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Wednesday, October 27, 2010

My Dad and Galileo

I'm amazed that my Dad can take his digital camera and take this photo of Jupiter and its' moons.



From Wikipedia:
On 7 January 1610 Galileo observed with his telescope what he described at the time as "three fixed stars, totally invisible[72] by their smallness," all close to Jupiter, and lying on a straight line through it.[73] Observations on subsequent nights showed that the positions of these "stars" relative to Jupiter were changing in a way that would have been inexplicable if they had really been fixed stars. On 10 January Galileo noted that one of them had disappeared, an observation which he attributed to its being hidden behind Jupiter. Within a few days he concluded that they were orbiting Jupiter:[74] He had discovered three of Jupiter's four largest satellites (moons). He discovered the fourth on 13 January. These satellites are now called Io, Europa, Ganymede, and Callisto. Galileo named the group of four the Medicean stars, in honour of his future patron, Cosimo II de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany, and Cosimo's three brothers.[75] Later astronomers, however, renamed them Galilean satellites in honour of their discoverer.
Once Galileo realized what he had seen a few days later, his observations of the satellites of Jupiter created a revolution in astronomy that reverberates to this day: a planet with smaller planets orbiting it did not conform to the principles of Aristotelian Cosmology, which held that all heavenly bodies should circle the Earth,[76] and many astronomers and philosophers initially refused to believe that Galileo could have discovered such a thing.[77] His observations were confirmed by the observatory of Christopher Clavius and he received a hero's welcome when he visited Rome in 1611.[78]

Galileo continued to observe the satellites over the next eighteen months, and by mid 1611 he had obtained remarkably accurate estimates for their periods—a feat which Kepler had believed impossible.[79]

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Happy Birthday, Von!



And here's a 12 minute video that I thought you might enjoy.  Have a great Birthday, Munchie!

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Do you love your hair?

I heard about this video on NPR.  I watched it and it made me feel good.  We each have our own hair, and were best off embracing it and celebrating it.  Of course, "hair" can be anything that makes us unhappy with ourselves.

I hope I don't become a video blog.

Thursday, October 14, 2010

Vidoes

Sorry, I felt I had to link to a couple of videos.



Friday, October 08, 2010

My turn to sell stuff

My Rotary Club (and Dad's old club!) serves an All You Can Eat Holiday brunch at Centerville Middle school every year. It’s a lot of fun. We have door prizes and lots of donated items that we auction off. If this sounds like something you would enjoy, I can gladly sell you tickets ahead of time, or you could pay at the door.

Sunday Nov 14
9am – 1pm (Stop in any time. It’s a cafeteria line, not table service)

$8 adults, $5 kids 6-12.

Some of the Funds go to Rotary International, which is in the final months of eradicating Polio virus from this earth forever!

Thursday, October 07, 2010

Some photos















We broke down and bought a dishwasher a few weeks ago.  It's a Bosch, so it has all that German engineering.  A super hot water heater that totally pulverizes any food particles, so a disposal is not required. Two pumps, compared to the standard one pump. A weird drying cycle that leaves the dishes dry, even though the inside of the dishwasher is covered with condensation. A turbidity sensor.  Etc.

Here is a photo of the silverware basket from the dishwasher manual.
 Here are some German engineer's suggestions for how to load the silverware basket.