Category Archives: Science

Imagine….

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…living on the far side of the moon your whole life, never knowing there was a huge planet out of sight on the other side of the globe beneath your feet.

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What if you were an astronomer living on the far side of the  moon, trying to explain why the sun behaved so strangely, not aware that it was the moon acting under the influence of Earths gravity?

On the moon, there is only one sunrise and sunset per month, and the stars are always visible, even in daytime. The sky is always black and full full full of stars, probably more stars than we’ve ever seen on Earth. You’d see all of the planets we see, except Earth.

Think what it would be like, living on the far side of the moon.

Happy First Day of Summer*

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from www.timeanddate.com

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Happy First Day Of Summer (in the northern hemisphere) and Happy First Day Of Winter to everyone else!

At 11:39 local time this morning, 16:39 UTC, the sun will reach it’s northernmost point in relation to its orbit around the earth. Today is the longest day in the northern hemisphere and the shortest day of the year to everyone else.

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To me it’s kind of a sad day because, well, ya know, the days are getting shorter. In reality though, it’s the first day of summer and the hottest part of the year is coming!

Speaking of the hottest time of year, yesterday we got a new hot tub. But I don’t think we’re goingo turn the heat on (yet)

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Maybe when we get into the cold dark winter.

Have a good Sunday and a GREAT SUMMER! (in the northern hemisphere. Have a great winter everyone else)

Antique Dental Chair

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My grade school friends Dad had a chair like this at their house, (he was a dentist). I really think the pedalwheel technology like this and on old sewing machines should be brought back.

This is from Neatorama

dental chairDoc Holliday is most famous for his friendship with gunslinger Wyatt Earp and for his participation in the gunfight at the O.K. Corral. But he was also a dentist, having earned a degree from the Pennsylvania College of Dental Surgery. He practiced in various places in the American West, earning little as his patients were wary of the dentist’s tuberculosis. Holiday opened a saloon in Las Vegas in 1879. Now a dentist chair found in Las Vegas and inscribed with the name John Holliday is up for auction.

The oak and leather mounted dental chair of Doc Holliday and associated equipment. Accompanied by a framed letter on Baker Gulch Mining Co., Las Vegas, Nevada stationary dated Oct 20, 1908. Statement of Donation: “When I rented my office above the apothecary on the Plaza, I removed a dental chair to make room for my own furnishings.I later noticed the name John Holliday on this chair. ………I now have learned that this is the same John Holliday, the famous shootist of a few years prior….I have also been informed that this was the last location that he practiced dentistry. I give this chair to the city free of charge in hope that a display of archives or a museum may use this infamous artifact. To this I affix my signature and seal. “

Well, maybe a museum will buy it. At the time of this writing, the bids are up to $2,000. Link -via Boing Boing

Asteroid Flyby

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This big rock flying through space is going to buzz the Earth the day after Valentines Day. It will pass closer than our man made satellites for GPS. Kind of like a car flying off the highway into your yard, passing between the house and the swingset but (hopefully) missing everything.

Just FYI.

4179 Toutatis ASStroid asteroid-flyby

Science I Don’t Believe. A Loada Hooie!

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Martian black_beauty_fullScientists have determined a meteorite discovered in the Sahara Desert in 2011 is about 2.1 billion years old and could be the first meteorite to come from the surface of Mars.

Article from HERE.

Sorry, I don’t buy it. No way does a rock from one planet leave that planet, float through space, then land on another. I just don’t buy it. I’m not saying it’s impossible, but I don’t believe happened and I don’t think there is sufficient proof.

So here’s the theory: A meteor hits another planet, Mars for example. The big explosion throws some Mars rocks out into space. In my uneducated opinion, a meteor striking a planet with enough force to throw rock into space would have to be powerful enough to almost destroy the whole planet. Or a volcano shoots some rocks all the way into outer space (my feeble, uneducated brain doesn’t think this is possible at all).

These rocks then attain escape velocity (for the planet Mars), float to Earth, survive burning through Earths atmosphere, and land on the ground. I don’t buy it because first of all, I don’t think a meteor impact or volcano would eject rock into space. Mars has pretty decent gravity and atmosphere (the escape velocity for Earth, if my grade school science memory serves me correctly, is something like 28,000 miles per hour, I’m sure it’s less on Mars, but still up there).

Secondly, any Mars rocks small and light enough to be ejected into space would not be large enough to survive falling through Earths atmosphere.

Thirdly, even if it did happen, there’s no way  to know that it is from Mars..If you could prove that it’s from another planet, which you can’t, because this rock doesn’t seem very unique, you couldn’t prove it was from Mars. It might be from Ork, where Mork is from. Even then, maybe he brought it with him, and it didn’t magically fly from planet to planet.

Mork N Mindy_400I don’t believe it. If you want to prove to me that the above rock came from Mars, then show me on Mars the exact spot that rock came from. Show me the hole in a Mars rock that the above rock fits into perfectly, like a piece from a puzzle. Then I’d believe it.

Oh yeah, and lastly. Even if it happened all the time, and Mars rocks were just raining down on Earth, why would scientists claim that this could be the FIRST Mars rock to land on Earth, where did this idea come from. “Could be” is right, “could be” is most pertinent words in the article. A loada hooie, I tellya!