Happy Accident
In 1938, 27 year old chemist Roy Plunkett accidentally invented Teflon while he was attempting to to invent a new type of Freon.
He was born in New Carlisle, Ohio on 26, 1910.
In 1936 he was hired as a research chemist by E.I. du Pont de Nemours and Company at their Jackson Laboratory in Deepwater, New Jersey.
Plunkett received the John Scott Medal from the city of Philadelphia in 1951, for an invention promoting the "comfort, welfare, and happiness of human kind".
He was inducted to the Plastics Hall of Fame in 1973 and the National Inventors Hall of Fame in 1985.
Plunkett died of cancer on May 12, 1994 at his Texas home at the age of 83.
Plunkett died of cancer on May 12, 1994 at his Texas home at the age of 83.
Cricket's Driving Cars?
You can get a toy car that is powered by a live cricket.
It is called the bug racer.
you can watch the cricket drive through a see through windshield.
The Bug Racer, is a battery-powered car controlled by crickets (not included).
Mattel says the car's "control room" is “an ideal space for two crickets”, with room for as many as five.
Bug Racer was condemned as the ‘worst toy idea ever’ because it is inhumane to crickets, which are nocturnal and tend to sleep during the day.
My Heart Will Go On...
Only female passenger that went down with the Titanic survived.
Her name was Rosa Abbot, also known as Rhoda Mary.
She was a third class passenger.
She was born in Aylesbury, Buckinghamshire, on 14 January 1873.
She was the daughter of Joseph Hunt and his wife Sarah Green Hunt.
She moved to the United States in 1894.
She met London-born middleweight champion Stanton Abbott, whom she married soon after in 1895.
The couple had two children, Rossmore and Eugene.
In 1911, she divorced from her husband, returned to England with her sons on the RMS Olympic, and started supporting herself and them by working as a sewer, as well as becoming a soldier in The Salvation Army.
She realized that the boys were not happy living in England and booked a return to America in April 1912.
The family boarded the RMS Titanic in Southampton on 10 April.
On 15 April 1912, the family was asleep when the Titanic hit an iceberg.
By 12:15 AM, they were told by to put on life jackets and retreat to the ship's deck.
There, her son Rossmore is said to have knelt in prayer asking that his mother's life be spared even if he and his brother were not saved.
Abbott's sons were able to accompany their mother to the lifeboats.
They arrived when one of the final remaining lifeboats, Collapsible C, was already being loaded around 2:00 AM.
When it was her turn to enter the lifeboat, she realized that her sons would be denied a spot, and stepping back, refused a place in the lifeboat.
When the ship sank, she was swept away from the deck into the water.
She tried to hold on to her sons to no avail.
Having given up finding them, and about to die of hypothermiain the freezing water, she was able to reach Collapsible Boat A,
Hours went by before Fifth Officer Harold Lowe returned to the site with lifeboat 14 to retrieve survivors in the water.
Several occupants of Boat A had either succumbed or slipped back into the icy water.
Of the people on board, Abbott was one of only 13 who survived.
Her two sons were lost at sea, and only Rossmore's body was later identified.
On board the rescue ship Carpathia, she received special care.
Her legs were badly damaged by the cold water, so that she could not move until arrival in New York.
There she was hospitalized for two weeks in Manhattan's St. Vincent's Hospital.
She was one of the last survivors to be discharged.
As a result of the sinking of the Titanic, Abbott had respiratory problems, including severe bouts of asthma, for the rest of her life.
She had a difficult time with the loss of her sons and grieved for months.
On 16 December 1912, she married longtime friend George Charles Williams, and the couple settled in Jacksonville, Florida.
By 1928, they had returned to England to settle Williams' father's estate in London.
Abbott took care of her husband until his death in 1938.
For the remainder of her life she tried to immigrate back to America, but was always refused.
Abbott died in London of heart failure as a result of hypertension on 18 February 1946, at the age of 73.
Egyptian New Year
The saying the dog days of summer actually refers to when the dogstar sirius, rises in conjunction with the sun, July 3rd through August 11th.
As a result, the Greek and Roman belief was that the combination of the brightest luminary of the day (the sun) and the brightest star of night (Sirius) were responsible for the extreme heat that is experienced during the middle of the northern summer.
According to the ancients, this also caused droughts, plagues and madness.
Astronomer Geminus around 70 B.C. He wrote: "It is generally believed that Sirius produces the heat of the Dog Days, but this is an error, for the star merely marks a season of the year when the sun’s heat is the greatest."
In ancient Egypt, the New Year began with the return of Sirius.
When the ancient Egyptians saw Sirius rising just before the sun, they knew that the "Nile Days" were at hand.
Its annual reappearance was a warning to people who lived along the Nile River. The star always returned just before the river rose.
People then opened the gates of canals that irrigated their fields.
Priests, who were the calendar keepers, sighted the first rising of the Dog Star from their temples.
At the temple of Isis-Hathor at Denderah is a statue of Isis.
A jewel was placed in the goddess’ forehead.
The statue was oriented to the rising of Sirius, so that the light from the returning Dog Star would fall upon the gem.
When the priests saw the light of the star shining upon the gem for the first time, they would march from the temple and announce the New Year.
In the temple appears the inscription: "Her majesty Isis shines into the temple on New Year’s Day, and she mingles her light with that of her father Ra on the horizon."
9/11 Tribute in Space
The little-known story of how a part of the Twin Towers ended up on the Red Planet.
Both of NASA's Mar's,Opportunity and spirit rovers have pieces of the world trade center in them.
The metal was made into shields to protect drilling mechanisims.
The tale involves robotics engineer and Rover team member Stephen Gorevan.
He was riding his bike in lower Manhattan when a plane hit the WTC on September 11, 2001.
He told NASA:
"Mostly, what comes back to me even today is the sound of the engines before the first plane struck the tower.
Just before crashing into the tower,
I could hear the engines being revved up as if those behind the controls wanted to ensure the maximum destruction.
I stopped and stared for a few minutes and realized I felt totally helpless, and I left the scene and went to my office nearby, where my colleagues told me a second plane had struck.
We watched the rest of the sad events of that day from the roof of our facility."
The Honeybee engineers were frustrated by not being able to assist with 9/11 volunteer efforts.
So, Steve Kondos, who was, at the time, a Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) engineer working with the Honeybee team, came up with the idea of embedding some kind of “interplanetary memorial” on the Rovers.
Sacred Cows
After 9/11 the Kenyan Masai, who regard cows to be sacred, and are valued above any possessions, gave the U.S. 14 blessed cows, as a show of sympathy.
The cattle were handed over to William Brancick, deputy head of the US embassy in Kenya in a remote village near
the border with Tanzania.
Some tribes people in traditional red robes and jewelry, carried banners saying "To the people of America, we give these cows to help you". It was arranged by Kimeli Naiyomah, a Kenyan-born man who was studying in New York at the time of the disaster. The Masai have no running water, electricity or telephones. "This is the ultimate gift a Masai can give," Mr Naiyomah said. "I knew my people, I knew they are merciful - they can be fierce and deadly when provoked - but they are also the type of people who can easily cry for the pain of other people." |
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