarters) Houston ... I think they are looking at each
other now and saying, `We're screwed,'" Rutan said.
“The next major step may be prompted by the US$50 million American
Space Prize, to be given for the first privately funded, reusable space
ship able to carry seven people into orbit. Such a craft would have huge
commercial value for the satellite industry.”
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0409.php#space_frontier
|
| asteroids—far
away, so close
“ON SEPTEMBER 29th, Toutatis, an irregularly shaped rock a few kilometres
in diameter, came within 1½million kilometres (1million miles) of
Earth—about four times the distance of the moon.” [1]
“The 2004 approach is particularly ‘interesting’.[editorial
quotes] 0.0104 Astronomical Unit equals about 1.5 millions of kilometers
from us. Seen from Toutatis, the Earth will be as large in the sky as the
Moon is from the Earth, and from Earth it will be large enough that the
best telescopes will start resolving its apparent size.”[2]
[4]
But it might hit us on Earth!
“Toutatis owes its name to a trio of French astronomers, who baptised
it after a Celtic god well-known in France for the comic book hero Asterix.
Protected by Toutatis, Asterix and his friends fear nothing except the idea
of the sky falling on their heads.”[3]
“If an asteroid the size of Toutatis were to hit Earth, it would
be by far the biggest natural disaster in human history, quite possibly
causing the end of civilisation. The dust thrown up would obscure the sun
for months, leading to large-scale crop failure. If it landed in the ocean
(more likely than not, given that the sea covers two-thirds of the Earth's
surface) an enormous wave would be generated, demolishing whatever lay in
its path. And in the longer term, there would probably be profound disruption
of the climate.”[1]
However, we are still safe:
“[...] Toutatis missed the Earth by a comfortable margin.”
[1]
There is concern, and not just by ancient Gauls, that a near-Earth object
(NEO) may come dangerously close to te Earth. Here is a “List
Of The Potentially Hazardous Asteroids (PHAs)”, a list of “PHA
Close Approaches To The Earth” and a “Plot
of the Inner Solar System” showing “the current location of
the major planets (Mercury through Jupiter) and the minor planets that are
in the inner region of the solar system”. These links are all from the
Spaceguard
Foundation which is “aimed at the protection of the Earth environment
against the bombardment of objects of the solar system (comets and asteroids)”.
What to do? Here’s one suggestion:
“The popular science-fiction method of dealing with the problem—detonating
a nuclear weapon next to the object to divert its course—is seen as
too uncertain. The alternative—strapping rocket engines to the rock
and using their thrust to alter its orbit—would not work either, unless
the project began several decades before the impact was due. That is why
a group of scientists and former astronauts formed the B612
Foundation (named after the home asteroid of Antoine de Saint Exupéry's
little prince) in 2002. Their goal is to develop a way of altering the course
of an asteroid using an ion rocket, which pushes electrically charged atoms
out of the back. This is more efficient than the hot gas which provides
the thrust in a conventional rocket.
“The B612 group believes such a system could be ready for use by
2015, and suggests it should be tested shortly thereafter on a non-threatening
asteroid. A noble goal—it is, as the little prince might have said,
a matter of consequence.”[1]
Images of Toutatis may be seen at Scott Hudson’s Earth-Crossing,
and Potentially Hazardous Asteroid 4179 Toutatis page [Scott Hudson has
made various images of Toutatis from radar images made by JPL/NASA scientist
Dr. Steve Ostro].
end notes
- quoted exerpts taken from
- The Economist print edition
- Alain Maury’s the
Toutatis home page [Alain Maury helped take the photographic plates
on which Toutatis was found]
- NASA’s Asteroids
and Comet Impact Hazards news
- The mean distance of the moon is 0.0026 AU = 384,400
km = 238,900 miles.
1 AU is approximately the mean distance of the earth from the sun = 149,597,870
km = 92,955,810 miles.
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0409.php#asteroids |
modern
intellectual feminists find new pursuit
“ "These are energy vortexes,'' explained Rabbi Shaul Youdkevitch,
head of the Kabbalah Center in Israel. "It is known among Kabbalists
that you can go there and recharge yourself with positive energy.''
“ Madonna's interest in Kabbalah became public when she was spotted
wearing its traditional red string bracelet. Since then, celebrities including
Britney Spears and Courtney Love have been seen sporting the bracelet. ”
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0409.php#vortex |
fossil
media try to manufacture consent
“LCI, French cable news channnel, showed the Kerry sisters on the
MTV Music Awards with the booing edited out and an added commentary on how
Kerry is coronated by American youth.”
lead from aoiko
“far more interestingly, barbara bush is actually quite cute! makes
a nice change from the kerry sisters, who are almost as ugly as their father.”
Pics at first and last links for those wishing to do a beauty contest.
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0409.php#consent_manufacture |
| please
mister, can we have your tax dollars? [PDF file]
Please, no giggling at the back! But it is worth reading,
if you can stomach the mumbo-jumbo.
How can we solve the mystery of dark energy? Recent measurements with
telescopes and space probes have shown that a mysterious force - a dark
energy - fills the vacuum of empty space, accelerating the universe’s
expansion. We don’t know what dark energy is, or why it exists. On
the other hand, particle theory tells us that, at the microscopic level,
even a perfect vacuum bubbles with quantum particles that are a natural
source of dark energy. But a naïve calculation of the dark energy generated
from the vacuum yields a value 10^120 times larger than the amount we observe.
Some unknown physical process is required to eliminate most, but not all,
of the vacuum energy, leaving enough left to drive the accelerating expansion
of the universe. A new theory of particle physics is required to explain
this physical process.”
—
“ Our quest to discover the fundamental laws of nature has led to
the revelation that the laws of physics, and the particles they govern,
exist because of underlying symmetries of nature, some of them lost since
the big bang. One such lost symmetry might be supersymmetry. Just as for
every particle there exists an antiparticle, supersymmetry predicts that
for every known particle there also exists a superpartner particle. Part
of the strong theoretical appeal of supersymmetry, an essential part of
string theory, is its possible connection to dark energy and the fact that
it provides a natural candidate for dark matter, the neutralino.”
You will be enlightened to realise that:
“Ultimately, unification of all the fundamental forces requires an
understanding of quantum gravity and the associated exotic phenomena, such
as black hole evaporation. Progress could come serendipitously from a discovery
of extra dimensions at the LHC, or of anomalous gravity wave sources with
LIGO, or of unexpected events in ultra-high-energy cosmic rays, including
cosmic neutrinos.”
—
“Nine interrelated questions define the path ahead.
1. Are there undiscovered principles of nature: new symmetries, new physical
laws?
2. How can we solve the mystery of dark energy?
3. Are there extra dimensions of space?
4. Do all forces become one?
5. Why are there so many kinds of particles?
6. What is dark matter? How can we make it in the laboratory?
7. What are neutrinos telling us?
8. How did the universe come to be?
9. What happened to the antimatter?
You can read a version with some mostly irrelevant
pictures here!
They'll even send you a free copy from this
page.
related material
On
CP violation
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0409.php#dark_energy |
| high-class
karaoke
“Web Operas featuring All of the Music and The Full Lyrics
and Dialogue of Twenty 19th and Early 20th Century Light Operas
“[They] include midi files for all of the music in the opera, plus
the lyrics and dialogue, allowing you to sing-along with the entire opera
while listening to the midi files. They are loads of fun, and a good way
to learn more about these operas.”
Sing your favourite Gibert and Sullivan – the Mikado,
H.M.S. Pinafore, Pirates of Penzance – as
well as other, perhaps, lesser known works such as Princess Ida.
Also offered are works by authors like Cups and Saucers and A
Greek Slave.
the web address for this article is
https://www.abelard.org/news/fun0409.php#opera |
