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post from The Daily Galaxy: Great Discoveries Channel on 11 August 2009 03:06:00 AM. © The Daily Galaxy: Great Discoveries Channel

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Heads Up Tonight: The Greatest Show In the Night
SkyThe 2009 Perseid Meteor Shower

post from The Daily Galaxy: Great Discoveries Channel on 11 August 2009 03:06:00 AM. © The Daily Galaxy: Great Discoveries Channel

It's going to be a great show. This year, Aug. 11 between 9 pm and 11 pm PDT could be the best part of the show, because the Moon and its interfering glare will be below the horizon in early evening. The source of the shower is Comet Swift-Tuttle. Although the comet isnowhere near Earth, the comet's tail does intersect Earth's orbit. Weglide through it every year in August. Tiny bits of comet dust hitEarth's atmosphere traveling 132,000 mph. At that speed, even a smidgenof dust makes a vivid streak of light when it disintegrates. BecauseSwift-Tuttle's meteors fly out of the constellation Perseus, they arecalled "Perseids."

The show begins between 9:00 and 10:00 pm local time, when Perseus rises in the northeast. This is the time to look forPerseid Earthgrazers?particularly spectacular meteors that approachfrom the horizon and skim the atmosphere overhead like a stone skippingthe surface of a pond.

Earthgrazers are long, slow and colorful; they are among the mostbeautiful of meteors. An hour of watchingmay net only a few of these--"at most"--but seeing even one makes itall worthwhile.

As the night unfolds, Perseus will climb higher and the meteor ratewill increase many-fold. By 2 am on August 13th,dozens of Perseids may be flitting across the sky every hour." Thecrescendo comes before dawn when rates could exceed a meteor a minute.

For maximum effect, get out into the countryside, away from city lights.

Adding to the show will be an unusually lovely looking asbackground. In the constellation Taurus, just below Perseus, willshine bright, red and clear. Many of the Perseids will flit right past it.

At any rate, it should be a spectacular free show for stargazers?so if you?re up for it?mark your calendars!

Posted by Casey Kazan with Rebecca Sato.

The Daily Flash -Eco, Space, Tech (8/11)

post from The Daily Galaxy: Great Discoveries Channel on 11 August 2009 03:04:00 AM. © The Daily Galaxy: Great Discoveries Channel

Why Netflix Should Run the U.S. Postal Service

Netflix, with its neat little packets of DVDs, is running a national parcel distribution service on a massive scale, aided by the fast-crumbling U.S. Postal Service. So why doesn't Netflix buy-up the U.S.P.S and revolutionize it?

Snow Leopard's 35 New Desktop Pictures Feature Nature, Fine Art and? Graffiti

Here are the 35 new desktop images Snow Leopard is shipping with next month, as found by CreativeBits. There are the expected plants and nature images, but there's also new fine art and graffiti shots.

The Future of Banking? Deposit Checks via iPhone

One of life?s more tedious chores could soon become much more automated. USAA, a Texas-based bank, plans to release an update of its iPhone application this week that lets customers make deposits using the device?s camera.

Track the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on Twitter

If you?re lucky enough to have made it to Edinburgh?s Fringe Festival, the world?s biggest arts festival, you might have a little trouble working out what acts to see. The service, called EdTwinge, was developed by Mike Coulter, Andrew Burnett, Jim Wolff and digital agency Blonde.

Clive Thompson on Remembering Not to Remember in The Age of Google

Have we forgotten how to forget? Viktor Mayer-Schönberger worries about this. The associate professor of public policy, who is affiliated with Harvard, has written a fascinating book called Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age, due out in September. In it, he argues that technology has inverted our millennia-old relationship with memory.

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The Daily Flash -Eco, Space, Tech (7/11)

post from The Daily Galaxy: Great Discoveries Channel on 11 August 2009 03:04:00 AM. © The Daily Galaxy: Great Discoveries Channel

Why Netflix Should Run the U.S. Postal Service

Netflix, with its neat little packets of DVDs, is running a national parcel distribution service on a massive scale, aided by the fast-crumbling U.S. Postal Service. So why doesn't Netflix buy-up the U.S.P.S and revolutionize it?

Snow Leopard's 35 New Desktop Pictures Feature Nature, Fine Art and? Graffiti

Here are the 35 new desktop images Snow Leopard is shipping with next month, as found by CreativeBits. There are the expected plants and nature images, but there's also new fine art and graffiti shots.

The Future of Banking? Deposit Checks via iPhone

One of life?s more tedious chores could soon become much more automated. USAA, a Texas-based bank, plans to release an update of its iPhone application this week that lets customers make deposits using the device?s camera.

Track the Edinburgh Fringe Festival on Twitter

If you?re lucky enough to have made it to Edinburgh?s Fringe Festival, the world?s biggest arts festival, you might have a little trouble working out what acts to see. The service, called EdTwinge, was developed by Mike Coulter, Andrew Burnett, Jim Wolff and digital agency Blonde.

Clive Thompson on Remembering Not to Remember in The Age of Google

Have we forgotten how to forget? Viktor Mayer-Schönberger worries about this. The associate professor of public policy, who is affiliated with Harvard, has written a fascinating book called Delete: The Virtue of Forgetting in the Digital Age, due out in September. In it, he argues that technology has inverted our millennia-old relationship with memory.

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yakI/the-daily-flash-eco-space-tech-711.html

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Update: Antarctic Vote Count

post from Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted) on 11 August 2009 01:24:15 AM. © Living the Scientific Life (Scientist, Interrupted)

The current Antarctic Trip Vote count is as follows; 3752 - 1546 - 1326 - 1113 - 1078 out of 428 candidates registered. I am now in third place (the second place candidate mysteriously disappeared from contention sometime today). But I need your votes more than ever to recapture first place, so please ask your friends and relatives to vote for me now!

If you've already voted, then please encourage your family, friends, colleagues and neighbors to vote for the person whom you think would be best for this unique job: traveling to Antarctica for the month of February 2010 and writing about it for the public on a blog. Here is my 300-word essay; hopefully, you will agree that I am a very well-qualified candidate for this job opportunity. Voting ends at noon EDT 30 September and there is one vote allowed per valid email address (registration required).

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The Spirit of Tomorrow and the Plymouth that
Rocked

In 1938, Horace Basil Oldfield decided to build a teardrop-shaped vehicle. Without access to a wind tunnel or any other such sophisticated equipment, he refined his design by carving wooden blocks and dipping them into a nearby stream. He then spent two years building what he called the "Spirit

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Electronic Projects for Beginners Translating
the Schematic onto a Breadboard (Part IV)

One of the biggest and most important obstacles beginners trying to learn about electronics will have to overcome is the breadboard. In Part I of this series, the basic features of the breadboard were discussed, but it is another thing entirely to practice with it. Part II and Part III gave yo

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ating-the-Schematic-onto-a-Breadboard-Part-IV?from_rss=1

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test

industry: test

Come to my site for direct links to employer career sites, maps, contact info and more.

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