Missing Mary Road

tost, you should consider getting a theory named the tost theory.

i also gifted a friend for her birthday by having a star named after her. that was fun too.

One day, billions of miles from Cape Canaveral, aliens might find a gold record inside a peculiar-looking spacecraft. If these intergalactic beings haven’t discarded their old record players, they’ll hear a compilation of sounds and songs from a strange place called Earth.

Thirty years ago, with the Voyager program, we launched an elaborate greatest hits album into the universe. As The New York Times reported in 1977, “The Voyager message is carried by a phonograph record – a 12-inch gold-plated copper disk containing sounds and images selected to portray the diversity of life and culture on Earth. The contents of the record were selected for NASA by a committee chaired by Carl Sagan of Cornell University.” Here are some of the tracks included. For a complete list, visit the Voyager section of NASA.gov:

• Bach, Brandenburg Concerto No. 2 in F
• Zaire, Pygmy girls’ initiation song, recorded by Colin Turnbull
• “Johnny B. Goode,” written and performed by Chuck Berry
• Japan, shakuhachi, “Tsuru No Sugomori” (“Crane’s Nest,”) performed by Goro Yamaguchi
• Mozart, The Magic Flute, Queen of the Night aria, no. 14. Edda Moser, soprano. Bavarian State Opera, Munich
• Georgian S.S.R., chorus, “Tchakrulo,” collected by Radio Moscow
• Peru, panpipes and drum, collected by Casa de la Cultura, Lima
• “Melancholy Blues,” performed by Louis Armstrong and his Hot Seven
• Azerbaijan S.S.R., bagpipes
• Stravinsky, Rite of Spring, Sacrificial Dance, Columbia Symphony Orchestra
• Beethoven, Fifth Symphony, First Movement, the Philharmonia Orchestra
• Navajo Indians, Night Chant, recorded by Willard Rhodes
• India, raga, “Jaat Kahan Ho,” sung by Surshri Kesar Bai Kerkar
• “Dark Was the Night,” written and performed by Blind Willie Johnson Monday!

crisis guide by the council of foreign relations.

click to make bigger. geek cred for figuring out what the heck this is about. hem, don’t bother.

According to Einstein’s theory of relativity, a clock on the floor ought to run very slightly slower than an identical one on top of a step stool because the lower clock nestles deeper into Earth’s gravitational field. Now, physicists have demonstrated this effect using two super-accurate clocks and hoisting one several centimeters above the other. It’s the first time scientists have used clocks to show that time flies faster for your nose than for your navel. “The demonstration of the gravitational shift by elevating a clock about one foot is quite stunning,” says Daniel Kleppner, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Cambridge, who was not involved in the work. He adds, however, that the demonstration “does not change anyone’s view on relativity.”

Einstein realized that time passes at different rates depending on the circumstances. For example, suppose you stand on a train platform with a Rolex on your wrist while a friend wearing an identical watch zooms by in a train. Your friend’s watch runs slower than yours simply because he is moving relative to you, Einstein predicted in his theory of special relativity. And according to his theory of general relativity, gravity comes about because massive things like Earth stretch the fabric of space and time. As a result, a clock at lower altitude and, hence, lower gravitational energy, should run slower than one at higher altitude—by about 3 microseconds per year per kilometer of elevation.

Keep reading.

via.

fascinating stuff…

A digest of last week’s prophetic and interpretive thought

“I was not commenting and I will not comment on the wisdom of making a decision to put a mosque there. I was commenting very specifically on the right that people have that dates back to our founding.” —Barack Obama

“We all know that they have the right to do it, but should they?” —Sarah Palin

“Where the ‘Ground Zero mosque’ is concerned, opposition is roughly proportional to distance, even in New York.” —Hendrik Hertzberg

“I believe that this is an important test of the separation of church and state—as important a test as we may see in our lifetimes—and it is critically important that we get it right.” —Michael Bloomberg

“Obviously my opinion is that I’m opposed to it.” —John McCain

“If you are a healer, you do not go forward with this project. If you’re a warrior, you do.” —Rudy Giuliani

“It’s a community center. They’re going to have a gym. They’re going to have point guards. Muslim point guards.” —Al Franken

“Nazis don’t have the right to put up a sign next to the Holocaust Museum in Washington. We would never accept the Japanese putting up a site next to Pearl Harbor. There’s no reason for us to accept a mosque next to the World Trade Center.” —Newt Gingrich

“There is no valid comparison there.” —Pat Buchanan

“This is like a metastasized anti-Semitism.” —Daisy Khan

“We strengthen America by distinguishing, clearly and unequivocally, between our al-Qaida enemy and our Muslim neighbors.” —Jeff Merkley

“How is this opposition to the mosque being funded? How is this being ginned up?” —Nancy Pelosi

“It is a real affront to people who lost their lives…. Another site would be a better idea.” —Howard Dean

“The longer we have this feud, the more the terrorists are laughing.” —David Paterson

before

after

The pictures above are self explanatory and are taken on August 13th 2001 and August 18th 2010 respectively. Large images are also available, before and after.

The Indus River at Sukkur was at exceptionally high levels on August 18, 2010, when the Advanced Spaceborne Thermal Emission and Reflection Radiometer (ASTER) on NASA’s Terra satellite captured the top false-color image. The upper image shows the Sukkur region on August 13, 2001. Water ranges from dark blue to silvery blue, and plant-covered land is red in the false-color image.

Sukkur is the hub of a crucial irrigation network that brings water to farms throughout the Sindh province. The dark blue canals surround the white-gray city of Sukkur in both images. In the bottom image, the Indus River extends over its banks across many kilometers. Near the city, the river seems to be held in check by the canals and associated structures.

The floods started in late July when intense monsoon rains fell over northern Pakistan. By mid-August, about one-fifth of Pakistan was flooded, affecting more than 15 million people.

Please find it in your hearts to donate some money for relief efforts here.

http://www.chowrangi.com/donation-links-and-relief-resources-for-pakistan-flood-victims.html

matthew miller writes a really good article in ZDNET.

As I plan my trip to Nokia World next month I have continued thinking about Nokia and finally posted an article on ZDNet that I have been thinking about for a few months. I write this Nokia Experts site so of course I am a fan of Nokia and their devices or I wouldn’t spend hours writing here for free. I try to give you my honest take on things and am both positive and negative here and in my other writing. However, it seems to me that the media and smartphone enthusiasts in the US are unfairly slamming Nokia when other smartphone operating sytems get by with more. Am I being overly sensitive or do you too feel that Nokia doesn’t get the respect it deserves in the US?

if you combine all tv and film characters and generate a university run by them, you get the below. unknown source. i’ve tried to identify most from my own known knowledge. see if you can fill in the rest. what other departments can you think of? who would fill the roles. who are better suited for the roles below? are any of the ones i’ve written below incorrect?

Dean of Science

Professors of Science

Dean of Engineering

Professors of Engineering

Dean of Business

Professors of Business

Dean of Law

Professors of Law

Dean of Arts

Professors of Arts

Dean of Humanities

Professors of Humanities

Dean of Sports

Professors of Sports

dean of dept of science = dr who
comp sci – chuck bartowski, chuck
med sci – house
math – a beautiful mind – john somethin
theoretical physics – lost, daniel faraday
astronomy – dunno
chemistry – walter white, breaking bad
biology – psycho from human centipede
marine biology – steve zissou, the life aquatic
psychology – hannibal lecter, silence of the lambs
para psychology – fox and mulder, x files
paleontology – jurassic park dude
archeology – indy jones
lab maintenance – i forget

dean of engineering – Q, most bond films
mech eng. – tony stark, iron man
astronautical – scotty, star trek
automotive – i think you already know this bit.
nuclear – peter sellers in dr. strangelove or: how i learned to stop worrying and love the bomb
civil – danny day lewis in there will be blood
biological – dude from district 9
practical – angus macgyver
pharmacological – jonathane crane aka scarecrow in batman begins
applied physics – mythbusters dudes
architecture – ?
actuarial – ?

dean of business – gordon gecko from wall street
capital restructuring – various similar roles
public speaking – the tv ad infomercial guy who just died
mergers and & – american psycho or bruce wayne, could be either
corporate raiding – ?
marketing – jon hamm playing don draper in mad men
economics – ?
hostile takeover – hans, die hard
business management – tony soprano
transitional bm – ?
practical bm – steve carrell in the office

dean of law – john saul, breaking bad
corporate law – arrested development lawyer
criminology – ?
criminal justice – robocop
forensics – dexter
ethics – kiefer sutherland playing jack bauer in 24
business ethics – arrested development psycho dad
tactical litigation – kirk or law and order, take your pick
maritime law – sean connery in hunt for red october
tort – ?
bird – ?
habeas corpus – john mclane, die hard

dean of arts – bob ross, the joy of painting
graphic – mad men- bryan batt playing romano
film – ?
theatre – arrested development
fashion – zoolander
photography – hitchcock, rear window
painting – ed harris doing jason pollock
culinary arts – gordon ramsey
literature – ?
music/band – john williams
choir – nph, dr. horrible’s sing along blog
dance – river tam, firefly

dean of humanities – i forget,
journalism – ?
diplomacy – bond
theology – ?
philosophy – the dude, the big lebowski
political science – lolita?
womens studies – hank moody, californication
world languages – hans landa, inglorious basterds
linguistics – philleas fogg?
american history – deadwood
ancient history – ?
medieval history – mad max?
african american history – ?

dean of sports – gene hackman in hoosiers
golf – adam sandler, happy gilmore
hockey – the mighty ducks, emilio esteves
track and field – forrest gump
boxing – sly stallone, rocky
football – oj simpson
baseball – field of dreams
weightlifting – 300?
soccer – bend it like beckham