Notebook
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Live from Antarctica
Mixing live Webcasts with interactive presentations, San Francisco’s Exploratorium documents a journey to Antarctica. Team members interview scientists, dive and film underwater, climb a volcano, and visit a vast frigid desert. The Web site also features reference material on a variety of topics, including how fish adapt to icy waters, and views of the continent’s […]
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From the December 5, 1931, issue
PROTECTION EXTENDED NEARLY EXTINCT TEDDY BEARS Koalas, known colloquially in Australia as native bears, real, live teddy bears in soft, plushlike fur, have lately become the objects of special solicitude, both official and private, in the far island-continent that is their home. For several generations nobody paid any more attention to them than Americans pay […]
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Sky Survey
The SkyServer provides public access to Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data. Learn more about the SDSS project, which aims to map the universe, and browse images and spectra of celestial objects. Take a look at the atlas of “famous places” in the sky. Go to: http://skyserver.sdss.org/.
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From the November 28, 1931, issue
ACTION OF STEEL UNDER STRESS REVEALED IN WRITING ON SAND How solid steel softens and flows like wax when compressed or stretched is being shown to the naked eye by Dr. A. Nadai at the Research Laboratories of the Westinghouse Electric and Manufacturing Company, at East Pittsburgh, Pa. In his new apparatus, a beam of […]
- Earth
Wind Chill Update
The National Weather Service has revised its formula for calculating wind chill. These Web pages feature an explanation of the changes, a new wind chill chart relating temperature and wind speed, and a handy wind chill calculator. Go to: http://205.156.54.206/om/windchill/.
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From the November 21, 1931, issue
TURKEYS The beautiful bronze turkeys that furnish the biggest specimens for the family festivities were domesticated before white men came to America. Cortez found them in the markets of Mexico, and showed that he was a gourmet as well as freebooter; for turkeys soon found their way to Spain and thence all over Europe, finally […]
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From the November 14, 1931, issue
PHYSICISTS STUDY EFFECTS OF STRONG WINDS ON SKYSCRAPERS Another official government investigation is getting under way in Washington. The men involved in the new probe are studying a problem of vital concern to every city in America. The investigators working now are scientists, and their problem is to find out whether skyscrapers–including the 10- and […]
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Leonardo’s Bridge
In 1502, Leonardo da Vinci made a simple drawing of a great, 240-meter bridge that was to span an inlet at the mouth of the Bosporus River in what is now Turkey. The bridge was never built, but Leonardo’s design has been reproduced in a wooden bridge for pedestrians over a highway in Norway. Artist […]
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Dazzling Shooting Stars
The impending encounter between Earth and a cloud of particles ejected from comet Tempel-Tuttle is likely to produce a dazzling meteor shower, visible over North America in the early morning hours of Nov. 18. Bill Cooke of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center provides forecasts and viewing conditions for this year’s Leonid storm. Go to: http://see.msfc.nasa.gov/see/Leonid_Forecast_2001.html […]
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From the November 7, 1931, issue
HUDSON RIVER BRIDGE RIVALED FOR FAME BY NEW ARCHES While the completion of the great George Washington suspension bridge, which has hurled itself in one bold leap across 3,500 feet of the Hudson River from Manhattan to the New Jersey shore, is being celebrated, two other bridges, likewise the largest in the world of their […]
- Earth
Photo Treasures
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration offers an amazing library of more than 16,000 spectacular images, organized into a variety of topical sets. You can browse image collections devoted to coastlines, fisheries, ships, polar regions, severe storms, undersea research, nature reserves, flight, geodesy, coral reefs, and many other subjects. Go to: http://www.photolib.noaa.gov/ .
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From the October 31, 1931, issue
CATS WERE WILD IN ANCIENT SOUTHWEST In ancient America, it was bad luck to meet a cat on a dark night. All the cats that the Indians knew were wildcats. Dogs were tamed and learned to follow Indian hunters and Indian children around, but cats walked by themselves, very wild and alone. The Indian pottery […]
