Home
Ideaphore Archive
Daily Reads :
Weblogs:
SlashdotLarkfarm
News:
The RegisterCNN
BBC
CBC
Environment:
Recent California EarthquakesSpaceWeather.com
Current Space Weather
Weather Underground
Monday, October 30, 2000
Tracking Geese by Satellite
This site provides maps tracking the movements of migrating geese. These geese are fitted with satellite transponders. Unfortunately the maps are updated only twice per month.
Geese in Space, The Next Generation | Ducks Unlimited Canada
"Welcome to Geese in Space - The Next Generation, a unique two year study using satellite technology that is helping Ducks Unlimited learn more about the Canada geese in Newfoundland and Labrador."
"In 1999 the Geese in Space project was launched with 22 geese being tagged with satellite transmitters. The Next Generation 24 geese were tagged in August 2000, with the movements of a dozen being tracked on this web site."
posted at 10/30/2000 08:36:09 AM
Sunday, October 29, 2000
Here are a couple of the more intricate British crop circles from this years circle season. The Brits seem to be way ahead of us Canadians in this field. One seems to have been constructed from dozens of intersecting spiral arcs, resulting in something like a sunflower. The other is shown to be constructed from a moire pattern. They are both well over a hundred feet in diameter.
Avebury Trusloe, nr Avebury, Wiltshire
Woodborough Hill (3), nr Alton Priors, Wiltshire
posted at 10/29/2000 11:37:47 PM
I was not aware of the prevalence or variety of crop circles in Canada. This site has lots of drawings and photographs, interviews and news articles.
Circles Phenomenon Research Canada
"Welcome to the web site of Circles Phenomenon Research Canada. As a cyberspace extension and resource centre of CPR-Canada and CPRI, this site will provide information on: the latest news and reports; current crop circle reports in Canada; report archives, special research projects; presentations and lectures; media interviews, programs, articles and news releases; e-mail updates; summary reports; research assistance; research resources; offices and contacts; links to related web sites and guestbook"
posted at 10/29/2000 11:40:13 AM
Thursday, October 26, 2000
Make your own self-contained biospheres. Similar to the commercial ones from The Green Culture and Ecosphere Associates, except being made with Sea Monkeys and old plastic bottles. These contain salt water, algae ,plants and brine shrimp.
Homemade Biospheres
"An ecosphere, or biosphere, is a completely enclosed airtight container that has living things inside. Since the container is enclosed, the living things will only stay living if they are in a sustainable state."
posted at 10/26/2000 02:55:05 PM
This is a comprehensive site on making gourmet pizza. It includes Tips and Secrets, Cookbooks, Dough and Sauce recipes and links to other pizza related sites. Mouth watering. I am going right out to buy a pizza stone.
Homemade Gourmet Pizza Page
"Friday night I made a couple of pizzas - a sun-dried tomato and roasted garlic pizza and a Greek pizza. I used a sponge dough and substituted milk for half the water and did an all-day refrigerator rise. Results were good!"
posted at 10/26/2000 01:33:19 PM
This site details the construction of hot air balloons from plastic bags and candles. Check out the report of a UFO attack filed by the occupants of a police helicopter versus the report of the people who watched the copter fly around their small hot air balloon, or the extensive list of witness descriptions. The site also includes descriptions of possible school science experiments and mathematical models.
Overflite Model Hot Air Balloons, Unmanned Montgolfier UFO Balloons
"DANGER: DO NOT MAKE OR FLY THESE."
"Birthday Candle Balloons can rise over two thousand feet high, sail for miles, and shine like Big Orange Stars, for over ten minutes."
"All of the Overflite Balloon Designs are based on the concept of a Theoretical Universal Balloon. Here, "Virtual Balloons" are imagined to exist mathematically, as a Reasonable Proxy of Reality. From these theoretical balloons, real balloons can then be designed and built, with predictable results. "
posted at 10/26/2000 01:21:54 PM
A 7kw home power plant that runs on natural gas. It has almost no moving parts, very low emissions and high efficiency. Just the thing for here in Nova Scotia where they have just started running natural gas pipe lines all over the place from the offshore gas fields.
GE MicroGen | Product Description
"Imagine your own guaranteed supply of electricity in a compact, quiet, self-contained package - it's called the HomeGen 7000. This new energy system produces more power, and is more environmentally friendly, more efficient and more reliable than ever. About the size of a refrigerator, the HomeGen 7000 provides 100% of a home's energy needs, plus runs on fuels (natural gas or propane) already delivered to your home."
via Bubble Chamber via RcFoC
posted at 10/26/2000 12:21:48 AM
Monday, October 23, 2000
One ancient Mayan pyramid produces echoes of handclaps that sound very much like the call of the sacred Quetzal. Also reported are a series of stone cylinders that produce different musical tones when struck, and pots that whistle when being filled with water.
"Archaeological acoustic study of chirped echo from the Mayan pyramid at Chichen Itza", a paper presented at an Acoustical Society of America conferance, discusses a Mayan pyramid in Mexico that displays interesting acoustical properties, including the echoes that sound like Quetzal calls.
Sound Evidence is a Scientific American web page discussing the previous paper. This site has sound samples of Quetzal calls and the pyramid echoes.
Mayan Ruins and Unexplained Acoustics has a discussion of various acoustical observations among Mayan ruins.
posted at 10/23/2000 11:16:29 PM
Sunday, October 22, 2000
I have been looking for something like this for a long time, not for listening to whales, but for listening to the ice noises in the winter from the lake at my cottage. With two I could get stereo.
DolphinEAR Hydrophones
"Introducing the world's first affordable underwater listening device! Just slip on the earphones, and drop the 'hydrophone' into the sea ~ you you are instantly transported into the magical world of 'Live Underwater Sound'."
"Each DolphinEAR comes with a free software to produce your own SPECTROGRAMS. It allows you to 'see' underwater sounds and analyze their content. It's a great program written by Richard Horne and generously made available to us for inclusion with DolphinEAR. It produces graphics similar to the type of 'waterfall displays' used by SONAR operators on U.S. Navy Nuclear Submarines to detect and indentify underwater sounds."
posted at 10/22/2000 02:02:11 PM
Thursday, October 19, 2000
Ornithopters are flying machines powered by bird like flapping wings. Here are links to some sites with ornithopter kits. The rubber band powered ones are quite inexpensive and fly for about a minute, looking quite birdlike. The radio controlled ones are incredible, but also expensive. The first two of these sites have video clips.
Ornithopter Technologies has inexpensive rubberband powered ornithopters
Pteryx Model Aircraft has awesome radio controlled ornithopters with 10 foot wingspans.
Flapping Flight has more info and some free plans for rubber band powered ornithopters.
Project Ornithopter from the University of Toronto Institute for Aerospace Studies is working on a full scale powered piloted ornithopter.
posted at 10/19/2000 05:04:47 PM
Wednesday, October 18, 2000
Scientists claim to have revived bacterium from inside an incredibly ancient salt crystal according to this news release. Reading the actual Nature article requires a free registration.
nature: feature of the week
"Nature this week publishes a report of the raising of a bacterium from spores trapped in a 250 million year old salt crystal recovered from a New Mexico salt pan. This result allows the previously unknown bacteria (Bacillus species, designated 2-9-3) to lay claim to the title of the "oldest known organism". "
"The bacterium was found in a tiny, fluid-filled air bubble inside a salt crystal, about 560 metres underground at a site east of Carlsbad, New Mexico. "
posted at 10/18/2000 10:43:36 PM
Monday, October 16, 2000
This site has nice flash animations illustrating the physics of pool. It also covers strategy and rules.
The Physics of Pool
"Here you will learn thoroughly the physics involved in game of pool, and the strategies in playing a well-calculated game. The site is fully user interactive and the graphics in +flash site is done completely in Macromedia Flash 4.0."
posted at 10/16/2000 03:25:01 PM
Friday, October 13, 2000
This photo is more alien looking than the Cydonian face. It is from the Mars Global Surveyor-Mars Orbiter Camera. In the photo you can see what look like huge corrugated pipes emanating in three different directions from a fissure.
Here is an interesting analysis of the Mars Pipes.
And here is the original MOC narrow-angle image M04-00291. Click on the links on the left hand side for magnified views. The feature of interest is on the bottom left of the narrow strip image. You can't miss it.
via engaged.well.com
posted at 10/13/2000 12:51:04 AM
Just to refresh your memory of what a real winter is like, NOAA is forecasting a return to normalcy this winter. Colder and snowier in the North and East.
NOAA Winter 2000 Outlook
"The nation's top climate and weather experts at NOAA announced the winter weather outlook for the United States, saying that the recent string of record warm winters may be over, as normal winter weather returns. "We've probably forgotten over the last three years what a normal winter is like," said NOAA Administrator D. James Baker."
posted at 10/13/2000 12:00:30 AM
Wednesday, October 11, 2000
I once saw an technological art exhibit where there was a large 3ft glass ball filled with fluid. You could turn it and bizarre flow patterns would develop inside it, looking almost exactly like the atmosphere on Jupiter. Here is how to make your own smaller version.
Exploratorium: Turbulent Landscapes - Turbulence Patterns
posted at 10/11/2000 10:26:22 PM
Sunday, October 08, 2000
I was only alerted to this by a tiny 2 inch news item on page 16 of the Globe and Mail newspaper. It does not seem to be very well publicised. The first game has already been played, and the second is being played on Tuesday Oct 10. The winner of the 16 game match takes home US$1.3 million, and the loser half that. The sponsors site, Braingames, requires registration, but the following site also has the moves and commentary:
London Chess Centre - World Chess Championship Coverage
"Garry Kasparov entertains his first challenger for five years (since Anand in 1995), taking on whom many believe to be his closest rival, Vladimir Kramnik from Russia. It promises to be Kasparov's toughest defence yet.
The Match will be played over 16 games with the title being retained by the holder should there be a tie (8-8). Games will be brought to you move by move right here with expert commentary and on location reports & pictures"
posted at 10/8/2000 12:54:45 AM
Friday, October 06, 2000
Extreme Yacht Racing, 72 foot yachts with a crew of 17, racing against the roaring winds around Antarctica. The race is currently in progress, and lasts until June/2001. This is quite different from the Americas Cup race.
I don't know, but maybe the singlehanded Vendee Globe race is tougher. For a feel of what this type of race is like, read "The Godforsaken Sea", about the 1996/97 Vendeé Globe, singlehandly following approximately the same course.
BT Global Challenge
"On 10 September 2000, the 12 identical 72-ft. yachts cross the BT Global Challenge starting line in Southampton, England. Their spectacular send-off begins the 30,000-mile race around the world, the wrong way. During "the world's toughest yacht race," they'll stop at seven ports to rest, refit their boats and spread the Challenge message."
posted at 10/6/2000 12:05:27 AM
Wednesday, October 04, 2000
Just in time for Halloween, here is a great looking Jack-O-Lantern and the story of its making.
The Arcstarter's Propane Jack-o-Lantern
"I, Bill-the-Arcstarter, swear and promise to you, the reader, that everything mentioned on this page actually happened to me one night in October..."
posted at 10/4/2000 11:36:23 PM
Amateur science on the edge. Why stick your finger in an electric socket when you can have some fun with real power. Build your own coilgun. Shatter tupperware at will. I have not seen the word "shatter" used so may times anywhere on the web. Check out the link to the QuarterShrinker for an absurdly dangerous non inflationary method of shrinking money.
Fantastically Dangerous Capacitor-bank Experiments
"This page is intended for an adult technical audience, and has a RSACi rating of V4. If your kids can see it, then you are not using an Internet Filter to block adult content. "
"With 1/2" electrodes at 1/4" spacing, the blast was extremely loud, the agar was thrown out from the discharge as a liquid spray, the cottage cheese bowl was again shattered and blown downwards, and the 10" tupperware bowl that covered the assembly was shattered!"
posted at 10/4/2000 11:07:26 PM
Monday, October 02, 2000
With CFCs having been banned for years, why are we still seeing record size ozone holes every year ? Here is NASAs take on the question, complete with the requisite graphs and satellite images.
Peering into the Ozone Hole
"Concentrations of ozone-destroying gases are down, but the Antarctic ozone hole is bigger than ever. It turns out there's more to ozone destruction than just CFCs."
posted at 10/2/2000 04:10:17 PM
