Tinker's Blog

Unlike traditional flat-screen IMAX® theaters, the new, state-of-the-art Hackworth IMAX® Dome Theater features a giant eight story domed screen and six-channel, digital wrap around sound with 13,000 watts of power coming from 44 speakers. It seats 295 people in special reclining chairs that accentuate the feeling of actually being in the movie. The Hackworth IMAX Dome Theater is the only theater of its kind in Northern California.

The technology that makes IMAX unique comes into play during the production process, when film 10 times the size of standard movie images is loaded into a 52-pound camera. Each IMAX film frame is roughly the size of a business card. IMAX film cartridges, which weigh nearly five pounds when fully loaded, shoot only five to seven minutes of footage each.

Projecting the film is a technological feat in itself. The movie is stored on reels the size of tractor tires that must be loaded onto a hand-built projector as big as a Volkswagen Beetle. The loading process is done beneath the theater, inside a dust-free projection and operator's room and visible through windows as the audience prepares to enter the Hackworth. At the start of the show, the entire two-ton projection package is lifted on an elevator some 22 feet into a box, called a "dog house,'' built into the theater's seating area.

http://secure.thetech.org/ops/imax/imax_overview.html

In the winter of 1811-12, the central Mississippi Valley was struck by three of the most powerful earthquakes in U.S. history. Even today, this region has more earthquakes than any other part of the United States east of the Rocky Mountains.

The 400 terrified residents in the town of New Madrid (Missouri) were abruptly awakened by violent shaking and a tremendous roar. It was December 16, 1811, and a powerful earthquake had just struck. This was the first of three magnitude-8 earthquakes and thousands of aftershocks to rock the region that winter.

Earthquakes in the central or eastern United States affect much larger areas than earthquakes of similar magnitude in the western United States. For example, the San Francisco, California, earthquake of 1906 (magnitude 7.8) was felt 350 miles away in the middle of Nevada, whereas the New Madrid earthquake of December 1811 (magnitude 8.0) rang church bells in Boston, Massachusetts, 1,000 miles away. Differences in geology east and west of the Rocky Mountains cause this strong contrast.

There were temporary river waterfalls where the Mississippi ran backwards during 1811-12 earthquakes.

A Cosmic Speed Limit

The velocity of light plays a central role in astronomy and in physics. According to the Einstein's Theory of Relativity, nothing in our universe can exceed the velocity of light.

For more reading, go here.

May 30, 1996
Web posted at: 1 a.m. EDT

From Correspondent Charles Feldman

SAN DIEGO (CNN) -- In a bid to consolidate operations, the Top Gun flying school, popularized by the hit movie of the same name, relocated its pilots and planes to Nevada. Wednesday, the school's last planes took off from the Miramar Naval Air Base in San Diego for the last time.

In all, some 600 pilots and family members are moving, not to mention a lot of impressive flying hardware. The school's new address: Fallon Naval Air Station, about 60 miles from Reno.

For 27 years the U.S. Navy stationed its so-called Top Gun school at Miramar in San Diego. Officially known as the Naval Fighters Weapons School, its mission is to train the nation's best jet fighter pilots. The school was established after the Navy lost a number of aircraft during the Vietnam war.

 

"The range space here is wonderful," said Top Gun pilot Eric Shaw. "This is the hub for naval training, and pretty much everybody in the Navy and Marine Corps comes through Fallon at one time or another."

Because the Marine Corps will be moving into Miramar, replacing the departing Top Gun crew, the economic impact on San Diego appears minimal. Some community members are concerned about what promises to be a dramatic increase in helicopter traffic. While not as loud as the jets, they will take off and land more frequently.

 

When the U.S. Navy really needs to impress people, it flies them out to one of its super aircraft carriers. Standing 20 stories above the water and stretching 1,092 feet (333 meters) from bow to stern (about as long as the 77-story Chrysler building is tall), the sheer bulk of these ships is awe-inspiring. But the really amazing thing about a supercarrier isn't its size; it's the intense scene on its flight deck. When the crew is in full swing, it can launch or land a plane every 25 seconds -- all in a fraction of the space available on a typical landing strip.

In this article, we'll find out what the U.S. Navy's modern Nimitz-class aircraft carriers are all about. We'll learn what's on the different decks, take a look at the amazing machines that help launch and land aircraft, and find out a little about daily life on these enormous floating bases. As we'll see, the modern aircraft carrier is one of the most amazing vehicles ever created.

super aircraft carriers

1970 Economy / Prices

Economy
President:		Richard M. Nixon
Vice President:		Spiro T. Agnew
Population:		205,052,174
Life expectancy:		70.8 years
Dow-Jones
High:		842
Low:		669
Federal spending:		$195.65 billion
Federal debt:		$380.9 billion
Inflation:		6.5%
Consumer Price Index:		38.8
Unemployment:		3.5%
Prices
Cost of a new home:	$26,600.00
Cost of a new car:	$
Median Household Income:	$8,734.00
Cost of a first-class stamp:	$0.06
Cost of a gallon of regular gas:	$0.36
Cost of a dozen eggs:	$0.62
Cost of a gallon of Milk:	1.15

 

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Legend: Green M&M® Chocolate Candies are an aphrodisiac.

Origins: The Mars Company of Hackettstown, New Jersey (now M&M/MARS), has been producing M&M Chocolate Candies since 1941. (The peanut variety was introduced in 1954.) Various rumors have since been attached to different colors of the candy: the green ones are an aphrodisiac; if the last candy out of a bag is red, make a wish and it will come true; if the last candy out of a bag is yellow, you should call in sick and stay home; orange M&Ms are good luck, but brown ones are bad luck. M&M/MARS notes that all these rumors were developed by consumers, not the company.

The rumor that these green candies are an aphrodisiac apparently started or first gained prominence in the 1970s, when students reportedly picked the green ones out of packages to feed to the objects of their desires. (At that time, an average of 10% of plain M&Ms and 20% of peanut M&Ms were green.) Why the green M&Ms were attributed with this power is unknown; perhaps it was because the color green has always been associated with healing and fertility. (The company itself routinely states that they "cannot explain any extraordinary 'powers' attributed to [green M&Ms], either scientifically or medically"; the same "powers" have also been claimed of green jelly beans and gummi bears.)

When red M&Ms were temporarily taken off the market after the FDA banned the use of red dye #2 in 1976, a rumor spread that the red ones were such a powerful aphrodisiac that M&M/MARS employees were pocketing them directly off the production line.

In 1992, a California lawyer named Wendy Jaffe cashed in on the legend and started a company named Cool Chocolates Inc. Her company's sole product was a green M&M-like candy sold under the name "The Green Ones." M&M/MARS claimed trademark infringement (in part because the characters on The Green Ones' packages were quite similar to the trademarked M&M cartoon figures), and as part of a settlement Ms. Jaffe agreed to change the name and packaging of her product. (Her candy was subsequently sold under the name "Greenies.") M&M/MARS started playing on the common image of green M&Ms with an "Is it true what they say about green ones?" advertising campaign in 1996.

Have you ever wondered why the moon is more orange or yellow in color when it first rises at night. This effect is caused by the atmosphere of the earth.

The Orange Moon

A used ... pink bathrobe
A rare ... mint snowglobe
A Smurf ... TV tray
I bought on eBay

My house ... is filled with this crap
Shows up in bubble wrap
Most every day
What I bought on eBay

Listen to the eBay Song

The Bees

There was a crowd of bees flying around one day.
These bees were most peculiar. They were powered by gasoline, rather than the allergenic goodies that bees usually eat.

As the crowd flew along, periodically a bee or two
would start to sputter, it would fly down to a gas station, drink up the gas spilled in fueling a car, and then fly up and rejoin the crowd.

One bee began to sputter a little, but flew right by an open gas station. As he passed the second station, he was coughing badly, but still he flew on.

Finally, as he was on his last fumes, he dove down to a station and gassed up.

When he rejoined the crowd, his neighbor challenged him: "Look, you passed right by an open station when you started to get low. You passed another station when you were perilously low. And finally, you ran out of
gas just in time to glide into that last station. Are you crazy?"

He replied, "Well, it's like this. The first station was a Gulf station. I really don't like Gulf at all. The second station was a Texaco station. That's even worse. But the third station was an Esso station. Let me tell you, Esso is my brand of gasoline.

You know what they say don't you...




There's an Esso Bee in every crowd!

The 1900 glider produced only about half the lift the Wrights had predicted. For all their careful planning, something was obviously very wrong. Still, they were pleased with their first visit to Kitty Hawk.

Inventing A Flying Machine

15 numbers for Monday the 12th

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1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 17, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 27, 28, 29

Let's try pairs 67 & 78 for midday today.
Or maybe I'll try to find my lucky dart board.