And Cut
May 31, 2009
What news anchors do during commercial breaks.
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Susan Boyle places 2nd on Britain’s Got Talent.
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A Mayonnaise Jar & Two Beers
May 26, 2009
Every now and then, I’ll receive a great forwarded email that gives pause makes you reevaluate your priorities. This story is one of them. It’s called A Mayonnaise Jar & Two Beers:
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When things in your life seem almost too much to handle, when 24 hours in a day are not enough, remember the mayonnaise jar and the 2 Beers.
A professor stood before his philosophy class and had some items in front of him.
When the class began, he wordlessly picked up a very large and empty mayonnaise jar and proceeded to fill it with golf balls.
He then asked the students if the jar was full.
They agreed that it was..
The professor then picked up a box of pebbles and poured them into the jar. He shook the jar lightly.
The pebbles rolled into the open areas between the golf balls.
He then asked the students again if the jar was full.
They agreed it was.
The professor next picked up a box of sand and poured it into the jar.
Of course, the sand filled up everything else.
He asked once more if the jar was full.
The students responded with a unanimous ‘yes.’
The professor then produced two Beers from under the table and poured the entire contents into the jar effectively filling the empty space between the sand.
The students laughed..
‘Now,’ said the professor as the laughter subsided, ‘I want you to recognize that this jar represents your life.
The golf balls are the important things—your family, your children, your health, your friends and your favorite passions—and if everything else was lost and only they remained, your life would still be full.
The pebbles are the other things that matter like your job, your house and your car..
The sand is everything else—the small stuff.
‘If you put the sand into the jar first,’ he continued, ‘there is no room for the pebbles or the golf balls.
The same goes for life.
If you spend all your time and energy on the small stuff you will never have room for the things that are important to you.
Pay attention to the things that are critical to your happiness.
Spend time with your children.
Spend time with your parents.
Visit with grandparents.
Take time to get medical checkups.
Take your spouse out to dinner.
Play another 18..
There will always be time to clean the house and fix the disposal.
Take care of the golf balls first—the things that really matter.
Set your priorities.
The rest is just sand.
One of the students raised her hand and inquired what the Beer represented.
The professor smiled and said, ‘I’m glad you asked.’
The Beer just shows you that no matter how full your life may seem, there’s always room for a couple of Beers with a friend.
-Anonymous
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Susan Boyle Does It Again
May 24, 2009
Susan Boyle performs on Britain’s Got Talent and moves one step closer to the finals.
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Lebron James’ Mircale Shot
May 23, 2009
Game 2 Eastern Conference Finals: Cleveland Cavaliers vs Orlando Magic
Trailing by 2 with 1 second left on the clock, Lebron James makes the 3 to win the game!
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Terminator Salvation
May 22, 2009
4th “Terminator” film starring Christian Bale as John Connor. Depicts the war between Skynet and the human resistance, set in 2018.
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Early skeleton sheds light on primate evolution
May 20, 2009
AP-The 47 million-year-old fossilized remains of a creature are shown at a news AP – The 47 million-year-old fossilized remains of a creature are shown at a news conference at the American …(Photo Credit: Associated Press)
By MALCOLM RITTER, AP Science Writer Malcolm Ritter, Ap Science Writer – Wed May 20, 1:40 am ET
NEW YORK – The nearly complete and remarkably preserved skeleton of a small, 47 million-year-old creature found in Germany was displayed Tuesday by scientists who said it would help illuminate the evolutionary roots of monkeys, apes and humans.
Experts praised the discovery for the level of detail it provided but said it was far from a breakthrough that would solve the puzzles of early evolution.
About the size of a small cat, the animal has four legs and a long tail. Nobody is claiming that it’s a direct ancestor of monkeys and humans, but it provides a good indication of what a long-ago ancestor may have looked like, researchers said at a news conference.
In an evolutionary sense, the fossil is like an aunt from several generations ago, said Jens Franzen of the Senckenberg Research Institute in Frankfurt, Germany.
The fossil is the best preserved ever found for a primate, said Jorn Hurum, of the University of Oslo Natural History Museum, one of the scientists introducing the specimen. It’s about 95 percent complete, even including fingertips with nails, and lacks only the lower portion of one leg, Hurum said. It also includes gut contents, showing the creature ate leaves and fruit in its rainforest environment.
Experts not connected with the discovery said the finding was remarkably complete because of features like stomach contents. But they questioned the conclusions of Hurum and his colleagues about how closely it is related to ancestors of monkeys and humans.
“I actually don’t think it’s terribly close to the common ancestral line of monkeys, apes and people,” said K. Christopher Beard of the Carnegie Museum of Natural History in Pittsburgh. “I would say it’s about as far away as you can get from that line and still be a primate.”
Rather than a long-ago aunt, “I would say it’s more like a third cousin twice removed,” he said. So it probably resembles ancestral creatures “only in a very peripheral way,” he said.
Beard said scientists already have a fossil from China of about the same age that is widely accepted as coming from monkey-ape-human ancestral line, and it’s much smaller than the new-found fossil and ate a different diet. “They are radically different animals,” he said.
John Fleagle of the State University of New York at Stony Brook said the scientists’ analysis provides only “a pretty weak link” between the new creature and higher primates, called anthropoids, that includes monkeys and man.
“It doesn’t really tell us much about anthropoid origins, quite frankly,” Fleagle said.
Fleagle said the scientists did an “extraordinary” job of extracting detailed information from the fossil. “There’s certainly a lot more information about this individual than probably any other fossil primate that’s ever been recovered,” he said.
The animal was a juvenile female that scientists believe died at about 9 or 10 months.
“She tells so many stories. We have just started the research on this fabulous specimen,” said Hurum.
The fossil, recovered from a mine about 25 miles southeast of Frankfurt, is nicknamed Ida after Hurum’s 6-year-old daughter. Its scientific name is Darwinius masillae, after Charles Darwin and the area where it was found.
The fossil was unearthed by a private collector in 1983 and remained in private hands until Hurum’s museum bought it in 2007.
Ida was unveiled at New York’s American Museum of Natural History, which will feature a replica cast in a new exhibit about mammals. It was promoted by a press release for the cable TV channel History that called it a “revolutionary scientific find that will change everything.”
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, among the speakers at the news conference, called it an “astonishing breakthrough.”
The story of the fossil find will be shown on History, which is owned by A&E Television Networks. A book also is planned.
Hurum saw nothing wrong with the heavy publicity, which preceded the publication of a paper about the fossil Tuesday in the scientific journal PLOS (Public Library of Science) One.
“That’s part of getting science out to the public, to get attention. I don’t think that’s so wrong,” Hurum said.
Source: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ancient_primate
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Hubble’s Final Servicing Mission
May 18, 2009
Boston.com
Alan Taylor
On Monday, May 11, after months of delays and preparation, NASA’s Space Shuttle Atlantis launched from the Kennedy Space Center on the final servicing mission to the orbiting Hubble Space Telescope. The seven crew members left Florida for low Earth orbit at 2:01 pm, for a scheduled 11-day mission, including 5 days of Extra-vehicular activity (EVAs) to work on the Hubble. So far the repairs appear to be going very well – the final EVA is scheduled for today, and the landing planned for May 22nd. I was fortunate enough to attend the launch at Banana Creek viewing area, and wish to extend my gratitude to all the people at NASA. (Only one of the photos below is mine)(31 photos total)
Space Shuttle Atlantis rolls atop the crawler transporter out to launch pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center on March 31, 2009 in Cape Canaveral, Florida. (Matt Stroshane/Getty Images)
In the Vehicle Assembly Building at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the crane holding space shuttle Atlantis rotates it toward a vertical position above the transfer aisle. The shuttle was lifted into High Bay 3 where it was attached to its external fuel tank and solid rocket boosters on the mobile launcher platform. (NASA/Cory Huston) #
The tools that will be used to service NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope on the STS-125 mission are displayed in the NASA News Center at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. At far right is the pistol grip tool. It can install and remove instruments, drive latches and open doors. A self-contained, high-torque drive, the tool features an on-board computer that permits users to tailor its performance to the mission demands. In the foreground are the card extraction and insertion tools to enable removal of electronic cards. At top center is the plastic version of the pistol grip tool used by astronauts during practice in the water tank at NASA’s Johnson Space Center. At center left is the bit caddy. (NASA/Jack Pfaller) #
Two NASA T-38 jet trainer aircraft fly over the Space Shuttle Endeavour on Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center. After Atlantis leaves Pad A (out of frame), Endeavour will be moved from Pad B to Pad A to support the STS-127 mission. Currently, Endeavour is being prepared as a backup vehicle for Atlantis, and it will be designated STS-400 if in the unlikely event it’s needed for a rescue flight. The two pictured aircraft were piloted by Jack Nickel (in jet with tail number 62, top) and Charles Justiz (in jet with tail number 24). (NASA) #
Space shuttle Atlantis crew, from right, commander Scott D. Altman, pilot Gregory C. Johnson, mission specialist, K. Megan McArthur, mission specialist John Grunsfeld and mission specialist Andrew Feustel, mission specialist Michael Good and mission specialist Michael Massimino, leave the Operations and Checkout building enroute to board the shuttle at Kennedy Space Center in Cape Canaveral, Fla., Monday, May 11, 2009. (AP Photo/John Raoux) #
In the White Room on Launch Pad 39A at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, STS-125 Mission Specialist Michael Good prepares to enter space shuttle Atlantis for launch. The White Room is at the end of the orbiter access arm on the fixed service structure and provides access into the shuttle. (NASA/Sandra Joseph-Kevin O’Connell) #
Solar panels on the Hubble Space Telescope make for some unique window shades in this scene photographed from the flight deck of the Earth-orbiting Space Shuttle Atlantis. Just below the “shaded” pair of windows are panels of displays and controls very instrumental in the success of the work being done on the giant observatory. (NASA) #
The NASA space shuttle Atlantis and the Hubble Space Telescope are seen in silhouette, side by side during solar transit at 12:17p.m. EDT, on May 13, 2009, from west of Vero Beach, Florida in this image released by NASA May 14. The two spaceships were at an altitude of 600 km (375 miles) and they zipped across the sun in only 0.8 seconds. (REUTERS/Thierry Legault/NASA/Handout) #
Astronaut John Grunsfeld holds onto a handrail as he performs work on the Hubble Space Telescope on May 14, 2009. Grunsfeld, a spacewalk veteran with a long relationship with the telescope, will participate in two of the remaining four sessions of extravehicular activity later in the mission. (NASA) #
Astronaut Andrew Feustel, STS-125 mission specialist, positioned on a foot restraint on the end of Atlantis’ remote manipulator system (RMS), participates in the mission’s third session of extravehicular activity (EVA) as work continues to refurbish and upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope. (NASA) #
30In this close-up scene featuring astronaut John Grunsfeld performing a spacewalk to work on the Hubble Space Telescope, the reflection in his helmet visor shows astronaut Andrew Feustel taking the photo as he is perched on the end of the Canadian-built remote manipulator system arm. (NASA)
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Xbox Meets Nike
May 15, 2009
Xbox Nike shoe(though not endorsed by Microsoft or Nike) made by Sole Junkie. Only one shoe made, costs $2500
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General Electric
May 14, 2009
General Electric has been running this TV commercial recently. Great message.
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