We all know that the Mars Exploration Rover, Opportunity, was finally backed out of a sand dune. But I recently ran across some time lapse movies of the event.
Very spectacular stuff, I must say! It is so neat that we are at a point in human existence where we are exploring spaces that are not on Earth. Could we have comprehended such tasks thousands of years ago? Could we understand advanced alien technology today if we were exposed to it? Crank up your walkman, or iPod, and think about it.
So I was at a BBQ lunch today and one of my co-workers was talking about the time he had eaten ostrich meat. I thought I’d add an interesting dimension to the conversation when I mentioned that the ostrich egg is the largest single cell in existence. I’d learned this a long time ago; that bird eggs are single cells.
Everyone at the table stopped eating and looked at me. They all were very suspicious of my claim. A table of very smart people telling you that you’re wrong is pretty convincing. Did I imagine this little fact? Were they right in saying that an egg is made up of lots of little, microscopic, cells? No no no, I just knew that I was right.
Well a quick google search proved me right:
http://www.newton.dep.anl.gov/askasci/mole00/mole00128.htm
One resource mentioned that:
The entire “yellow” of a chicken “egg” is actually a single cell, the oocyte. The clear part of the egg is protien the cells use as energy when dividing.
For some reason, this story makes me feel very very good.
http://newsobserver.com/news/story/2310803p-8689263c.html
The Pirate Captain’s webpage is:
I was eating dinner and thought of a question:
What’s the weight difference of a body on the equator vs the poles on Earth?
I decided to use two different UNC library resources to help me answer this question. I used both the Instant Messanger buddies “undergradref” and “davisrefdesk”. These buddies are librarians waiting to help you answer your questions. I wanted to see how similar these buddies were.
The davisrefdesk was not as helpful as the undergradref. davisrefdesk walked me through accessing confusing online databases through the library’s website. I had to ask what to search for and they said “gravity”. That got me nowhere. I got the impression that they were annoyed with my question. They ended the chat with a suggestion to come to the library and check out a physics book. Unacceptible. If davisrefdesk wants folks to come to them rather than google, they should be prepared to deliver a quick answer to my question. Once they do that, they can follow up with more elaborate sources of information on the subject, like physics textbooks.
undergradref was EXCELLENT. I asked my question and within 5 minutes they sent me a link to a Cornell webpage answering it in detail. I think they would have answered more quickly but they were interupted at the desk during the chat.
I’ve been using undergradref for months now to answer different questions I come up with. They have always been helpful and quick. I thought I’d try davisrefdesk to see how well the folks at Davis Library were emulating the Undergraduate Library service. I’ll have to test it out some more to see if I get consistent results back from davisrefdesk.
So, what IS your weight difference between the equator and the poles on Earth?
In class today, a group gave a talk on the IWAR website. I browsed around and found some images of leaflets dropped over Iraq during the U.S. military operations conducted under the name Operation Iraqi Freedom.
These images are almost as good as the WWII propaganda the U.S. military and intelligence agencies employed on U.S. citizens at that time.
Some of my favorites from this government archive include:
The Four Freedom posters
When you ride alone, you ride with Hitler
Nazi boot crushing a church
WANTED: For Murder!
All of this propaganda uses very effective imagery and language to get a desired reaction from the viewer. These particular examples are much more direct than The FOX News Network, which some claim is “the propaganda voice of the Bush administration”.
I wonder if the more direct propaganda style from WWII would be as effective today? I think not, because U.S. citizens would feel too intruded upon by the U.S. government. Folks in the U.S. like to read the reports from, say, a “fair and balanced” news source and then decide for themselves. However, it is this desire that propaganda groups could take advantage of.
By offering censored (or selected) information in the form of news and under the guise of, for the sake of argument: “Fair and Balanced”, an organization could take advantage of the viewers desire to form their own opinion from sensible reports on the facts, when in fact the viewer’s opinion would be based on inacurate, or incomplete, information and reports.
This is a nice write up on how propaganda works. It comes from a larger entry on propaganda which I found to be worth the read.
For fun, see how many instances of propaganda you can find on the drive home today! Wheee!
I use www.adquest3d.com to search for hammond organs for sale in the US. It is a nice classifieds search engine.
It allows you to limit you search to a mile radius from your zipcode, which is helpful. Another nice feature is that it provides the phone area code for each classified listing. I suppose someone would find this useful when looking for that “hard-to-find” yard sale item.
On this site, I’ll be sharing thoughts and writings that I find interesting. joehungry is my personal blog that I hope will embody my hunger for knowledge, food, music, life, and love.
I will also be posting current and past music from bands that I have been involved with throughout the years. The bands include PoSumOn, The McKees’, EssPaul, MoTucky!, and Sharks Like Tea.
Please tune in often, as I will be updating the page daily.
Joe