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5.07.2008

Exciting Smogasbord of Random Trivia

I've had an ongoing list of various research trivia projects from Eucalyptus leaves to Cinco De Mayo.

I finally got around to research them, but some of the excerpts are almost too small for their own article, so I pooled the trivia research findings all here.

Here's the results.

Eucalyptus

Cinco De Mayo
"5th of May" || US version of "Yorkton Day" "October 17, 1781" ||. Surprisingly this doesn't celebrate Mexican Independence, So what famous event does the 5th of May recognize? Well, Mexican Indepndence was close, except it wasn't the Declaration independence day, which was September 15, 1810. Instead, May 5, 1862 marks the key military conquest where Mexico smashed the French army and traitor mexican soldiers at Puebla, 100 miles east of Mexico City! I made, if I do say so myself, I VERY clever analogy with the American independence. In 1781, Cornwallis officially surrended in Yorktown to George Washington. Our official declaration of independence occurred back in 1776 and the key military battle that clinched our independence, not unlike May 5, 1862 for Mexico, was October 17, 1781. Conclusively, Cinco de May is not Mexican Independence day, but rather the day Mexico "clinched" its independence, like a "17th of October Yorktown" day for the U.S.!

Neptune
  • Neptune is 17x earth
  • Windiest planet in solar system
  • Named after roman god of the sea, his brother’s are Jupiter and Pluto.
  • Methane makes it blue.
  • And it’s moon is Triton (1 of 13 moons).
  • Undergoes apparent retrograde every 367 days
Janus
  • Janus is the Roman god of new beginnings and doors. Pray to Janus to get a golden audition.
Lost
  • Lost is so successful and draws 15 million viewers because it ties in mythology (the island develops it’s own myths, legends, and culture amongst the pod of survivors).
Thunderstorms -- Meteorological Heat and Moisture
Thunderstorms, in short, need heat and moisture. Warm air can carry more molecules than colder air and the moisture condenses producing latent heat, also adding to the storm.

Storms usually occur with "high horizons" with those huge cumulus clouds.

Thunderstorms in winter DO occur but rare. They needs cloud air colder than surface air (difficult in winter b/c surface ground air is already pretty cold) and a lot of moisture (again hard. because winter is typically dry). But they do happen if the aloft air gets a lot colder than surface and some moisture is brought in from some source like gulf of mexico. If a huge cloud mass passes a body of water and picks up moisture, that could contribute to a winter storm.


Eucalyptus
Picked this up and ate it while hiking Hotsprings

Key Facts (Trigger Words)
  • Australia!!
  • Gum
  • Leaf Oil =
    • Natural Disinfectant!! (But toxic in high doses),
    • Flammable!,
    • Blue Haze -- Creates characteristic Blue Haze of australian landascape!
  • Digeridoo
  • Originated from CA Gold Rush
  • Eucalyptus flora dominates Australia!
  • 35 to 50 million years old!
Research
Australia!! also India, SoCal, Africa, Portugal, Spain, China
Gum trees, odd insect makes squiggle marks in the bark sap.
COOL! They're Evergreen!! (not decidious, but they look like that. such a COOL plant. Eucalyptus is my favorite plant by FAR nowadays!!) and Myrtle. leaves covered with oil glands (like a person's subcutaneous skin)!

Oil rises above the canopy to create the awesome horizon of the australian landscape!! Flammable oils brought about trees that were known to explode! Huge controeverys over their saftey because of flammabilyt, But the aroma makes it hte best flora for me!! Music branches digeridoo. COOL Introduced to CA by Aussies during CA Gold rush!! far out!! australians panned for gold and brought Eucalyptus! Awesome!! So useful, they're often economically imported!! (am I like an imported australian eucalyptus tree)? Frequently has stringy bark.


iPhone
71% of all web browsing mobile is done from Safari (iPhone)

iPhone has 28% of all mobile market and it's only been out for a year. RIM has like 41% but it's been out for decades! haha! Apple rocks!

Apple has created two music phones. The ROKR, made with Motorola in 2005, respected the traditional relationships between manufacturers and carriers. The iphone, released last summer, completely overturned them.

ROKR

This was me at CC when obeying timb_ezra!

* Won't hold more than 100 songs, even if there's memory left.
* iTunes Music Store purchases must be synced from a PC.
* Clunky interface is sluggish and hard to navigate.
* Design screams, "A committee made me."

iPhone

This is me now
* Can hold about 1,500 songs — as much as its 8-GB drive allows.
* iTunes Music Store purchases download wirelessly, directly to the phone.
* Just tap and go; no user manual required.
* C'mon. Look at it. It's gorgeous.
A cozy relationship with the maker of the iPod would bring sex appeal to the company's brand. And some other carrier was sure to sign with Jobs if Cingular turned him down — Jobs made it clear that he would shop his idea to anyone who would listen. But no carrier had ever given anyone the flexibility and control that Jobs wanted, and Sigman knew he'd have trouble persuading his fellow executives and board members to approve a deal like the one Jobs proposed.

Apple engineers bought nearly a dozen server-sized radio-frequency simulators for millions of dollars apiece. Even Apple's experience designing screens for iPods didn't help the company design the iPhone screen, as Jobs discovered while toting a prototype in his pocket: To minimize scratching, the touchscreen needed to be made of glass, not hard plastic like on the iPod. One insider estimates that Apple spent roughly $150 million building the iPhone.

In February, Jobs will release a developer's kit so that anyone can write programs for the device.

The iPhone cracked open the carrier-centric structure of the wireless industry and unlocked a host of benefits for consumers, developers, manufacturers — and potentially the carriers themselves.

It may appear that the carriers' nightmares have been realized, that the iPhone has given all the power to consumers, developers, and manufacturers, while turning wireless networks into dumb pipes.But by fostering more innovation, carriers' networks could get more valuable, not less. Consumers will spend more time on devices, and thus on networks, racking up bigger bills and generating more revenue for everyone. According to Paul Roth, AT&T's president of marketing, the carrier is exploring new products and services — like mobile banking — that take advantage of the iPhone's capabilities. "We're thinking about the market differently," Roth says. In other words, the very development that wireless carriers feared for so long may prove to be exactly what they need. It took Steve Jobs to show them that.
(Source NYT iPhone Article)

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