I can't wait until the day when this type of sport will be still practised in Frontier Days type celebrations, akin to logrolling and lumberjack ax-throwing, as a quaint reminder of days-gone by.

I have to say that imitating Steve's brand of comedy in the 70's made it very difficult for us 10 year old's trying to emulate him. The schtick just didn't fly. I think I honesty attempted to pull off the "53 breasts" line in front of my 5th grade class.

My idea was to make a Neopets type site for young kids where the parents could work with their kids to create their own creatures and activities, with no advertising and merchandising. I already setup such a work for my 7 year old, and she shares it with her friends. I've been too busy to flesh out the "business plan" site, but for what it's worth, it's: http://www.drakehatchery.com

One aspect my kid really likes is that she can draw her own creatures, invent their attributes, etc. (reminds me of making my own Monster Manual entries back in my D&D days).

There is a building in Providence, RI, (the oldest of the twoformer Fleet buildings), that was built with an airship landing platform on the top. The tour guide suggested that many buildings built in the late 20's/early 30's had similar Dirigible ports built near the top.

#11 points out "Unlike 99% of private corporations they don't even adopt the hyper PC "happy holidays." Not only are they talking Christmas, they are invoking the Jesus himself!"

No "War on Christmas" evident in this card!

food soda (bicarbonate of sodium) and four parts of powdered sugar

Howard Covitz
www.econdem.org

re"p.s. why are most science toys so very disappointing?"

I agree. So many cheap plastic stuff out there just to cash in on the general angst that we need to teach our kids "Science". I applaud the market demand, but unfortunately it comes at a time when cheap imports are the rule (and I personally heard from an owner of a product maker that Wal-Mart specifically requires economies of production that demand the product to be made in China).

I actually disdain this as an educational item. It does not help in anyway to understand what actually causes the apparent shadow, and if anything further confuses the issue.

The Adler Planetarium and Astronomy Museum in Chicago salvaged a similar sphere to the Gottorp Globe, dating back to 1913.

Raffy,
The APPARENT diameter means how the disc appears to the human eye from Earth.

But good point about the interesting fact that we see the same side of the moon all the time. That was another fact that intrigued me, insofar that it did probably set some discovery back.

I was always impressed with the improbability that the apparent diameter of our moon is so close to that of our sun. I don't recall precisely which experiments and conclusions they were, but at least one major observation in the history of astronomy was dependent on this coincidence. If nothing else, the realization that such apparently similar sized objects were at considerably different distances was a major development.

Also, to emphasize the last few statements of the linked article, I understand that Aristotle attributed his belief in the roundness of the Earth to the observation of the shadow of the Earth during Lunar Eclipses (although since reading that I've keenly observed such phenonema and have been perplexed at how he could have made out such a distinct curvature of the very fuzzy shadow I always make out).

Galileo's observation of the moon through his telescope was also very key, from a cosmological perspective. He wrote about seeing the imperfections (the rough craters) on a previously thought pearly smooth surface, thus calling into question that everything in the Celestial Sphere was Perfect.

I was always impressed with the improbability that the apparent diameter of our moon is so close to that of our sun. I don't recall precisely which experiments and conclusions they were, but at least one major observation in the history of astronomy was dependent on this coincidence. If nothing else, the realization that such apparently similar sized objects were at considerably different distances was a major development.

Also, to emphasize the last few statements of the linked article, I understand that Aristotle attributed his belief in the roundness of the Earth to the observation of the shadow of the Earth during Lunar Eclipses (although since reading that I've keenly observed such phenonema and have been perplexed at how he could have made out such a distinct curvature of the very fuzzy shadow I always make out).

Galileo's observation of the moon through his telescope was also very key, from a cosmological perspective. He wrote about seeing the imperfections (the rough craters) on a previously thought pearly smooth surface, thus calling into question that everything in the Celestial Sphere was Perfect.