Ralph J. Coppola --- r_j_coppola@hotmail.com
SAS
Disclaimer
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Do you like to get down and dirty and roll up your sleeves
for some interesting DIY project? If so, then keep a lookout
for Wanderings #89!
By now, we have all heard about the magnitude
9.0 earthquake that occurred, at 07:58:53 PM (EST) Saturday,
25 December 2004, that, in turn, triggered the tsunami
that struck south Asia and eastern Africa.
We generally associate large earthquakes and tsunamis with
the Pacific Ocean’s Ring
of Fire. Could something like the “Boxing Day Tsunami”
strike the Atlantic coast of North America? Perhaps! As can
be seen in this map
of the Northern US states and Canada, while not as active
as the Pacific, the Atlantic coast receives its share of seismic
activity.
For example, at 20:32 UTC on 18 November 1929, a magnitude
7.2 earthquake and resulting tsunami struck Newfoundland’s
Burin Peninsula. The damage was very small compared to
the recent Indian Ocean tsunami. Nevertheless, fifty isolated
fishing communities (out-ports) were heavily damaged.
Sometime in the future, there could be an episode in the
Atlantic that will over shadow the recent Asian Tsunami. Geophysicists
Dr. Steven Ward of the University of California at Santa Cruz
and Dr. Simon Day of University College, London, speculate
that an eruption of the Cumbre Vieja volcano in the Canary
Islands could cause a trillion tons of volcanic rock to slip
into the Atlantic Ocean and cause a Mega Tsunami. See:
Mega tsunamis are not a figment of some Sci-Fi author’s
imagination. On 8 July 1958, a landslide at Lituya
Bay, Alaska, caused a 525 meter high “splash!”
Several consequences of the recent tsunami that are receiving
little or no press coverage are that this wave has displaced hundreds
of thousands of landmines in the region, especially Sri
Lanka. Ted Chaiban of UNICEF reports that the mines that were
washed out of known mine fields will pose a great danger to
the population when they start returning to their homes, because
they will not know the new locations of the mines. Also, WHO has issued warnings of the
possibility of malaria outbreaks in the tsunami-affected regions
of Indonesia, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and India.
NASA scientists reported
that the Indian Ocean earthquake slightly affected the shape
and rotation of the Earth, and shifted the position of the
North Pole.
Further related reading may be found at:
The Techlib.com
site was listed several times in the past. Recently, I noticed
that they have a DIY Cheap
but Sensitive Radiation Detector that uses low voltage,
ordinary semiconductors, and no high value resistors. They
also have a section of some interesting science fair
ideas. Note: These are ideas, not instructions!
A revisit to The
Fun Science Gallery finds that they have added some new
DIY items to their collection of projects.
Two Slit Diffraction &
Interference Demonstration --- a DIY photo essay.
The skywise711.com site offers sections on lasers,
earthquakes and astronomy.
Bug’n’Bots
is an online source of educational robotic kits and parts.
Solarbotics.net
is a BEAM
robotics resource centre.
Have a look at the past entries to MIT’s 6.270 Autonomous
Robot Design Competition.
Light Pollution reaches
out to other areas besides astronomy.
Birds, sea turtles, humans and other creatures are all experiencing
the effects of light pollution.
If this isn’t enough, the burning of fossil fuels to
produce the power for the lighting contributes to air pollution
and global warming.
The International Dark-Sky
Association’s goals are to build a public awareness
of the problem of light pollution and of the solutions, and
to educate everyone about the value and effectiveness of quality
nighttime lighting.
Martin Brown’s hobby page contains
detailed information about the NoNaD light pollution filter
for low-pressure sodium lights.
On 25 April 1953, James Watson and Francis Crick announced
in the science journal Nature that they had discovered
the double helix structure of DNA, but what about Rosalind Franklin?
See:
Dr. Peter Gordon of Columbia University reported in the journal
Science that The Piraha, a band of Amazon
hunter-gatherers, do not have concepts of numbers or colors.
The University of Pennsylvania Library has a
collection of online e-books.
Here are a few selected News
Headlines from Johns Hopkins University.
Read the latest science news stories from China Economic Net.
Scientists
from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, are using a
stainless steel sphere, one-meter in diameter and filled with
about 1000 kg of sodium, to try and discover how the Earth
generate its magnetic field.
On Tuesday 11 January 2005, two recently found giant
squids underwent an autopsy or necropsy in an attempt
to learn more about the habits of these elusive creatures.
Check out In
Search Of Giant Squid An Expedition into the Last Frontier.
Come visit the Ancient Egyptian Virtual Temple.
SAS member James Rowland sends us the URLs of the Brookhaven National Laboratory and the Atomic Mass Data Center (AMDC).
The aim of the Atomic Mass Data Center is to provide an online
meeting place where information on masses (experimental, evaluation
or theory) can be exchanged.
The Kids Room
Jessica
Luttkus, a high school senior, spends 40 hours a week
at JPL programming
photographic shots of
Saturn for the Cassini spacecraft.
The McKernan School of Edmonton, Alberta has an extensive
collection of primary to grade 9 Curriculum Links web and science links.
The University of Michigan’s Internet
Public Library has a pretty good Science
Fair Project Resource Guide.
Ian Iracheta’s site, Xperymental Science
Pages for Kids, contains a collection of simple science
experiments for the young.
They say that a picture is worth a thousand words. For proof,
take a look at these Java simulations.
Recently, I came across the thread in the SAS
Forum that was discussing Dr. Marueen Clemmons’
theory that the ancient Egyptians may have used kites to lift
obelisks and to assist their building of the pyramids ---
Amateur or Amateurish?
Kites in Ancient Egypt.
On 23 June 2001 Dr. Clemmonds and her team were successful
in using a kite to raise a 3.5-ton obelisk. While the Wind, Pyramids and Obelisks and The Kite Life web sites
show a collection of photographs that were taken during the
tests, they don’t show a clear schematic of how the
equipment was configured. A diagram
in the Caltech
News fills in the missing details. The drawing shows that
the obelisk is being lifted by an arrangement of 6 pulleys
providing a mechanical advantage of 6. The kite is not lifting
the load! It’s merely providing a traction force of
1167 lbs (3.5 tons / 6 = 1167 lb) via the main rope that is
routed through the break to the pulley system.
Is it possible to use a kite to assist in the lifting of
an obelisk into position? Dr. Clemmonds’ experiments
proved that it could be done. But I don’t think that
it’s probable. A yoke or two of oxen or a handful of
burley workers could easily have replaced the kite. Why would
the ancients go to the trouble of rigging a kite and hoping
for a fair wind when there were better sources of power available?
Then as now, the KISS
principal is still the best way to go.
Dr. Clemmonds, on her web site, Ancient
Clues: Symbols as Tools An Alternate Look at the Hieroglyphs,
draws many parallels between images in Egyptian art/hieroglyphs
and kite flying. For example, she equates the Egyptian
ankh symbol with a modern day Figure
8 device that is used, in rock climbing, for rappelling
and belaying. Hmmmm? Perhaps one could use a stale donut for
the same task. 8-)
This technique reminds me of the writings of Erich
von Däniken and his Chariots of the Gods. As some of you
may recall, von Däniken theorizes, among other things, that
the Nazca Lines were drawn by
extraterrestrials.
See CSICOP’s article
When
the Media Tell Half the Story and The Skeptic's Dictionary entry on von
Däniken. 
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