Friday, September 29, 2017
From Black Holes To Wi-Fi...!
Sometimes it's interesting to find out the origins of everyday objects, don't you think?
So many things end up being used for purposes far removed from what they were intended for. This is but one of many.
Wi-Fi started with a physicist named John O’Sullivan. He had read Stephen Hawking’s theory that small black holes may evaporate, sending out radio signals when they do, and O’Sullivan wanted to prove it.
In theory, we should be able to detect these signals from Earth. These radio signals would be slight and hard to spot, but O’Sullivan worked hard to develop a mathematical tool to find them. For a long time, he stared out into space but he found nothing.
Then, in 1992, he took a job with a company that was trying to make wireless computer networks. Nobody could pull it off until O’Sullivan applied his black hole detection tool to the network—and it worked.
O’Sullivan’s ideas melded into what became Wi-Fi—a tool that was originally meant to spot black holes.
I found this information over on Listverse. Pretty cool stuff over there.
Coffee out on the patio this morning!
So many things end up being used for purposes far removed from what they were intended for. This is but one of many.
Wi-Fi Started As A Way To Detect Black Holes
Photo credit: hotforsecurity.bitdefender.com
Wi-Fi started with a physicist named John O’Sullivan. He had read Stephen Hawking’s theory that small black holes may evaporate, sending out radio signals when they do, and O’Sullivan wanted to prove it.
In theory, we should be able to detect these signals from Earth. These radio signals would be slight and hard to spot, but O’Sullivan worked hard to develop a mathematical tool to find them. For a long time, he stared out into space but he found nothing.
Then, in 1992, he took a job with a company that was trying to make wireless computer networks. Nobody could pull it off until O’Sullivan applied his black hole detection tool to the network—and it worked.
O’Sullivan’s ideas melded into what became Wi-Fi—a tool that was originally meant to spot black holes.
I found this information over on Listverse. Pretty cool stuff over there.
Coffee out on the patio this morning!
Thursday, September 28, 2017
It's All About The Search...!
Think about it for a minute, if you will. Without the tireless work of the many early explorers searching for answers, so many parts of our great country would not have been discovered and mapped for many years.
On this day in 1542, the Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovers San Diego Bay while searching for the Strait of Anian, a mythical all-water route across North America.
Cabrillo was not the first to search for a water passage across the North American continent, and he would not be the last. Ever since the voyages of Columbus, Europeans had dreamed of finding a shorter trade route to the Orient. Once it became clear that North America was not India, as Columbus had believed, but an entirely new continent, explorers hoped that an all-water route through the New World might still be found. Vastly underestimating the breadth of the continent, early 16th and 17th century explorers like Cabrillo believed that one such route might be the elusive Strait of Anian, a navigable passage some sailors claimed linked the Pacific with the Gulf of Mexico.
In June 1542, Cabrillo departed from the West Coast of Mexico and sailed northward to probe the complex broken coastline of the Pacific. Repeatedly turning east to follow any inlet that held the promise of being the Strait, Cabrillo was the first European to explore many of the Pacific Coast bays and inlets. Though San Diego Bay–as well as all the other inlets he subsequently explored–never led to the mythic Strait of Anian, Cabrillo did succeed in mapping many of the most important features of the California coast, though he missed discovering San Francisco Bay.
Despite the failure of the Cabrillo mission, other explorers continued to search for the Strait of Anian and its northern cousin, the Northwest Passage, for many years to come, though with no more success. Ironically, a passage across the continent actually did exist, and in 1905, the Arctic explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to make an all-water crossing of North America. But Amundsen’s cold and treacherous far-northern route was hardly the shortcut to the Orient Cabrillo and countless other explorers had dreamed of, and died for, over the course of more than five centuries.
In the end, it all comes down to the fact that early explorers took on the challenging and often dangerous job of doing the initial leg work for future expansion of the United States. So many great discoveries and natural wonders were found all because of the love of the search.
Coffee out on the patio again. Temps are in the 70s, so it's pleasant.
1542
Cabrillo discovers San Diego Bay
On this day in 1542, the Spanish explorer Juan Rodriguez Cabrillo discovers San Diego Bay while searching for the Strait of Anian, a mythical all-water route across North America.
Cabrillo was not the first to search for a water passage across the North American continent, and he would not be the last. Ever since the voyages of Columbus, Europeans had dreamed of finding a shorter trade route to the Orient. Once it became clear that North America was not India, as Columbus had believed, but an entirely new continent, explorers hoped that an all-water route through the New World might still be found. Vastly underestimating the breadth of the continent, early 16th and 17th century explorers like Cabrillo believed that one such route might be the elusive Strait of Anian, a navigable passage some sailors claimed linked the Pacific with the Gulf of Mexico.
In June 1542, Cabrillo departed from the West Coast of Mexico and sailed northward to probe the complex broken coastline of the Pacific. Repeatedly turning east to follow any inlet that held the promise of being the Strait, Cabrillo was the first European to explore many of the Pacific Coast bays and inlets. Though San Diego Bay–as well as all the other inlets he subsequently explored–never led to the mythic Strait of Anian, Cabrillo did succeed in mapping many of the most important features of the California coast, though he missed discovering San Francisco Bay.
Despite the failure of the Cabrillo mission, other explorers continued to search for the Strait of Anian and its northern cousin, the Northwest Passage, for many years to come, though with no more success. Ironically, a passage across the continent actually did exist, and in 1905, the Arctic explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to make an all-water crossing of North America. But Amundsen’s cold and treacherous far-northern route was hardly the shortcut to the Orient Cabrillo and countless other explorers had dreamed of, and died for, over the course of more than five centuries.
In the end, it all comes down to the fact that early explorers took on the challenging and often dangerous job of doing the initial leg work for future expansion of the United States. So many great discoveries and natural wonders were found all because of the love of the search.
Coffee out on the patio again. Temps are in the 70s, so it's pleasant.
Wednesday, September 27, 2017
Wild Bill For Western Wednesday...!
Here is a case where what seemed like a good idea at the time just didn't quite work out.
What started out to be a solution for one problem kinda led to another. The simple fix didn't solve the problem, but instead made it seem even worse than before.
Just after midnight on this day in 1869, Ellis County Sheriff Wild Bill Hickok and his deputy respond to a report that a local ruffian named Samuel Strawhun and several drunken buddies were tearing up John Bitter’s Beer Saloon in Hays City, Kansas. When Hickok arrived and ordered the men to stop, Strawhun turned to attack him, and Hickok shot him in the head. Strawhun died instantly, as did the riot.
Such were Wild Bill’s less-than-restrained law enforcement methods. Famous for his skill with a pistol and steely-calm under fire, James Butler Hickok initially seemed to be the ideal man for the sheriff of Ellis County, Kansas. The good citizens of Hays City, the county seat, were tired of the wild brawls and destructiveness of the hard-drinking buffalo hunters and soldiers who took over their town every night. They hoped the famous “Wild Bill” could restore peace and order, and in the late summer of 1869, elected him as interim county sheriff.
Tall, athletic, and sporting shoulder-length hair and a sweeping mustache, Hickok cut an impressive figure, and his reputation as a deadly shot with either hand was often all it took to keep many potential lawbreakers on the straight and narrow. As one visiting cowboy later recalled, Hickok would stand “with his back to the wall, looking at everything and everybody under his eyebrows–just like a mad old bull.” But when Hickok applied more aggressive methods of enforcing the peace, some Hays City citizens wondered if their new cure wasn’t worse than the disease. Shortly after becoming sheriff, Hickok shot a belligerent soldier who resisted arrest, and the man died the next day. A few weeks later Hickok killed Strawhun. While his brutal ways were indisputably effective, many Hays City citizens were less than impressed that after only five weeks in office he had already found it necessary to kill two men in the name of preserving peace.
During the regular November election later that year, the people expressed their displeasure, and Hickok lost to his deputy, 144-89. Though Wild Bill Hickok would later go on to hold other law enforcement positions in the West, his first attempt at being a sheriff had lasted only three months.
I reckon this is one reason Bill got the name Wild Bill. Have to admit he did what was asked of him, even if it ruffled a few feathers.
Coffee out on the patio again this morning.
What started out to be a solution for one problem kinda led to another. The simple fix didn't solve the problem, but instead made it seem even worse than before.
1869
Sheriff Wild Bill Hickok proves too wild for Kansas
Just after midnight on this day in 1869, Ellis County Sheriff Wild Bill Hickok and his deputy respond to a report that a local ruffian named Samuel Strawhun and several drunken buddies were tearing up John Bitter’s Beer Saloon in Hays City, Kansas. When Hickok arrived and ordered the men to stop, Strawhun turned to attack him, and Hickok shot him in the head. Strawhun died instantly, as did the riot.
Such were Wild Bill’s less-than-restrained law enforcement methods. Famous for his skill with a pistol and steely-calm under fire, James Butler Hickok initially seemed to be the ideal man for the sheriff of Ellis County, Kansas. The good citizens of Hays City, the county seat, were tired of the wild brawls and destructiveness of the hard-drinking buffalo hunters and soldiers who took over their town every night. They hoped the famous “Wild Bill” could restore peace and order, and in the late summer of 1869, elected him as interim county sheriff.
Tall, athletic, and sporting shoulder-length hair and a sweeping mustache, Hickok cut an impressive figure, and his reputation as a deadly shot with either hand was often all it took to keep many potential lawbreakers on the straight and narrow. As one visiting cowboy later recalled, Hickok would stand “with his back to the wall, looking at everything and everybody under his eyebrows–just like a mad old bull.” But when Hickok applied more aggressive methods of enforcing the peace, some Hays City citizens wondered if their new cure wasn’t worse than the disease. Shortly after becoming sheriff, Hickok shot a belligerent soldier who resisted arrest, and the man died the next day. A few weeks later Hickok killed Strawhun. While his brutal ways were indisputably effective, many Hays City citizens were less than impressed that after only five weeks in office he had already found it necessary to kill two men in the name of preserving peace.
During the regular November election later that year, the people expressed their displeasure, and Hickok lost to his deputy, 144-89. Though Wild Bill Hickok would later go on to hold other law enforcement positions in the West, his first attempt at being a sheriff had lasted only three months.
I reckon this is one reason Bill got the name Wild Bill. Have to admit he did what was asked of him, even if it ruffled a few feathers.
Coffee out on the patio again this morning.
Tuesday, September 26, 2017
The Murder Of Little Augie...!
Back in the days of organised crime, there were a lot of folks that went missing, kidnaped, or just ended up dead. Such was the case for Little Augie.
Mob assassins shoot Anthony Carfano, known as Little Augie Pisano,to death in New York City on Meyer Lansky’s orders. Lansky, one of the few organized crime figures who managed to survive at the top for several decades, was estimated to have accumulated as much as $300,000,000 in ill-gotten gains by the 1970s. Still, the government was never able to prove any wrongdoing.
Meyer Lansky, the son of Russian immigrants, had an eighth-grade education, which put him far ahead of many other criminals. According to legend, Lansky was a straight arrow until one day in October 1918, when he joined a fight between teenagers Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano over a prostitute. After the three were charged with disorderly conduct, Lansky and Siegel became friends and began running a high-stakes craps game.
The two later expanded into bootlegging, car theft, and extortion, and helped form the New York “syndicate.” Lansky, a ruthless leader who would not tolerate disloyalty, ordered the murder of a thief who failed to provide an adequate kickback. Although he was shot several times, the thief survived to name Lansky as one of the assailants. Lansky then poisoned his hospital food, and though he survived a second time, the threat was enough to change his attitude toward testifying. Later, he even rejoined Lansky’s gang.
In June 1947, Lansky ordered the death of his old friend Bugsy Siegel in Beverly Hills, California. Siegel, who had been sent to the West Coast in order to establish a new mob presence, came up with the idea of building The Flamingo, Las Vegas’ first major casino. The casino had been built with mob money, and Lansky was angry over the pace of Siegel’s loan payments.
When Lansky ordered the murder of Anthony Carfano 12 years later, Carfano had been intruding on Lansky’s gambling interests in Florida and Cuba. His death eliminated all competition and opened up emerging markets for Lansky in South America. During the 1960s and 1970s, Lansky made a special effort to stay out of the public eye and was fairly successful. He died of lung cancer in 1983.
I'm sure that organised crime is still around now days, but they keep a much lower profile than in the early days. The old school fellas like Lansky are few and far between.
Coffee out on the patio this morning. I gotta go to VA, so help yourself...OK?
1959
Little Augie Pisano is murdered
Mob assassins shoot Anthony Carfano, known as Little Augie Pisano,to death in New York City on Meyer Lansky’s orders. Lansky, one of the few organized crime figures who managed to survive at the top for several decades, was estimated to have accumulated as much as $300,000,000 in ill-gotten gains by the 1970s. Still, the government was never able to prove any wrongdoing.
Meyer Lansky, the son of Russian immigrants, had an eighth-grade education, which put him far ahead of many other criminals. According to legend, Lansky was a straight arrow until one day in October 1918, when he joined a fight between teenagers Bugsy Siegel and Lucky Luciano over a prostitute. After the three were charged with disorderly conduct, Lansky and Siegel became friends and began running a high-stakes craps game.
The two later expanded into bootlegging, car theft, and extortion, and helped form the New York “syndicate.” Lansky, a ruthless leader who would not tolerate disloyalty, ordered the murder of a thief who failed to provide an adequate kickback. Although he was shot several times, the thief survived to name Lansky as one of the assailants. Lansky then poisoned his hospital food, and though he survived a second time, the threat was enough to change his attitude toward testifying. Later, he even rejoined Lansky’s gang.
In June 1947, Lansky ordered the death of his old friend Bugsy Siegel in Beverly Hills, California. Siegel, who had been sent to the West Coast in order to establish a new mob presence, came up with the idea of building The Flamingo, Las Vegas’ first major casino. The casino had been built with mob money, and Lansky was angry over the pace of Siegel’s loan payments.
When Lansky ordered the murder of Anthony Carfano 12 years later, Carfano had been intruding on Lansky’s gambling interests in Florida and Cuba. His death eliminated all competition and opened up emerging markets for Lansky in South America. During the 1960s and 1970s, Lansky made a special effort to stay out of the public eye and was fairly successful. He died of lung cancer in 1983.
I'm sure that organised crime is still around now days, but they keep a much lower profile than in the early days. The old school fellas like Lansky are few and far between.
Coffee out on the patio this morning. I gotta go to VA, so help yourself...OK?
Monday, September 25, 2017
Kaz II On Monday Mystery...!
Somany sea faring mysteries still exist out there, it's hard to pick another one to think about. Here is yet another still unexplained.
The Mary Celeste has gained a somewhat eerie notoriety following its discovery, apparently having been abandoned by its crew, with nobody remaining on board. This ghost vessel phenomenon seems to repeat itself, remarkably, in the modern case of the Kaz II.
In April 2007, the Kaz II was traveling with its three-man crew along the northwest Australian coast, when air surveillance noticed it drifting oddly. Upon boarding, no trace of the crew members could be found. However, no sign of trouble was discovered either. A laptop computer was still running, and the engine was on. Eating utensils were laid out on the table, while life jackets remained in their cases. The bizarre and disturbing mystery of the Kaz II essentially remains unsolved.
According to Jon Hall of the Queensland Emergency Management Office, “What they found was a bit strange in that everything was normal; there was just no sign of the crew.”
The state coroner eventually ruled that “the brothers fell overboard while attending to mechanical problems—however, the ruling is still only speculation.”
Considering how much of our planet is covered by ocean, it's no surprise there are so many mysteries connected to the sea.
Coffee out on the patio again this morning!
The Kaz II Ghost Yacht
The Mary Celeste has gained a somewhat eerie notoriety following its discovery, apparently having been abandoned by its crew, with nobody remaining on board. This ghost vessel phenomenon seems to repeat itself, remarkably, in the modern case of the Kaz II.
In April 2007, the Kaz II was traveling with its three-man crew along the northwest Australian coast, when air surveillance noticed it drifting oddly. Upon boarding, no trace of the crew members could be found. However, no sign of trouble was discovered either. A laptop computer was still running, and the engine was on. Eating utensils were laid out on the table, while life jackets remained in their cases. The bizarre and disturbing mystery of the Kaz II essentially remains unsolved.
According to Jon Hall of the Queensland Emergency Management Office, “What they found was a bit strange in that everything was normal; there was just no sign of the crew.”
The state coroner eventually ruled that “the brothers fell overboard while attending to mechanical problems—however, the ruling is still only speculation.”
Considering how much of our planet is covered by ocean, it's no surprise there are so many mysteries connected to the sea.
Coffee out on the patio again this morning!
Sunday, September 24, 2017
Sunday's Post Is Short And Sweet...!
I ran across this clip from YouTube that shows a very rare animal...two of them, in fact! Instead of showing cartoons today, I wanted to show it to you. It's short, but very impressive to watch, OK?
That's all I had today...I promise. See? Not a single 'toon!
Coffee out on the patio where the mornings are fairly cool!
That's all I had today...I promise. See? Not a single 'toon!
Coffee out on the patio where the mornings are fairly cool!
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