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Downstate Times
The Newsletter for SUNY Downstate
University Hospital of Brooklyn
Greater Brooklyn Cleft and Craniofacial Team Restores Smiles for Young Patients
An orofacial cleft is an opening in the lip and/or at the roof of the mouth and is one of the most common birth anomalies, affecting as many as 1/1000 children born each year in the United States. Brooklyn has the highest number of births of all boroughs in New York City, making attention to clefts and other birth anomalies an important priority for physicians and other clinicians.
Surgical repair is staged during the first year of life, beginning with repair of the lip followed by repair of the palate. In most cases, by the time the child is one year old, the lip and palate have been reconstructed, which affords patients the best functional outcomes. Development of normal speech and symmetry of the upper lip are the goals for all patients.
Sydney C. Butts, MD, FACS, chief of facial plastic and reconstructive surgery in the Department of Otolaryngology, specializes in helping children born with this condition get a good start in life. Before coming to Downstate, Dr. Butts trained at SUNY Upstate, which has a very active cleft team. "It was a great experience," she says, "and what attracted me to Downstate was the opportunity to create a much needed service here."
Over the past four years, Dr. Butts has worked to develop a multidisciplinary team of physicians and allied health professionals at Downstate that networks with other Brooklyn medical centers to provide coordinated services for children with cleft lip and palate. In addition to surgical intervention, the Greater Brooklyn Cleft and Craniofacial Team works closely with the staff of the Infant and Child Learning Center at Downstate, the neonatal intensive care unit, and with other pediatricians, dentists and speech pathologists that treat cleft disorders.
The highly skilled and experienced physicians of the Greater Brooklyn Cleft and Craniofacial Team, based at SUNY Downstate Medical Center, provide comprehensive, cutting-edge treatment for children with cleft lip and palate.
These conditions encompass a wide spectrum, Dr. Butts explains, sometimes not manifesting themselves until later in childhood.
In most cases, however, malformations are evident at birth and often can be detected in utero. This enables the Downstate cleft team, working closely with the OB service and the NICU staff, to educate and prepare parents in advance for the surgery and follow-up care their infants may require.
Earlier this year, the team published a brochure "The Care of a Child with Cleft Lip and Palate: A Guide for Parents" to provide information to families caring for children who are referred to the multidisciplinary team. The PDF is available here.
Dr. Butts provided hope to children in Rwanda with the Free the Future Fiundation. In addition to serving the Brooklyn community, Dr. Butts has visited Viet Nam and other countries in need of her surgical skills. Earlier this year, she went on a medical mission to Rwanda along with five other otolaryngologists/ facial plastic surgeons that was sponsored by the Face the Future Foundation.
Rwanda has only one plastic surgeon serving a nation of 11 million people. As a result, many adults and children with facial deformities since birth or as a result of trauma or cancer remain untreated.
Dr. Butts and the other members of the team worked at two main hospitals in the capital city of Kigali, evaluating and treating patients with congenital craniofacial disorders, facial injuries due to trauma, head and neck tumors, and secondary deformities after tumor removal. They operated on 17 patients suffering from a wide range of problems. Some surgeries lasted 10-12 hours. In one case, an exploded hand grenade had destroyed the lower half of the patient's face. Working together to perform microvascular reconstruction, the surgeons used donor bone and tissue to sculpt a new face.
"The end results were so rewarding," says Dr. Butts, recalling the hugs the team received from grateful patients and their families. "I gain a deeper appreciation of how fortunate we are in the United States to have modern conveniences and state-of-the-art medical tools and technologies after these international trips. The experiences provide motivation for the work I do in Brooklyn to ensure that our patients have access to well-coordinated care."


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The Utz Story begins in a small town kitchen in 1921. William and Salie Utz began producing Hanover Home Brand Potato Chips in Hanover, PA, in their summer kitchen, cooking about 50 pounds of chips an hour. They sold those fresh chips to small local grocers and markets, primarily in the Baltimore, MD, area. We hope you enjoy our story…
In 1930, the first section of the Utz plant was built on McAlister Street in the rear of Bill & Salie Utz's home. A new manufacturing facility was later built there in 1938, the same year F.X. Rice married Bill & Salie's daughter, Arlene, and joined the Utz business.
Hanover Home Brand was incorporated as Utz Potato Chip Company, Inc in 1947. Two years later, a five acre tract of land was purchased on Carlisle Street in Hanover, and construction on the first modern-day Utz plant began. The company built a 67,000 square foot facility to accommodate the growing demand for their popular potato chips.
As demand continued to grow, so did the Carlisle Street plant. The facility was expanded in 1953, 1956, and again in 1958 to include route van parking and larger potato storage.
In 1967, Carlisle Street expanded once more, and Utz replaced two original potato cookers with two new 1,200 pound-per hour cookers. In addition, F.X. Rice became President of Utz in 1968 upon the passing of William Utz. Mike Rice, the son of F.X. Rice and Arlene Utz Rice, also joined the company.
The seventies was a busy decade for the company. In 1970, Utz Quality Foods purchased Tasty Baking Company, a potato chip facility on nearby Broadway in Hanover. The present-day Broadway plant was purchased to expand and install pretzel production, and continues to produce pretzels today. In 1971, Utz celebrated its 50th Anniversary, opening new corporate offices at the Carlisle Street plant and installing two new pretzel lines at the Broadway plant. In 1975, the High Street plant was opened for an additional 50,000 square feet of production space. In 1978, popcorn production began at the Broadway plant. In that same year, F.X. Rice retired, and Mike Rice was appointed President and Chief Executive Officer.
Expansion continued in 1982. The Broadway plant was expanded, and construction began to expand the High Street plant another 300,000 square feet to accommodate production of all potato chips, corn, tortilla chips, and cheese curls. In 1983, sales began in Richmond, VA, Norfolk, VA, Philadelphia, PA, and Delaware market areas. As demand grew, in 1984, Utz created a mail order department to begin shipping products to Utz fans around the world. 1985 saw the grand opening of the newly expanded High Street facility, followed by the expansion of sales into Coastal Virginia markets in 1987. That same year, Utz opened a Tour Gallery at the High Street plant which remains free to the public even today, where Utz fans can view the manufacturing process of Utz potato chips and enjoy a free sample.
The nineties was a decade of even greater opportunity for Utz. In 1992, Mike Rice became Chairman of the Board, and in 1993, Utz expanded its sales distribution to serve national customers throughout the United States. In 1995, Utz welcomed Dylan Lissette, son-in-law of Mike and Jane Rice, into the business, ushering in a fourth generation of the Utz family legacy. The following year, Utz celebrated its 75th Anniversary, also expanding into the New York City market. The World Distribution Center was built in 1997 at the High Street facility to better handle trailer shipments to national accounts throughout the United States.
Kindig Lane, the fourth manufacturing facility of Utz snacks, opened in 2003, manufacturing corn chips, tortilla chips, popcorn, cheese balls, and cheese curls. From 2004 through 2008, Utz sales continued to expand into the New England, Pittsburgh, PA, Charlotte, NC, and upstate New York markets.
In 2010, Utz expanded into Western Ohio, followed by expansion into Atlanta, GA, the next year. In 2011, Utz celebrated its 90th Anniversary. Later that year, Zapp's, Dirty, and California chips joined the Utz family of brands, including plant locations in Wilkes Barre, PA, Gramercy, LA, and Oxnard, CA. Also in 2011, Wachusett and Michael's chips became part of the Utz family, adding another plant in Fitchburg, MA. In 2012, Dylan Lissette became President and Chief Operating Officer of Utz Quality Foods. The Bachman Company also became a member of the Utz brands in 2012. In 2013, Dylan Lissette became Chief Executive Officer and Vice Chairman of the Board, with Mike Rice remaining as Chairman of the Board. Utz purchased Good Health Natural Products in 2014, aware that customers today are always looking for healthier snacking options.
Today, Utz is the largest independent, privately held snack brand in United States, producing over 3.3 million pounds of snacks per week (about half of which are potato chips) while operating over 900 company owned routes. Utz is also a leading snack supplier to Warehouse Clubs and Mass Merchandisers nationwide. We thank you for sharing in our story, and are proud to continue producing high-quality, delicious snacks for you and your family to enjoy today and for generations to come.

subset: commoncrawl


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Gaining typing speed is merely a matter of systematic practice; the truly challenging part is to first acquire muscle memory for touch typing and connecting the right finger to the right key.
New York City, NY (PRWEB) August 02, 2014
Touch typing is a tech skill that many jobs specifically require, but most employers simply take for granted that their employees know how to type. However, not all young people preparing to enter the workforce have gotten the training they need from their schools and teachers. Many educational institutions do not offer rigorous touch typing training to students, thinking that they've already mastered the skill or that they will figure out their own typing method. eReflect recommends that young students be given the opportunity to formally learn how to touch type in order to become truly proficient typists.
eReflect's latest typing software is designed for schools, and offers teachers a typing training solution they can easily integrate in their existing curriculum. Teachers and administrators can set up and manage a student's Ultimate Typing™ EDU account so that their learning is optimized and put on the fast track to typing success.
This typing program for schools by eReflect helps students build their typing accuracy through step by step typing courses that teach proper hand and finger placement. Through a series of activities and courses, the beginner gradually improves their typing accuracy and then moves onto building their typing speed with tailored typing games, activities, and lessons.
According to eReflect, teaching keyboarding doesn't have to be time-consuming. The program has been designed in such a manner as to accelerate typing mastery for students, irrespective of their present typing performance and age. The typing tutor puts the emphasis first on proper form and technique, and only then typing speed, which ensures the student will become a truly efficient typist in very little time and without spending many hours practicing.
Teachers who already teach keyboarding with software or their own resources agree with eReflect that it is important to prioritize technique and typing accuracy over speed. Gaining typing speed is merely a matter of systematic practice; the truly challenging part is to first acquire muscle memory for touch typing and connecting the right finger to the right key.
Ultimate Typing™ EDU includes a comprehensive curriculum on keyboarding so that teachers can integrate it in their existing IT courses without having to make extensive adjustments to what they are already doing in the class. eReflect also reminds schools that the program is equipped with new technologies that allow teachers to monitor their students' progress in real time. They can obtain performance reports to help them fine-tune each student's training according to their individual skills, learning style, and goals.
For more details on Ultimate Typing™ EDU please visit http://www.ultimatetyping.com/schools.
About Ultimate Typing™
Ultimate Typing™ software is designed specifically for the improvement of typing skills. Created by eReflect, a world leader in e-learning and self-development software, Ultimate Typing™ has been informed by the latest developments in the science of touch typing.
Since its creation in 2006 by Marc Slater, the company has already catered to over 112 countries all over the world, offering products with the latest cutting-edge technology, some of which are among the world's most recognized and awarded in the industry.


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The star of The Bachelor and The Bachelor Pad was found by her boyfriend on Monday at her home in New Orleans.
The 29-year-old was taken to University Hospital where she remained on life support for several hours. Doctors took her off support following "a critical loss of brain and organ function."
US media reports suggest Gia died from injuries resulting from hanging.
An American reality dating show, The Bachelor, has had 17 seasons on ABC. A group of prospective partners compete for the affections of the bachelor, taking on a series of challenges. The contestants are gradually eliminated as the series progresses.
When she joined The Bachelor in 2010 she told viewers that she "truly went on the show to find love."
She continued: "A few months before going on The Bachelor my boyfriend broke my heart. I couldn't date or meet anyone. I was in such a rut so my friends submitted me for The Bachelor."
Allemand was a professional ballet dancer as well as an actress. Her modelling career started when she was a baby, appearing in Johnson & Johnson adverts. She featured in a number of major modelling competitions from her teenage years onwards but became famous following a shoot in Maxim in 2007.
The publicity she gained from The Bachelor allowed her to pursue her lifelong interest in acting, appearing as Ava Gardner in a film about the life of actor Gianni Russo.
Ryan Anderson, her boyfriend and a professional basketball player, lead the tributes.
"Gia was the most beautiful person I knew inside and out and she always smiled and made everyone else around her smile," he said.
Her publicist said in a written statement: "Loved ones and fans will remember Gia Allemand as a caring woman who loved her family and was well-known for her compassion towards animals and mission to rescue homeless pets."
Those seeking help or advice can contact Samaritans at any time by calling 08457 90 90 90 or emailing email@example.com


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Interitus is an original post-invasion, Sci-Fi RPG set in the year 2015.
The Adveni attacked in 2012, leaving half the world in ruin, and the other half under the threat of destruction. Forced into slavery by an Alien race, humans fight back in any way they can.
Check out our New Member Guide
City of Adlai
A city of 3 million, Adlai is situated in the north west of the United States, about 200 miles from the west coast.
Current Active Characters
Time Stamp
Posting Dates:
|The Fight
|Member of the Moment
|Character of the Moment
|Pairing of the Moment
|Advertise Us
|Listed At
|Gwen Everett
Posted: Feb 14 2015, 10:46 AM
Registration Number:
Bio :: Plots :: Tracker
Written by:
Post Count: 49
The Human Registry
Name: Gwendoline Everett
Age: 27
Birthday: 19th February
Prior Occupation: K9 officer and dog-enthusiast
Current Status: Registered Human & Sect Member
Registration Number: HS8847TS16
Level of Education:
High school diploma
Degree in criminal justice
Police academy graduate
K9 law enforcement training
Father: Jonah Everett
Mother: Nora Everett
Children: None
Siblings: Three older brothers
Height: 5'6
Hair Colour: Dirty blonde
Eye Colour: Blue
Playby: Natalie Dormer
Likes and Dislikes:
- Animals: especially dogs, she loves them
- Hot chocolate, there's nothing better
- Good stories, a camp fire and good company
- Climbing and being up high, gives her a sense of freedom
- Card games but only because she's really bad at them
- Gossip, are we still in high school or what?
- Spiders, they disgust her although she won't scream when she sees one
- The cold, she's a little extra sensitive and always wears an extra layer of clothes
Strengths and Weaknesses:
- Very good with animals in general but specifically dogs
- She's a hard worker who likes to earn her keep, so to speak
- Very light on her feet and can get around quietly
- Always does her best to look out for people around her
- Is an unknown face to the Adveni, with proper papers, making her ideal to snoop around
- After spending years surrounded by people and animals, she can't stand being alone
- She's afraid of letting down people she cares about
- Her two dogs, Crash (Golden Retriever) and Nadine (German Shepherd)
- For good and bad, she's not one to back down just because she faces difficult situations
General Personality:
Gwen lives by a very simple saying: respect others the way you want to be respected. Unless you're making an ass of yourself, you're good in her book. Growing up she learned early on that attitude gets you far in life even if you have to fake it and after being surrounded by men most of her life, she does not care to be treated differently just because she's a woman. She would never ask for special priveleges just because of who she is.
Gwen is tough as nails and won't take shit from anybody. She's up-front and believes in dealing with problems head-on instead of dancing around them. She's also of the opinion that most problems can be solved if you're willing to work with them. She knows that she's not a perfect person, nobody is, and she always strives to be better.
While Gwen might give an intimidating first impression, she's not uptight and serious all the time. She's a fun-loving girl who's at her best when she's with people. Gwen is the kind of girl who'll arrange poker nights or a get-together so that she can spend time with people. She's practically addicted to company and loathes being alone which is where her two dogs come in handy. Nadine has been with her since she was a puppy and Crash is a service dog.
Are you a Sect Member: Yes
Name of Sect: Eighth Army
Rank/Position: Private
After giving birth to three boys, Nora was happy to welcome a daughter into the Everett family. They were a homely family who lived in the ourtskirts of Portland together with their two dogs. Growing up, Gwen idolized her brothers and spent all her time running around after them, copying what they did and playing with their toys. Her brothers did not mind having her around and were happy to bring her along whenever they went out.
When she wasn't with them, she spent all her free time with their two dogs. Her love for animals mixed with her passion to help people was why she decided to become a K9 officer. As Gwen hit her teenage years she began to distance herself a little from her brothers. When she didn't have her nose buried in a school book she hung out with her friends. They still found time to talk and she found that they all had a habit of popping in to check on her when she started bringing home boys.
The police academy was somewhat rough on Gwen and she learned that as a woman she had to prove that she belonged with the rest of them. She did and moved on to become a police officer. She patrolled the street for a year or so before she was able to apply to the K9 unit. After proper training she was finally able to achieve her dream. It was around that time that she was introduced to the German Shepherd Nadine that would become one of her best friends.
Gwen worked hard up until the day when the Adveni invaded. The world fell into chaos in a matter of days. Where she'd spent all her time chasing down the bad guys, she now put all her effort into helping people evacuate. Searching through an apartment complex that had been hit hard by the on-going fire fights, she found a dog lying next to a bed buried in rubble. She spent nearly a day digging through the rubble to find the apartment's owners dead. Bringing the dog with her, she took it in and cared for it. Crash has been with her ever since.
As the war came to an end, Gwen got word of a city that people deemed a safe zone. Not knowing where her family was, she packed up her dogs and made her way to Adlai. Once there she registered and settled into an apartment in the Camps. She tried settling in, searching for her family as she did, before finally giving up. She couldn't sit by while humans were treated like trash, left to fend for themselves with jobs that barely covered their living. After thinking long and hard she signed up with the Eighth Army.
Role Play Sample
The Human behind the Human
Name: Cizzler
Gender: Female
Age: 23
How you found us: Eh, y'know
Any Previous Characters: <3
Posted: Feb 14 2015, 11:08 AM
Registration Number:
Bio :: Plots :: Tracker
Written by:
Post Count: 6012


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Brandon Allgood, CTO and Co-Founder at Numerate, Inc, is an expert in applied AI and software development. He manages the development and application of Numerate's AI platform and is responsible for Numerate's technological vision. Brandon has also served as Director of Computational Science at Numerate and as a Research Scientist at Pharmix. He received a B.S. in Physics from the University of Washington, Seattle, and a Ph.D. in Computational Physics from the University of California, Santa Cruz. Brandon has authored scientific publications in computer science, computational biology, astrophysics, and solid-state physics and has 15 years of experience in AI, mathematical modeling, and large scale cloud and distributed computing. He is a member of the Forbes Technology Council and a UCSC Foundation Trustee.
Erica Baeta
+44 (0)207 092 1152
Joan Shutt
t/ +44 (0)207 092 1134
Issa Mauthoor
+44 (0)207 092 1257


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One pill is yellow oval with 36 01 on one side and fancy v on the other side.
The other pill is a light turqoise-blue with P-CO and underneath that the number 15 with nothing on the other side except the line to break it in half.
Thank you for your help.


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i had to give you the entire name of this little dish in the post title. because i wanted to hit you with full impact… because foie gras is a full impact kinda dish and well, god, i love this stuff… so. much.
you see i had about 3 tablespoons of leftover miso maple sauce from the scallops, so i saved it with no good reason in mind, except that it was absolutely wonderful and i couldn't imagine tossing it. surely i could come up with a way to use it. i mean, it was the weekend and friends were coming over and all i had to do was try and BE CREATIVE.
these days when i cook dinner there is rarely an appetizer or an hors d'oeuvre (bitch of a word to spell, no?), especially if i am serving dessert. i might have a bowl of olives out – or some roasted nuts to serve along with the first glass of wine, but i don't like to over feed my guests or detract from the main attraction. as with most things, i believe i have learned this the hard way.
but exceptions have to made and i had a small but nice chunk of foie gras in my freezer from this past new years eve, just waiting for the right moment. in a moment of quasi-inspiration, i called my friends and asked them to pick up a baguette, and as the foie defrosted i took my leftover sauce of sherry vinegar, miso and maple syrup and began to heat it gently while i removed the stones from the half forgotten cherries hidden in my fridge. slicing them into quarters, they went into the pan along with about a teaspoon of sugar and when the cherries released most of their juice i shut off the burner.
i thinly sliced about 5 shallots and fried them in canola oil until they turned brown and crisp. they were drained on paper towels and sprinkled with my guerende salt.
to avoid smoking up the house with duck fat, i've taken to putting a cast iron pan on my gas grill and searing foie gras outside. the baguettes were sliced and brushed with olive oil, grilled on the grates and then plated with first the sauce, then the foie and then the crispy shallots.
talk about leftovers…


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As a museum of Shaanxi folk arts and ancient Chinese art, TangBo Art museum,founded in 2000, possesses a collection of Shaanxi folk arts and representative ancient paintings exhibited in historical sequence. The artwork exhibitions of contemporary artists (professors and students of Xi'an Academy of Fine Arts) are held periodically. The periodic calligraphy and painting lectures are held as well to the audiences who like traditional Chinese arts.
Open : 8.30 – 16.00
(Close: 14/02/2018 --- 21/02/2018)
Ticket: RMB 50
- Find out more>
About us
Address: 26 S. Gong Yuan Road, Xi'an
By taxi:
1. Take photo of the map/print it
2. Show the map to the taxi driver
By bus:
Buses that stop near the Museum:
37, 227, 242, 526
Stop on Gong Yuan Nan Lu Zhong Duan
208, 228, 308, 351, 700
Stop on Dong Xin Cheng Shi Hua Yuan
7, 44, 240, 313, 508
Stop on Jing Er Lu
- Find out more>
Getting here
Things to do


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Nvidia Debunks Conspiracy Theories About Moon Landing
Talk about voxels and cones too dry to pique your interest in real-time lighting tech? Then have a peek at this re-creation of the lunar landing from last week's GAME24 livestream, which convincingly proves that man actually did set foot on the moon.
The Moon Landing Was Hoaxed! Here is the PROOF!
Total sarcasm. This video is based on a real conspiracy that i just had to mock. I hope you enjoy it.
Watch this video ONLY if you want to HEAR the TROOF! This is absolute, undeniable pwoof the Apollo moon landings were hoaxed. This evidence is incontrovertible. Share this video!!!
Conspiracy: The color of Mars is a government coverup!!!!
Did you know Mars is NOT reddish in color? It's true. It looks just like earth!!! Mars has earth colored soil and a beautiful blue sky – just like Hawaii!
As one conspiracy website put it –
This is very interesting. It may come as a surprise to many readers that Mars looks very much like Earth. It's not red or orange – NASA applies a lens to tint the pictures or they release black and white photos… here's a real color picture of Mars… blue sky and all… it gets to the point where you ask yourself "what does the government not lie about?"
They included this image as proof:
I can't believe anybody would believe Mars looks like earth. But i'll push forward simply for the entertainment value and because there is some interesting facts to be learned – stuff i didn't know. I love everything space related.
Two facts about Mars:
• Why Does Mars Appear Red?
Mars often appears reddish due to a combination of the fact that its surface is comprised of iron-rich minerals that essentially rust (or oxidize) and that the dust made of these minerals is kicked up into the atmosphere, giving the atmosphere a reddish hue as well. [Source: NASA]
• How Did Mars Get its Name?
Mars was named by the Romans for their god of war because of its red, bloodlike color. Other civilizations also named this planet from this attribute; for example, the Egyptians named it "Her Desher," meaning "the red one." [Source: NASA]
So while the Romans and the Egyptians knew Mars appeared red simply by looking up into the night sky, today's conspiracists insist our belief that Mars is red is actually a false belief perpetuated by a government coverup.
Maybe i am endowed with an abundance of common sense but couldn't these conspiracists step outside their mother's basement, look up into the night sky and see what Mars looks like to the naked eye? I'm just saying.
But i digress …
So i decided to pursue this absurdity to another level. I took the photo featured on the conspiracy website and i decided to find out where it came from. I found the original photo at the NASA website. It really wasn't hard to find (Even a conspiracist could have found it). I then superimposed the conspiracy picture next to the original NASA photo. The conspiracy photo is on the left, the original NASA image is on the right:
When you adjust the color on your television set, you do so by picking something on the screen that you know should be a certain color (such as grass should be green) and you adjust your set accordingly. This is a form of calibration. You used the color of the grass as a reference point. Instruments that go to Mars also need to be calibrated so that scientists receive accurate information. There has to be a known reference — a calibration target.
The rover's calibration targets are objects with known properties. For example, the Pancam calibration target. It is in the shape of a sundial and is mounted on the rover deck. Pancam will image the sundial many times during the mission so that scientists can adjust the images they receive from Mars. They use the colored blocks in the corners of the sundial to calibrate the color in images of the martian landscape. Pictures of the shadows that are cast by the sundial's center post allow scientists to properly adjust the brightness of each Pancam image. Children provided artwork for the sides of the base of the sundial.
This is the same process used by Hollywood movie makers. They use a device called a "clapper board" to mark the beginning of a scene or a "take." I'm sure you've seen this used in the movies. Well, at the top of some clapper boards you will see a rainbow of colors. Like the Pancam calibration target on the Mars rover, the colors along the top of the clapper board provide a known color reference that can be used in post production by movie editors to ensure the colors in the final cut are "true" to what was recorded on the movie set.
Speaking of "true colors," let's get back to why NASA would choose to creat "false color" photos along with "true color" photos. It's really not as mysterious as it might sound. Let's start with a technical definition of both:
True Color
An image is called a "true-color" image when it offers a natural color rendition, or when it comes close to it. This means that the colors of an object in an image appear to a human observer the same way as if this observer were to directly view the object: A green tree appears green in the image, a red apple red, a blue sky blue, and so on.[source]
False Color
False color refers to a group of color rendering methods used to display images in color which were recorded in the visual or non-visual parts of the electromagnetic spectrum. A false-color image is an image that depicts an object in colors that differ from those a photograph (a "true-color" image) would show. [source]
Here is a classic example of a false color image: A forward looking infrared (FLIR) camera (the image to the right). By creating a representation of wavelengths normally invisible to the human eye, we are able to discern the different temperatures present in this scene.
But there are a multitude of reasons for creating false images. Sometimes colors are enhanced, or even added, to represent some characteristic in the image, such as chemical composition, velocity, distance or to simply enhance the differences between materials. Have you ever increased the contrast on your television or an image on your computer so you can better discern some detail? You've just created your own false image!!
The same goes for the moon and Mars. With both planets being mostly uniform in their respective colors, creating false images can help us distinguish something as simple as peaks and valleys. Here is an example using the moon:
On the left side is the true color image of the far side of our moon, a mosaic constructed from Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter images. This is what you would see if you were to directly observe the terrain. Given the uniform color it is very difficult, if not impossible, to accurately judge the peaks and valleys.
On the right side is a false color image of the same side of our moon, a topographic map of the altitude of the Moon's surface obtained by the Clementine orbiter mission (1994). Measurements made with a laser altimiter. Redder areas are higher, blue/purple areas lower. [source] (more Clementine images here)
In this instance a false color image was generated of the moon to provide a clear, visual representation of the lunar topography.
In the false color Mars image used at the conspiracy website, it's very possible NASA color corrected the image for no other reason than to better distinguish the size, shape and locations of the rocks.
The bottom line is, Mars is reddish in color and the moon appears gray. Period. End of story.
I guess my bigger question concerning this conspiracy is, why would the government have any interest in covering up the real color of Mars or the moon (yes, there is a conspiracy out there that the government is covering up the real color of the moon)? I suspect it has something to do with the belief Mars and the moon are actually inhabitable and the Mars/moon color coverup is part of the government's alien/UFO coverup.
Research Sources:
- Mars Exploration Rover Mission (NASA JPL)
- Spacecraft: Surface Operations: Instruments (NASA JPL)
- The Clementine Mission (Lunar and Planetary Institute)
- False color/True Color (Wikipedia)
- Mars, Facts and Information about the Planet Mars (space.com)
- What Is Mars? (NASA)
- Why does Mars look red from Earth? (NASA)
- Big Picture on Mars: NASA Rover Snaps Amazing Red Planet View (space.com)
- Panoramas: Opportunity (NASA JPL)
- Panoramas: Spirit (NASA JPL)
- Mars Rover "Spirit" Images (NASA)
10 Biggest Space Conspiracies Of All Time
Space is full of unexplored mysteries and secrets. Despite Mankind's achievements in Space Exploration, we have barely scratched the surface of what lies in deep space. Here are the 10 Biggest Space Conspiracies Of All Time.
Top 10 Craziest Conspiracy Theories About the ILLUMINATI
Top 10 Craziest Conspiracy Theories About the ILLUMINATI
Are We Living In An Alien Zoo?
These theories are purely abstract and without hard evidence to support them … they cannot be proven.
Yes, Apollo Flew Through the Van Allen Belts Going to the Moon
Conspiracists who believe the moon landings were faked like to claim the astronauts could not have survived the trip because of exposure to radiation from the Van Allen radiation belt (http://tinyurl.com/p7khram).
Of course, they are wrong. Again.
Related: Moon Landing Conspiracy Theory
Joe Rogan and Neil deGrasse Tyson on Flat Earth and Conspiracy Theories
Joe and Neil discuss a wide variety of topics, including the flat earth conspiracy theory.
Is It Okay to Touch Mars?
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Debunking the Moon Truthers, Part 1
The history of the Apollo moon landing hoax conspiracy theory, and those who believe in it.
By Brian Dunning via skeptoid
Read transcript below or listen here
The Life and Times of the Moon Hoax Conspiracy
Yes, it's a 3-part Skeptoid episode, the first one ever, and it took more than 500 episodes to get me to finally address the moon landing hoax conspiracy. To those who follow science, the claims that we never went to the moon are the most tiresome and foolish of the conspiracy theories; but to those who believe them, they are absolute religion, and the ultimate token of their conviction that anything coming from official sources is a lie. Today we're going to begin our in-depth analysis of the Moon Landing Conspiracy, of those who believe in it, and a survey of the facts and figures of the basic narrative.
Today we're going to talk about the history and cultural impact of the claim; next week we'll go into the most popular evidentiary claims said to prove that we never went to the moon (hopefully including some you haven't heard before); and in the final installment, we'll look at the hard physical proof that we did go.
The basic narrative of the Moon Truth conspiracy theory, as you probably know, is that NASA faked the Apollo missions and nobody ever actually went to the moon. As with most conspiracy theories, there are all sorts of variations on the claims of what actually did happen, while the only thing they have in common is that no men actually landed on the moon. Some believe the Apollo missions orbited the moon but did not land; some believe they never went farther than Earth orbit; some believe the Apollo spacecraft flew but were unmanned; some believe they never launched anything at all. The astronauts performed their moonwalks on a movie set, and fake transmissions were provided to the TV networks for broadcast. The reasons given for why the government would have gone to all this trouble range from simply distracting Americans' attention from the unpopular war in Vietnam, to fooling the Soviets into thinking they lost the Cold War, to protecting NASA's budget by appearing to spend it on something supremely impressive.
A big question we have to answer is what's the point of even talking about this? The people who believe it have already heard the science-based responses to their claims a hundred times, and rejected them a hundred times. Their minds are riveted shut to anything but their preferred narrative. We'll not be changing any of their minds today. And the rest of us aren't in denial, and aren't asking these made-up, shoehorned questions that try to raise doubt where none exists. So who is this episode for, nobody?
Well, maybe for somebody. Polling data has, for decades, consistently shown that some 6-7% of Americans believe the moon landings were faked; and even scarier, about four times as many Europeans agree with them. That's a lot more people than the hardcore YouTube-obsessed serial conspiracists; it includes tens of millions of ordinary folks who are otherwise as rational as you or I. It seems there must be something deeply compelling about this odd belief.
Continue reading part 1 @ skeptoid – – –
The ethics of conspiracy theories
Source: The Minefield – ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation)
Claims that the Moon landing was faked or that lizard people are taking over the world might seem harmless and even humorous, but philosopher Patrick Stokes argues that every conspiracy theory comes with a moral cost.
Earlier this year, the world marked the 30th anniversary of the Challenger space shuttle disaster and the loss of all seven crew. With the public captivated by the story of Christa McAuliffe, the first teacher in space, some 17 per cent of the entire American population watched in horror as Challenger exploded live on television.
Except it didn't really happen. The tragedy was faked. At least six of the astronauts are alive and well and hiding in plain sight. Why, they're even still using their real names, or variations thereof. Sharon Christa McAuliffe is now Sharon A. McAuliffe, an adjunct professor of law at Syracuse University. The public has been duped by a massive conspiracy for three decades, one finally exposed thanks to intrepid amateur sleuths scouring the internet for clues.
These claims are, needless to say, utter hogwash; the evidence offered is not merely flimsy, but laughable. (At least two of the people alleged to be Challenger survivors are actually siblings of Challenger crewmembers). And what sort of conspirators would fake their own deaths in front of millions of viewers but then keep their real names?
Even so, it's yet another illustration of the pervasiveness of conspiracy theory as a social practice—and the widespread desire to believe in them. If you think this all sounds like some fringe belief that nobody could buy into, consider this: for this theory to hold, NASA would have had to somehow keep a conspiracy involving thousands of people secret for three decades. Yet upwards of 6 per cent of Americans believe that NASA pulled off the far greater feat of faking the moon landings.
Continue Reading @ ABC Radio National (Australian Broadcasting Corporation) – – –
The Most Plausible Apollo Moon Landing Conspiracy Ever Devised
by Brian Benchoff via Hackaday
The Internet is polluted with craziness, and there is no better example than YouTube. If you've ever wondered what would happen when you give everyone on the planet the power to show everyone else on the planet their innermost thoughts, desires, and insane ramblings, you need only look at YouTube.
One of the biggest offenders of incoherent ramblings is the subject of spaceflight. Simply search 'space shuttle' on YouTube, and you'll find accusations of the crew of Columbia being abducted by aliens. Crazy, incoherent, and somewhat insulting. Accusations of a moon landing conspiracy are unavoidable in the 'related videos' section and are similarly filled with videos from people with either a tenuous grasp of reality or too much time on their hands.
A broken clock is right twice a day, a broken calendar is right every twenty-eight years or so, and every once in a while, simply from the volume of videos on the subject, one conspiracy theorist will present a new and novel idea. Here we present perhaps the only moon landing conspiracy theory that makes sense, is consistent with physical laws, and that may actually be true.
Comparing other government conspiracies
One of the best ways to figure out what it would take to pull off a project is to compare it to earlier, similar projects. If you're building a 100-storey skyscraper and need a good idea of how long construction will take, just look at how long it took to build the last 100-storey skyscraper. If you want to build a dam and wonder how much it will cost, just look at earlier, similar dams that used the same construction methods and materials.
The Apollo moon landing conspiracy contends that 400,000 government workers and contractors would need to keep quiet, and no inquisitive journalists would be out in the trenches, digging for the truth. This government conspiracy would ostensibly be headed by none other than Richard Nixon, and fortunately we have a pretty good analog to compare a moon landing conspiracy to other Nixon-era conspiracies. Watergate-gate, with far fewer people involved, was found out. It strains credibility that a conspiracy many orders of magnitude larger would not be uncovered.
Additionally, there are many other nefarious activities sponsored by the US government that have been made public. The MK Ultra experiments dosed hundreds of people including Ted Kaczynski and Sirhan Sirhan with LSD. Not all of the records were destroyed, though, and the entire experiment was disclosed in 1977 with a FOIA request. The US Public Health Service infected people with syphilis, and the CIA is responsible for overthrowing dozens of governments around the world. All of these conspiracies were eventually found out. The very idea that researchers, academics, and journalists are unable to pierce the veil of a moon landing conspiracy over forty years strains credibility.
There is one government project on the scale of the Apollo moon landing that was, for a time, secret: the Manhattan Project. With perhaps 300,000 people involved in the creation of the first atomic bombs, it is the only secret government project with the same scale as NASA in the 1960s. Here, history tells us that secrets that big don't stay secret for long, with the Soviet Union receiving plans for atomic weapons before the end of the war.
In comparing the scale of an Apollo moon landing conspiracy to other, real conspiracies committed by the US government, the argument completely falls apart. The Tuskegee syphilis experiments involved perhaps a few hundred people. The MK Ultra experiments perhaps a few thousand. Watergate-gate involved less than one hundred. An Apollo moon landing conspiracy would involve nearly a half million over the course of ten years, yet moon landing conspiracists say the largest conspiracy of all time would be the one that succeeded. It doesn't strain credibility – it completely destroys it.
NASA Faked Mars Landings: Mars Rover Photos Were Taken In Simulated Mars Environment On Devon Island, Canada, According to Conspiracy Theorists
Via: Inquisitr
A conspiracy theory fast gaining traction online makes the astounding claim that NASA's Curiosity and Opportunity rovers never traveled to Mars and that the images of the Martian environment being uploaded to NASA websites were actually taken on a remote island called Devon Island in Canada, the largest uninhabited island on Earth.
According to the rumors making the rounds in the conspiracy theory blogosphere, the pictures being uploaded regularly to NASA's websites and palmed off as images of the Martian environment are fake images taken on Devon Island in Canada where NASA has set up a landscape identical with the "Martian landscape" we see on photos NASA scientists upload to NASA websites.
Conspiracy theorists claim that the rovers never traveled out to space, let alone land on Mars. Rovers Opportunity and Curiosity are being kept in storage in one of NASA's facilities. Meanwhile, the agency has deployed two smaller versions of the rovers — "baby rovers" — on Devon Island in Canada.
NASA maintains permanent bases on Devon Island where NASA personnel dressed in mock astronaut suits play around with "baby rovers" fitted with cameras. Conspiracy theorists note that the terrain of the island bears a striking resemblance to the images of the "Martian environment" that NASA uploads to its websites. This makes the island an ideal location on Earth for NASA to stage make-believe Martian environment photo shoots.
There is also evidence, according to conspiracy theorists, that NASA has bases in other remote areas used for simulating Martian environment.
10 Silly Theories That Tried To Prove Aliens Exist
By Jo Rodriguez via Listverse
Is there life elsewhere in the universe? It's becoming increasingly likely that life must exist somewhere out there, but theories on aliens closer to home have ranged from misguided to idiotic.
10 • Viking Landers Finding Life On Mars
During the '70s, NASA's Viking landers probed Martian soil, eagerly looking for signs of life on the Red Planet. While the landers did not find actual microorganisms, traces of carbon dioxide turned up in the collected samples. Some scientists looked at the results and concluded that living organisms had to be on the planet, producing the compound.
The findings have been disputed for decades. Recently, some scientists have concluded that iron particles in Martian soil could have oxidized carbon compounds that exist naturally there.
Though evidence from Viking may not point to current Martians, carbon in the soil may still indicate that life once existed on the planet. Today's research focuses less on finding living organisms there and more on investigating if the atmosphere could preserve traces of life even after long stretches of time.
9 • Arthur C. Clarke And Martian Vegetation
Beloved author and screenwriter Arthur C. Clarke long believed in life on Mars. In 2001, Clarke downloaded several photos from NASA's website captured by the Mars Global Surveyor and was delighted to see what he thought were trees.
Clarke spoke to a crowd in his home in Sri Lanka, saying that the pictures showed things that were growing on the planet's surface. Clarke said, "I'm quite serious when I say I have a really good look at these new Mars images. Something is actually moving and changing with the seasons that suggest, at least, vegetation." In another interview, he joked, "I'm now convinced that Mars is inhabited by a race of demented landscape gardeners."
The images were actually simply sand dunes, covered in or affected by frozen carbon dioxide. Over time, dark sand cascades down the dunes, leaving streaks that may look like trees to the less educated eye.
8 • Crazy Experiments To Contact Martians
In 1820, German mathematician Carl Friedrich Gauss sought to incorporate the work of Pythagoras in his quest to communicate with alien life on Mars. Gauss suggested clearing a large patch of Siberia and planting wheat for miles in a shape that geometrically illustrates the Pythagorean Theorem. By harvest season, the bright yellow crop-filled areas would contrast with the forest's darker coloring. Gauss believed that Martian observers could spot this gigantic triangle on Earth with a small telescope.
Other odd ideas were also popular during the 19th century. Astronomer Joseph Littrow suggested digging trenches measuring 30 kilometers (20 mi) in length and shaped in various geometric patterns across the Sahara. We'd then fill them with kerosene and light them up. A Frenchman, Charles Cros, suggested building a huge mirror that could focus sunlight and burn messages into the very surface of Mars.
7 • Martians Contact Nikola Tesla
Nikola Tesla may have been one of the most brilliant scientists in human history, but he also falsely claimed to have received artificial signals of extraterrestrial origin—he said they were from Mars or Venus.
In a letter to the New York Times, Tesla wrote of how Mars, of the two planets, could support life. He viewed the distance of the planets from the Sun in terms of evolution. Venus was at a youthful stage, perhaps unable to fully sustain humanoid life. Earth was at full growth. Mars had reached old age, yet it had passed through prime biological and technological evolutionary stages.
Tesla suggested ways to improve our means to communicate with Mars, first by relocating our observatories to send clearer signals through the atmosphere. In 1937, Tesla's work led him to believe that he could win the Pierre Guzman Prize of 100,000 francs for "the first person who will find the means of communicating with a star and of receiving a response." The prize rules excluded contact with Mars, however, because that would have been "too easy."
The public has never had a chance to analyze Tesla's supposed observation, but it is likely that he actually detected the pulsing of distant stars. This was far from the intelligent transmission he had claimed to see, but it was still an impressive accomplishment.
10 Ways The Quest For Alien Life Is Getting Real
By Heather Ramsey via Listverse
NASA predicts that we'll find life outside our planet, and possibly outside our solar system, within a generation. But where exactly, and what type of life? Is it even wise to make contact with extraterrestrials? The search hasn't been easy, but these questions may not be theoretical much longer. Here are 10 ways the quest for alien life is getting real.
10 • NASA Predicts Alien Life Will Be Found Within 20 Years
In the words of Matt Mountain, director at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, "Imagine the moment when the world wakes up, and the human race realizes that its long loneliness in time and space may be over . . . It's within our grasp to pull off a discovery that will change the world forever."
Using ground and space-based technology, NASA scientists predict that we'll find alien life in the Milky Way galaxy within the next 20 years. Launched in 2009, the Kepler Space Telescope (pictured) has helped scientists find thousands of exoplanets (planets outside our solar system). Kepler discovers a planet when it crosses in front of a star, causing a small drop in the star's brightness.
Based on data from Kepler, NASA scientists believe that in our galaxy alone, 100 million planets may be home to alien life. But it's the upcoming James Webb Space Telescope (scheduled for a 2018 launch) that will first give us the capability to indirectly detect life on other planets. The Webb telescope searches for gases in a planet's atmosphere that are generated by life. The ultimate goal is to find Earth 2.0, a twin to our own planet.
9 • The Alien Life We Find May Not Be Intelligent
The Webb Telescope and its successors will search for biosignatures in the atmospheres of exoplanets, such as molecular water, oxygen, and carbon dioxide. But even if a biosignature is detected, it won't tell us whether the life on that exoplanet is intelligent or not. Such alien life may be single-celled organisms like amoebas, rather than complex beings that can communicate with us.
We're also limited in our search for life by our prejudices and lack of imagination. We assume there must be carbon-based life like us, and that we're the standard by which intelligence is judged. Explaining this failure in creative thought, Carolyn Porco of the Space Science Institute says, "Scientists don't go off and think completely wild and crazy things unless they have some evidence that leads them to do that."
Other scientists such as Peter Ward, coauthor of Rare Earth: Why Complex Life Is Uncommon in the Universe, believe that intelligent alien life will be short-lived. Ward assumes that other species will have global warming, too many people, no food, and eventual chaos that destroys their civilizations. He foresees the same for us.
8 • Mars May Have Supported Life Before—And May Again
Mars is currently too cold to house liquid water and support life. But NASA's Opportunity Rover—an all-terrain vehicle that collects and analyzes rocks on Mars—has shown that about four billion years ago, the planet had fresh water and mud that could have supported life.
Another past source of water and possible life sits on the slopes of Mars's third-tallest volcano, Arsia Mons. Around 210 million years ago, this volcano erupted beneath a vast glacier. The volcano's heat caused the ice to melt, forming lakes in the glacier like liquid bubbles in a partially frozen ice cube. The lakes may have existed long enough for microbial life to have formed there.
It's possible that some simple organisms on Earth may be able to survive on Mars today. Methanogens, for example, use hydrogen and carbon dioxide to produce methane, and don't need oxygen, organic nutrients, or light. They're able to survive temperature extremes such as those found during Martian freeze-thaw cycles. So when scientists found methane in Mars' atmosphere in 2004, they questioned whether methanogens already inhabit the subsurface of Mars.
As we travel to Mars, though, scientists are concerned that we may contaminate the planet's environment with microorganisms from Earth. That may make it difficult to determine whether life forms found on Mars originated there.
Chemtrails: Puffy White Lies
Via This Week in Pseudoscience
One of my favorite conspiracy theories to debate is "chemtrails." The factual explanations behind the puffy white lines are so fabulously simple, you've got to marvel at those who harbor this preposterous notion. Entertain no fear, intelligent reader, as this conspiracy can only be held by the least scientific among us. To argue with chembelievers is to feel both frustration and bewilderment manifest.
You'll hear the battle cry of the Chemtrailers: "Wake up! Look up!" soliciting you to abandon your ability to research for the blind acceptance of anecdotal opinion. We live in a world where information is so readily accessible for anyone who chooses to pursue it. The challenge comes in vetting sources, and this seems to be the trap in to which Chemtrailers fall. They want so badly to be right about being sprayed, they will use any source available that serves their confirmation bias.
Contrails, as they're known by the scientifically literate among us, are quite simply explained. In fact, NASA does quite a good job of expounding it:
"Contrails are clouds formed when water vapor condenses and freezes around small particles (aerosols) that exist in aircraft exhaust. Some of that water vapor comes from the air around the plane; and, some is added by the exhaust of the aircraft. The exhaust of an aircraft contains both gas (vapor) and solid particles. Both of these are important in the formation of contrails. Some elements of the exhaust gasses are not involved in contrail formation but do constitute air pollution. Emissions include carbon dioxide, water vapor, nitrogen oxides (NOx), carbon monoxide, hydrocarbons such as methane, sulfates (SOx), and soot and metal particles." [1]
Now the fun part…
The quintessential Chemtrailer will claim that there are a host of chemicals being sprayed on us. In my experience, the most common particulates mentioned are aluminum, strontium, and barium. If these were being littered upon us in such volume as to cause detriment to our health, they would be easily detectable in soil and air samples yet, not surprisingly, no proof has been offered from any laboratory to date. Ask the conspiracy theorists to provide one; they can't and they won't.
Some of the conspiracy theorists don't want to seem as crazy and so they'll justify their position by saying that chemtrails stay in the sky for hours while contrails dissipate quickly.
The Mystery of the Sailing Stones in Death Valley
By Benjamin Radford via LiveScience
California's remote, beautiful, and foreboding Death Valley has held a mystery for almost a century: it has stones that seem to move on their own, when no one is looking. It happens at Racetrack Playa, a dry lakebed known for its "sailing stones." This effect occurs at a few other places as well, though Death Valley is the most famous spot.
In their book "Mysteries of the World: Unexplained Wonders and Mysterious Phenomena," Herbert Genzmer and Ulrich Hellenbrand state that "the perfectly flat, dry ground is scoured and scraped with paths that suggest these boulders are being moved along the ground… there is no indication of how this movement could have been brought about by outside forces, and no stone has ever been observed actually making its way across the ground."
Not all of the stones in Death Valley move. Those that do only move every two to three years, and they don't all move at the same time or in the same direction. In fact, some seem to have made abrupt 90-degree turns, judging from the tracks, which range from tens of feet to hundreds of feet long. Most of the stones are not huge boulders but instead range from about 6 to 18 inches (15 to 45 centimeters) in diameter.
Several theories have been proposed to explain this curious phenomenon, including some sort of localized, unknown magnetic effect. This theory has been discounted for a variety of reasons including that many of the stones do not contain significant amounts of magnetic elements such as iron, and that the stones should gradually assemble in one place — which they don't. Some have suggested that the strong winds that blow through the area might move the rocks after the lakebed has become slick.
The most likely solution to the mystery involves a combination of wind, temperature and water. Although Racetrack Playa is a dry lakebed, it is not always dry; in fact, water collects on the surface after rainfall or when snow from surrounding peaks melts. Brian Dunning, a California researcher who discussed this mystery on his Skeptoid podcast, notes that when water is present and the temperature falls below freezing — as it sometimes does — a thin sheet of ice is created: "Solid ice, moving with the surface of the lake and with the inertia of a whole surrounding ice sheet, would have no trouble pushing a rock along the slick muddy floor… As the wind shifts and the flow ebbs, these ice floes drag the rocks across the slippery mud surface in zig-zagging paths, even moving heavy rocks and sometimes dragging some but washing past others nearby."
NASA researcher Ralph Lorenz became intrigued by the enigmatic stones while studying Death Valley weather conditions. He developed a tabletop experiment to show how the rocks might glide across the surface of the lakebed.
"I took a small rock and put it in a piece of Tupperware, and filled it with water so there was an inch of water with a bit of the rock sticking out," Lorenz told Smithsonian.com.
After putting the container in the freezer, Lorenz ended up with a small slab of ice with a rock embedded in it. By placing the ice-bound rock in a large tray of water with sand at the bottom, all he had to do was gently blow on the rock to get it to move across the water. And as the ice-embedded rock moved, it scraped a trail in the sand at the tray's bottom.
Video via inFact with Brian Dunning (YouTube)
Strange Lights in Mars Photos Are Not Alien Bonfires
By Nadia Drake via National Geographic
Recent photos taken by NASA's Mars rover might appear to show a gleaming alien bonfire burning in the distance—at least according to some Internet loonies—but that's not exactly what's happening.
Fact is, there still isn't any evidence for life on Mars. None.
The provocative, shiny smears of light appear in two images snapped by rover Curiosity's navigation camera, one on April 2 and the other on April 3, provoking excitement among some in the UFO-spotting crowd.
The photos come courtesy of the camera's right eye and show nearly vertical bright smudges emerging from a spot near the horizon. Photos of the same spot shot by the camera's left eye, meanwhile, show no such things.
Rather than emanating from an underground Martian disco, the bright spots are probably caused by cosmic rays colliding with the rover's camera or by glinting rocks reflecting the Martian sunlight, said NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory's Justin Maki, lead imaging scientist for the Curiosity team.
He said that glimmers appearing in similar spots on two consecutive days are oddly coincidental.
Cosmic Rays
It turns out that both cosmic rays and glinting rocks are pretty common on Mars. They've been spotted before. Such rocks have been seen in images sent by several of NASA's Mars rovers, and cosmic rays appear in images that Curiosity sends to Earth each week.
Maki said that one percent of those hundreds of weekly images might include cosmic ray-induced bright spots. But the junked-up pixels normally don't cause much of a stir.
"You'll see cosmic rays every two or three days. Certainly at least once a week," Maki said. "The reason we see so many is because Mars's atmosphere is thinner: It doesn't block as much cosmic radiation as Earth's does."
Cosmic rays are charged particles that fly through the universe in every direction all the time. Every so often they'll collide with something like a camera. One sign of a cosmic ray hit, Maki said, is the appearance of the ray in images taken by one of Curiosity's eyes but not the other.
Glinting rocks, on the other hand, could easily reflect Martian sunlight.
10 Insane Conspiracy Theories About Stanley Kubrick
You know how the world occasionally seems to pick a celebrity to project all its insecurities and collective insanity onto? Stanley Kubrick was that guy on steroids. Ever since his death in 1999, conspiracy theorists have been working overtime to implicate the portly genius in all sorts of shady shenanigans. We've already told you about the guys who think Kubrick faked the moon landings and hid clues in his film The Shining. Little did we know that was just the tip of the world's craziest iceberg.
10 • His Films Are Warnings About A NASA Sex Cult
If you've never heard of the Saturn Death Cult, prepare to have your mind blown. A sort of hyper-evil Illuminati crossed with whatever it is David Icke keeps going on about, they've infiltrated every organization on Earth to prepare us for the next stage in interstellar evolution—an evolution they intend to bring about by having sex with lots of children. Sound insane? Well get this: Stanley Kubrick supposedly spent his entire life warning us about them.
The theory goes that while faking the moon-landings for NASA, Kubrick became aware of the fiendish, Saturn-worshipping sex cult at the heart of America's space race. He then set about littering his films with coded warnings alerting us to their existence. 2001: A Space Odyssey was supposed to contain references to the planet Saturn before Warner Bros changed it to Jupiter; Eyes Wide Shut deals with an evil, worldwide sex-cult; AI was originally about the "sort of person" who would want to buy a non-aging, 12-year-old robot boy slave; Lolita warns us about the existence of a child-grooming network.
Sure, that last one was released years before Kubrick allegedly became aware of all this, but why bother with stuff like chronology when we've got a salacious cult on our hands?
9 • The Shining Is About Abandoning The Gold Standard
The film Room 237 recently made waves by exposing a whole host of the crazy conspiracy theories focused around The Shining. But there were a couple of theories too insane even for a documentary about insanity. Our favorite is the theory that the entire film is a secret mockery of Woodrow Wilson for abandoning the gold standard.
Let's back up and look at the clues. Several of The Shining's key scenes are set in something called "the Gold Room." In one such scene, Jack Nicholson tries to buy a drink from the bartender, only to be told his money is no good and it's "orders from the house." Colonel Edward Mandell House is the man who convinced Woodrow Wilson to drop the standard and make American money worthless. But wait, how do we know Jack is meant to represent Wilson? Simple: Jack has terrible typing skills and in 1913 the New York Times mocked Wilson for that very same defect.
But the real kicker comes in the film's final shot. In a photograph dated July 4th, 1921, we see Jack Nicholson surrounded by people waving at the camera. July 4th, 1921 also happens to be exactly two months after Wilson retired, and the guy standing behind Jack in the photo looks just like Wilson (sort of, if you squint). There you have it: final proof that the Shining is really a satire on economics.
8 • 2001: A Space Odyssey Proves The Existence Of Aliens
For a film ostensibly about aliens influencing mankind's development, 2001: A Space Odyssey doesn't actually have much in the way of space creatures. But that hasn't stopped some people from seeing it for what it really is. Far from being a seminal sci-fi masterpiece, 2001 is secretly proof of the existence of extra-terrestrials.
This particular theory is an offshoot of the "Kubrick faked the moon landings" one. Starting with the premise that Neil Armstrong was really bouncing around a soundstage somewhere, it asks why a great director might fake one of the most important events in history and comes up with a suitably bizarre answer—aliens beat us to it.
That's right, the moon landings were really a reconnaissance trip to find evidence of alien tech, hence the need for a fake "public" version. We know Kubrick knew about this because 2001 is chock full of hidden references to alien abductions. The hyper-60s LSD trip taken through the monolith at the end is really a metaphor for people being kidnapped by space aliens, taken from government files which were still top secret at the time. Somehow (while faking the moon landings, no doubt) Kubrick got hold of these files and placed the experiences in 2001 as a "big reveal" for mankind. And we all thought it was just a revolutionary blockbuster.
7 • His Final Film Was Re-edited By Evil Cultists
When Kubrick died in 1999, he'd only just finished editing his final film. Released after his death, Eyes Wide Shut has gained a reputation as the "unfinished" Kurbrick film, despite its creator hanging on just long enough to oversee the final cut. Or at least he would have, if occult New World Order types in league with Warner Bros hadn't secretly re-edited it after his death.
Yep: The slightly perplexing/disappointing film we saw at the cinema wasn't Kubrick's original cut. In scenes that Warner Bros now refuses to release, the director apparently expounded at some length on the existence of real messed-up cults just like the one in the film. To protect the nefarious leaders of these cults, Warner Bros quietly had the picture re-edited—and now denies this ever happened.
But what sort of crazy cult could wield its power like that? What sort of insane organization would be so precious over a simple movie? We're glad you asked:
6 • Eyes Wide Shut Is About Scientology
We're going to go out on a limb here and guess you've heard of Scientology. Hollywood's biggest "religion" is everything a creepy cult should be: secretive, convicted of international fraud, and seemingly fronted by Tom Cruise. The same Tom Cruise who just happened to be the star of Kubrick's final film.
Thanks to this Cruise connection, a lot of people are convinced that Eyes Wide Shut is really a thinly-veiled warning about Scientology. Aside from the film featuring a shady society of no-good rich types, there's the fact that Kubrick himself had a personal interest in the cult—his daughter Vivian vanished into its clutches in 1998 and hasn't spoken to her family since. In a long article on the subject, critic Laurent Vachaud has even gone so far as to say everything that happens in the film is a metaphor for Kubrick losing his daughter, right up to the apparent kidnapping of Tom Cruise's daughter at the end of the film.
Unfortunately, the claims don't stand up to much scrutiny. Vivian didn't abandon her family until Eyes Wide Shut was already underway, far too late for major rewrites. Even then she was still in contact: Kubrick wanted her to write the score and she only dropped out at the very last second. It's an interesting little theory, but a theory is definitely all it is.
1969: A Space Odyssey: screenplay about Kubrick faking moon landing
By David Haglund via slate.com
Yesterday, when I saw the latest "Black List" of unproduced screenplays beloved by Hollywood execs, one title leapt off my computer screen: 1969: A Space Odyssey, or How Kubrick Learned to Stop Worrying and Land on the Moon. As anyone who has seen Room 237 knows, there is a conspiracy theory of long standing that Stanley Kubrick helped fake the moon landing. Here, to judge from its title—which, of course, pays homage to two Kubrick classics—was a screenplay that took that crazy notion and ran with it. Sounds fun!
So I emailed the screenwriter, Stephany Folsom.
"The theory that Stanley Kubrick faked the moon landing started circulating right after we landed on the moon in 1969," Folsom told me, adding that she has "always been fascinated by conspiracy theories"—but also noting that "fascination" is very different from "belief." "I love the idea that a group of people could be so organized to orchestrate what essentially is a giant con job, but I just don't buy that people are that competent to execute something on so large a scale without someone dropping the ball or spilling the secret."
She began researching this particular theory after seeing the Stanley Kubrick exhibit at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art. She had "just participated in a NASA Social event, where members of the public can meet with astronauts and NASA scientists to learn about the latest space missions," and these two "seemingly unrelated events" got her going. She wrote the script as "an homage to Stanley Kubrick's work and space exploration."
The title led to me to assume that the movie would be a comedy, perhaps a Dr. Strangelove-esque satire. But Folsom says it's "mostly a drama," albeit one with "some comedic moments." The main character is "a female public affairs assistant in the Nixon administration" named Barbara, who is a composite of several women that were hired "as part of Nixon's Task Force on Women's Rights. Kubrick is the driving force of the script," Folsom adds, "but the movie is really Barbara's journey."
I asked Folsom if the Kubrick estate might pose an obstacle to getting such a movie made. She replied simply that the script is "a cinematic love letter to his work." And while she couldn't tell me too much about where the screenplay stood in the development process, she did say that "things are happening."
I hope so. This is a movie I would like to see.
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Slow-Witted Conspiracy Theorist Convinced Government Behind NASA
Via The Onion
(Above video: The indescribably stupid conspiracy theorist says the U.S. government has been funneling money to NASA for years.)
BARRINGTON, RI — Calling it the most scandalous cover-up of the past half century, dim-witted conspiracy theorist Daniel Burgess told reporters Thursday he believes the U.S. government has, for years, been clandestinely exercising total control over the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
The 34-year-old dullard cited a wealth of evidence he said proves "beyond a doubt" that every NASA project—from Project Mercury to the moon landings to the shuttle program—has been approved and bankrolled by the federal government.
"Follow the money and you'll find out who pulls NASA's puppet strings: Washington, D.C.," the unfathomable moron said. "The arrangement goes way back, too. Do you think it's a coincidence that when NASA went to the moon they just happened to plant an American flag there? Don't tell me the feds had nothing to do with that. Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin were on the government's payroll. All astronauts are."
"Think about it: The funding has to come from somewhere," continued Burgess, mentioning records he found online that suggest the federal budget included $16.9 billion for NASA in the year 2013 alone. "And they've been careless enough to leave a massive paper trail."
The simpleminded dope said he also finds it "highly suspicious" that so many astronauts have been ex-military personnel who came up through the U.S. Air Force.
According to Burgess, all the evidence linking the government to the space program is "hidden in plain sight." Speaking to reporters from the basement of his home, where he waded through copious binders of documents representing more than a decade's worth of research, he alleged that "every single president since Dwight Eisenhower" has been complicit in NASA's operation. Richard Nixon approved the development of Skylab, he said, and Bill Clinton conspired to allow the International Space Station to move forward.
"Kennedy was in on all of it, too—he was actually one of the main guys, right from the start of his presidency," said Burgess, pointing to several pictures of NASA administrator James Webb meeting with John F. Kennedy. "I've seen transcripts of his speeches, and I'm convinced: Kennedy knew. He knew about NASA the whole time. In the early '60s, he talked about wanting to see a man on the moon 'before this decade is out,' and guess which organization did exactly that?"
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What is Project Blue Beam?
Via Stuff They Don't Want You to Know – YouTube
For decades conspiracy theorists have accused the government of hiding evidence of aliens or imminent world disasters, but could the governments of the world actually be planning to fake an apocalypse? Tune in to learn more about Project Blue Beam.
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Remember the 13th: Viral marketing silliness.
By Phil Plait via slate.com
[UPDATE (Oct. 4 at 21:00 UTC): WARNING: The "Remember the 13th" web page discussed below may be a scam, used by a company for phishing, a way to collect email addresses from people to sell to spammers. The site Android Malware Dump has the scoop. DO NOT ENTER YOUR EMAIL ADDRESS AT the "Remember the 13th" web page! In fact, don't even visit the site; I've removed all links to it to be safe. Thanks to my friend James Kerwin for letting me know.]
I'm getting a lot of tweets and emails asking me about a mysterious website that's popped up in the last few days. Called "Remember the 13th", it purports to have huge news from NASA it will reveal:
"The biggest discovery that will shake the Earth, it will never be the same again. [sic]"
A lot of folks are assuming this is an official NASA webpage, because it uses the NASA logo, and says, "NASA has made a historic discovery that will shake the entire planet." But note that nowhere on the page does it actually say it's an official NASA page.
The one thing we can know for sure is that this is not an official NASA site. Being a government agency, NASA has to follow certain rules about websites, and this one has a few key indicators it's not legit:
- Official NASA sites are all part of the nasa.gov network, and this one isn't.
- WHOIS reports it's registered through Panama. Hello. [UPDATE (Oct. 4 at 18:00 UTC): The actual ownership of the site is hidden using an anonymizing service, and it's that service that reports the site is in Panama. But NASA would never use a service like this, so the argument stands.]
- Official NASA sites don't use the ".com" top-level domain.
- All NASA sites are inaccessible right now due to the government shutdown.
Any one of those is enough to show this ain't NASA.
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Is that a FEMA Camp? – September 22, 2013
|Is that a FEMA Camp? is a blog dedicated to investigating claims of FEMA camp locations.
Below is some of their findings. Enjoy 🙂
The claim: Newark, 70
What it really is: The actual name of the facility is the Air Force Metrology and Calibration Program Office, and it is the primary manager of metrology services for the Air Force.
The claim: Miamisburg, 306
What it really is: Mound Laboratories was a Cold War nuclear weapons research facility. The facility was declared a Superfund site in 1989, and was eventually cleaned up.The facility has since closed and is now open for commercial development.
• Fernald Environmental Management Project, Ohio
The claim: Fernald, 1,050
What it really is: The Fernald Feed Materials Production Center was a uranium processing plant that made uranium fuel cores for nuclear weapons. The facility closed in 1989 and the surrounding area has since been turned into a nature preserve.The facility gained notoriety in 1984 when it was learned that the plant had been releasing millions of pounds worth of radioactive dust into the atmosphere, contaminating the surrounding area and costing $4.4 billion to clean up the site.
• Grand Forks AFB, North Dakota
The claim: 25 B61-7 gravity bombs; 60 B83 gravity bombs, Emerado, 5,418 (missile field covers an additional 8,500 sq. miles)
What it really is: The Grand Forks Air Force Base is your typical Air Force base out in the middle of no where with nothing that you wouldn't typically find on any other Air Force base.
The claim: Concrete, ?
What it really is: Cavalier Air Force Station is a small Air Force facility with both members from the US and Canadian military stationed there, as well as civilian employees.The station monitors for and tracks potential missile launches against North America, as well as tracks half of all Earth orbiting objects.
• Seymour Johnson AFB, North Carolina
The claim: Goldsboro, 3,233
What it really is: Seymour Johnson Air Force Base is basically your typical Air Force base.After looking at the base via Google maps I can find nothing there that resembles a prison camp or anything that one would not find on an Air Force base.
The claim: Romulus, ?
What it really is: Seneca Army Depot was closed in 2000, and is now under control by numerous private industries, and as for the state the site hosts the Five Points Correctional Facility and the Seneca County Law Enforcement Center.Currently there is much discussion on what to do with the rest of the land, being that much of it is dotted with concrete storage bunkers that were used to store munitions.
The claim: Plattsburgh, 4,879
What it really is: Plattsburgh Air Force Base was closed in 1995 and is now a civilian airport called the Plattsburgh International Airport, and a industrial complex.
• Niagara Falls Storage Site, New York
The claim: Lewiston, 191
What it really is: The Niagara Falls Air Reserve Station (it's actual name) is an Air Force reserve base that shares runways with the Niagara Falls International Airport.Currently the only aircraft stationed at the base are C-130 transport planes.
• Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory, New York
The claim: Niskayuna and West Milton, 4,070
What it really is: The Knolls Atomic Power Laboratory is a research and development facility dedicated to the research, design, construction, operation, and maintenance of the US Navy's nuclear powered warships.
Click here for the latest findings at "Is that a FEMA Camp?"
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The chemtrail conspiracy nonsense
by Ian Chadwick via Scripturient: Blog & Commentary
Scientists need not apply for membership in the Chemtrail Conspiracy. In fact, scientists will probably be booted out for even walking on the same street where the meeting is being held. That's because scientists would shine a light into the utter darkness of this nutty conspiracy. According to Wikipedia:
The chemtrail conspiracy theory holds that some trails left by aircraft are chemical or biological agents deliberately sprayed at high altitudes for purposes undisclosed to the general public in clandestine programs directed by various government officials.[1] This theory is not accepted by the scientific community, which states that they are just normal contrails, as there is no scientific evidence supporting the chemtrail theory.
Okay, so does it make sense to you that millions of people are involved in some bizarre worldwide conspiracy that involves every level of government, the military, the medical community, meteorologists, scientists AND private industry in numerous countries simultaneously, and not ONE has ever become a whistle blower? Not ONE has ever gone public with PROOF?
As Skeptoid notes,
Like all conspiracy theories, chemtrails require us to accept the existence of a coverup of mammoth proportions. In this case, virtually every aircraft maintenance worker at every airport in the world needs to be either part of the conspiracy, or living under a threat from Men in Black, with not a single whistle blower or deathbed confession in decades. Or that for all the thousands of traditional media outlets around the world that have the resources and willingness to do solid investigative journalism, not a single one has dredged up as much as a single provable fact that this isn't just a self-inflicted mass delusion?
Come on – this chemtrail stuff is so wacky it makes creationism and Scientology look smart. But hey, silliness was never a barrier to joining the tin foil hat brigade:
Due to the popularity of the conspiracy theory, official agencies have received thousands of complaints from people who have demanded an explanation. The existence of chemtrails has been repeatedly denied by scientists around the world, who say the trails are normal contrails. The United States Air Force states that the theory is a hoax which "has been investigated and refuted by many established and accredited universities, scientific organizations, and major media publications." The United Kingdom's Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs has stated that chemtrails are not scientifically recognized phenomena.
In case you wonder where all those folks who believed in the Mayan apocalypse have gone, look no further. They're filling the internet with more pseudoscientific-conspiracy drivel about how the government is trying to sterilize you, pacify you, experiment on you, make you sick, control the weather, vaccinate you, infect us with nanobot implants, fight global warming, cause global warming, geo-engineering, or make us mindless slaves to the New World Order – or maybe a combination of them, since no two conspiracy theorists seem to agree on WHY anyone would do this (let alone how).
But the wingnuts are True Believers even if what they believe in is clearly outside the realm of common sense:
So here we are in 2012 and the level of verifiable evidence of Chem Trails and their effect on humanity is staggering, and as more of us become more sophisticated , more awake , more expanded in our ability to see the larger picture , we are starting to put the pieces of the puzzle together as to "Why" they are doing this.
The reason of course is money , profits, and control , so nothing new here, just more sophisticated control mechanisms to manipulate markets, food sources and ultimately the ability to produce food. It turns out that the main reason for the development of weather modification , Chem Trails, HAARP , is to create a situation that puts normal crops at a sever disadvantage through droughts and other extreme weather.
Every expert in aviation and, weather must be in on the cabal, because they only make statements about how ludicrous the theory is:
Experts on atmospheric phenomena deny the existence of chemtrails, asserting that the characteristics attributed to them are simply features of contrails responding differently in diverse conditions in terms of the sunlight, temperature, horizontal and vertical wind shear, and humidity levels present at the aircraft's altitude. Experts explain that what appears as patterns such as grids formed by contrails result from increased air traffic traveling through the gridlike United States National Airspace System's north-south and east-west oriented flight lanes, and that it is difficult for observers to judge the differences in altitudes between these contrails from the ground. The jointly published fact sheet produced by NASA, the EPA, the FAA, and NOAA in 2000 in response to alarms over chemtrails details the science of contrail formation, and outlines both the known and potential impacts contrails have on temperature and climate. The USAF produced a fact sheet as well that described these contrail phenomena as observed and analyzed since at least 1953. It also rebutted chemtrail theories more directly by identifying the theories as a hoax and denying the existence of chemtrails.
I suppose people who can readily believe that crop circles are alien messages, aliens crashed at Roswell, or that flu vaccines cause autism, can believe in chemtrails. Once you start drinking the pseudoscience Kool-Aid, it's hard not to drain the glass and ask for more.
Here's a quote from one of those crazy Kool-Aid drinker sites:
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10 Astounding Examples of Pareidolia In Outer Space
Patrick Weidinger via Listverse
Ever look at clouds and see a rabbit or a dog? Or pop out a piece of toast and see the partially burnt face of Jesus looking at you? This bizarre experience is called pareidolia—a psychological phenomenon whereby a sight or sound triggers something in your brain, persuading you that what you hear or see is something recognizable.
One well-known example of pareidolia involves seeing "the man in the moon". But there are many more examples of pareidolia in space—and as our robots, spacecraft, and telescopes take more and more images, we're discovering more space pareidolia daily. Here are ten of the most astounding examples:
10 • Horsehead Nebula – Orion
One of the oldest and most familiar examples of space pareidolia is the horsehead nebula, or Barnard 33, which is a cold and dark cloud of dust and gas silhouetted by the bright nebula IC 434. The Horsehead Nebula is located in the constellation Orion, and appears to be a side-on view of a horsehead.
First noted in 1888, it is 1,500 light years from Earth. The dark shadowing of the Horsehead Nebula is created by dust, but at the base of the nebula you can see bright spots which are young stars just being formed. The bright star just visible in the top left side of the horsehead is a young star still embedded in the stellar nursery of gas and dust. The radiation from this young star is so powerful that it s starting to erode the cloud – so millions of years in the future, the Horsehead Nebula may not bear any resemblance to its current form.
9 • The Face on Mars – Mars
Another very well-known example of pareidolia in space is Cydonia Mensae, or "The Face on Mars". On July 25, 1976, NASA released a series of images snapped by the Viking spacecraft orbiters. These images depicted the Cydonia Mensae region of Mars—a region of flat-topped mesa-like formations. The first image showed what appeared to be a human face looking skyward. This was originally dismissed as a trick of shadowing on the Martian rocks; a subsequent image, however, likewise showed what would become known as The Face on Mars—even with the sun at a different angle.
These images sparked decades of speculation about the possibility of life on Mars, and prompted talk of advanced civilizations which may have left behind giant, human-like memorials on the planet.
Twenty years later, however, Mars was visited by three more spacecraft which orbited the planet and took higher resolution images. These better quality images proved that what appeared to be a giant statue of a human face was simply a normal Martian mountain, which—when seen with the correct shadowing and illumination—created pareidolia in the minds of the observers.
8 • Tinker Bell or The Space Hummingbird – Three Galaxies
In an amazing image captured by the European Southern Observatory (ESO) Very Large Telescope, we can observe the collision of three different galaxies. Most interestingly, we can note the effect that each of them is having on the others. As the three galaxies collided, they have twisted, stretched, and pulled one other into a recognizable shape. Is it Tinker Bell or a Space Hummingbird? Whichever you decide, it is certainly a beautiful image.
7 • The Elephant on Mars – Mars
Mars is home to many examples of pareidolia, largely due to the fact that—like the moon—it is so highly photographed. Either that, or Martians have just been busy creating human-like structures for such a very long time. You decide.
Another example is the "Elephant Face", which resembles an elephant head in profile, complete with an eye and an elongated elephant trunk. The image was taken by the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, and was intended to capture a lava flow in Elysium Planitia.
6 • The Crowned Face – Mars
It seems to me that "The Face on Mars" looks more like the human alien in the film "Prometheus" than any real human. But another pareidolia on Mars, located in the Libya Montes region, looks more genuinely human.
It appears to be an almost classical Greek or Roman face, complete with a crown, and it is often imaginatively referred to as "The Crowned Face". Remarkably, most people can "see" the Libya Montes face in many different kinds of light.
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text:
Port Dover Front Range Light
"Port Dover, Ontario"
Built: 1846
This light sits at the end of a long pier stretching into Lake Erie at the mouth of the Lynn River.
Lighthouses: A Photographic Journey
Copyright © 1995-2006 David S. Carter, Donald W. Carter, & Diana K. Carter. All rights reserved. Reproduction by any means, physical or electronic, in part or in full, without the express permission of the authors, is strictly prohibited.


text:
Andrew gathered the editorial team in the center of our former office, a giant warehouse space with a row of desks above overlooking a recreation area below. We were just a few days from the re-launch of the website.
Most of the editorial staff, scattered around the country, had flown to LA for a week of intense training in the new technology that would power the website. While we learned, we still had to work, putting up posts and videos.
To the muffled sound of typing, Andrew began his pep talk.
The re-launch was the culmination of months of intense work, hundreds of design meetings and long conference calls, he said. The new website meant a new mission. We would no longer solely be a set of blogs. We were going to focus our energy on driving narratives and leading the news cycle, constantly.
But the news we covered would not be the same news everyone else was watching, he said. Andrew grew more animated as he described what he meant. He emphasized, for example, how radical fringes of the left were providing some of the most important content to the mainstream media, and how mainstream political and entertainment figures were driving that process by encouraging the radicals.
The Occupy Wall Street movement and the Anonymous hackers, Andrew said, had been extremely important in creating the 99%-vs.-1% meme that the Obama team had embraced, and which they encouraged to set a trap for likely Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney (yes, he was saying it long before the rest of the country realized it). But the connections between Occupy, Anonymous and the media were even more direct.
Tracing those connections, Andrew said, was one of the many important investigative projects that needed to be done–and that the mainstream media would not do. As far as he was concerned, he said, that was the news. It explained how radical ideas that had circulated in remote corners of the Internet would pass through outlets like Current TV and MSNBC and eventually find their way to the headlines of the local nightly news bulletin.
Neither Andrew nor any of us could have realized that even as he was speaking, the Trayvon Martin controversy was about to unfold.
Martin was shot and killed during a confrontation with George Zimmerman on Feb. 26, 2012, but it was not until March 8 that the first erroneous media report appeared referring to Zimmerman as "white." Then, on March 11, the New Black Panther Party marched on the Sanford, FL police department.
The story might have remained on the fringe but for the fact that Al Sharpton's National Action Network picked up where the New Black Panthers left off, issuing a statement on March 12 that alleged Zimmerman had used "racial language" in his 911 call to police–a theme repeated later that month in selectively edited reports by both NBC News and the New York Times.
On March 13, Sharpton devoted part of his MSNBC show to the case. Soon the mainstream media picked up the story as a story about race, prejudice, and guns. And Sharpton–who remains an informal adviser to President Barack Obama, in spite of his history of dishonesty and deadly antisemitic incitement–continued to lead the way, demanding that the Sanford police arrest Zimmerman, shepherding the grieving Martin family from one interview, one demonstration, one gathering to another.
This was not a legitimate news story that moved from the netroots to the front page, as the story of Barack Obama's infamous "bitter clingers" comment had done during the 2008 Democratic presidential primary. This was a distortion that began on the extreme left-wing margins and became a mainstream media firestorm–one whose flames were fanned by President Obama himself in describing Martin as his hypothetical "son."
Breitbart News took the lead in exposing the deliberate distortions by the mainstream media, and how a tragic killing, twisted into a racial horror story by the extreme left, became part of the rhetoric of the 2012 presidential campaign.
But all of that, and much else, lay in the future as Andrew spoke to us–passionately, fervently, charging us with a heavy burden of responsibility that, despite his enthusiasm, felt daunting to everyone.
We could not have known that was the last time Andrew would address the Breitbart News staff as a group. Most of the editorial team flew home that day or the next–only to return, dazed and grief-stricken, for Andrew's funeral a few days later.
Somehow we pulled together to launch the new website, on schedule, tears streaming down our faces, smiling and sobbing all at once, together, as we refreshed the screens and brought Andrew's vision to life.
It has been a mad year. And a successful one. Andrew would have been proud to see how far we have come.
Yet we are still making the transition he envisioned. And the attacks–from the Obama machine, the institutional left, and the mainstream media–are multiplying.
Our mission remains that which Andrew gave to us. And it remains daring. I could not be prouder than I am to be part of the team Andrew built.


text:
Medical Staff Directory
Looking for a specific Physician and can not locate them by using the link below? Contact Medical Staff Services at (916) 887-1230.
Does your profile in the physician directory need updating? Contact Gloria Alvarez in the Sacramento Sierra Region Marketing Department at (916) 454-6574. We want to make sure your information is current. In addition, if you have other Marketing or Web site requests please contact the Marketing Department at (916) 887-7002 or the SHSSR Web Team at (916) 887-7293.