Project Stormfury was an organization that tried to control hurricanes by seeding them with silver iodide, which would cool the hurricanes. However, the project had little success, and was abandoned. The Chinese are now looking into similar technology to transform the Gobi Desert into an agriculturally productive area.
Laika, by Paul K. Tunis.
On November 3, 1957, Laika - a Moscow street dog - became the first animal to orbit the earth.
Heh.
Myth!
Of course the US space program thought of using pencils. The problem with pencils was that the graphite pencil “leads” are quite brittle. On Earth, that’s not a problem; you can dust the chipped bits of grey stuff off your desk and carry on with your day. But in a low gravity environment, graphite splinters and particles float through the air, damaging delicate equipment and (cringe with me) getting into people’s eyes. Health and safety was the motivation behind the pressurized pens. And the Russians adopted them, too!
A real unknown mystery among amateur shortwave enthusiasts and curious minds alike, the UVB-76 shortwave radio station located in Povarovo, Russia (56°4′58″N 37°5′22″E / 56.08278°N 37.08944°E / 56.08278; 37.08944) just 25 miles north-west of Moscow has been transmitting a short, monotonous buzzing tone that repeats at approximately 25 tones per minute for 24 hours per day on the frequency 4625 kHz. The purpose of this transmission station, which is also known as “The Buzzer” has yet to be released to the public and you can even say that its mysterious origins are what fuel the public’s fire of curiosity. This station was first observed in 1982 and has maintained the same buzzing sound that lasts 0.8 seconds, pausing for 1-1.3 seconds and repeating 21-34 times per minute. At exactly one minute before each hour the repeating tone is replaced by a continuous tone that goes on for one minute before going back to the short repeating buzzing tone.
Researchers have, until recently, thought that dog domestication occurred about 14,000 years ago. In 2011, the case for it taking place much earlier received a boost from sites across Eurasia. Mietje Germonpré, of Belgium’s Museum of Natural History, and a team of researchers published a paper describing three canid skulls that had many of the distinctive traits that separate domesticated dogs from their wolf ancestors, including a shorter, broader snout and a wider brain case. The skulls, which date to roughly 31,500 years ago, were part of a collection from the site of Předmostí, in Czech Republic.
First horses, now dogs are from Eastern Europe too?
The above dog has a mastodon bone in its mouth. Do not mess with prehistoric Czech dogs.
Konstantin Tsiolkovsky (1857-1935), pioneer of astronautics. Derived the Tsiolkovsky rocket equation and made a significant contribution to the Soviet Space Program; in addition to his exploration of the earth sciences and biology.
The first effective electric light bulb. Made by the British scientist Joseph Swan it was perfected years ahead of Thomas Edison’s competing bulb and was much more reliable. Swan had devised a way to artificially create the fibre needed to act as a successful filament within the glass bulb. He was so proud of this fibre he had his wife crochet it into lace doilies.
Koch snowflake
a fractal that begins with an equilateral triangle and then replaces the middle third of every line segment with a pair of line segments that form an equilateral “bump”
![matthen:
Draw a perfect triangle on a piece of paper, and then draw around the triangle free-hand. Try to make each new shape closely match the previous one, including its imperfections. You’ll find wavy patterns developing (just like doing the same with straight lines) which makes a nice picture. But can you manage to do all this, with the ultimate goal that after 50 lines you will reach a perfect square? This animation shows a computer program having a go. [code]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_lud9i4LqgO1qfg7o3o1_r1_400.gif)
Draw a perfect triangle on a piece of paper, and then draw around the triangle free-hand. Try to make each new shape closely match the previous one, including its imperfections. You’ll find wavy patterns developing (just like doing the same with straight lines) which makes a nice picture. But can you manage to do all this, with the ultimate goal that after 50 lines you will reach a perfect square? This animation shows a computer program having a go. [code]
