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100 Years Ago: Race to the South Pole

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M. C. Escher: The science of symmetry and the mathematics of aesthetics, 1961 Image: SCIENTIFIC AMERICAN, VOL. 204, NO. 4; APRIL 1961

APRIL 1961

Tiling
“The Dutch artist Maurits C. Escher, now living in Baarn [near Amsterdam], has applied many of the 17 symmetry groups to mosaics in which animal shapes are used for the fundamental regions. One of Escher’s amazing mosaics is reproduced on the cover of this issue of Scientific American. Escher is a painter who enjoys playing with mathematical structure. There is a respectable school of aesthetics that views all art as a form of play, and an equally respectable school of mathematics that looks upon all mathemat­ical systems as meaningless games played with symbols according to agreed-upon rules. —Martin Gardner in Mathematical Games”

Economics of Disarmament
“The Federal Government of the U.S. has been spending somewhat more than $40 billion per year on the maintenance of the military establishment and the procurement of arms. These outlays have absorbed about 10 per cent of the gross national product, and they have exceeded by several billion dollars the combined net annual investment in manufacturing, service industries, transportation and agriculture. The negotiation of disarmament would eventually raise the possibility of a substantial cut in the military budget. Economists, market analysts and the makers of fiscal policy in Government and business have therefore begun to consider how the economy might otherwise employ the labor, the plant and the physical resources that now serve—directly and indirectly—the demands of the military establishment. —Wassily W. Leontief and Marvin Hoffenberg”
Leontief was awarded the economics prize from the Nobel Foundation in 1973.

APRIL 1911

Race to the South Pole
“Word has been­ received from Capt. Scott that Amundsen, like himself, is trying to reach the South Pole. Scott’s ship, the ‘Terra Nova,’ has returned to New Zealand after landing sledge parties on the ice, and has brought messages from Capt. Scott himself. It seems that Lieut. Pennell, of the expedition, found the ‘Fram,’ Am­und­sen’s ship, in Iceland Bay, and a Norwegian party fully equipped for a journey to the South Pole. On board the ‘Fram’ were eight men and sixteen Greenland dogs. Nothing had been heard of Amundsen’s expeditions until news was received from Scott.”

Greenwich Time
“On February 10th, 1911, the French Senate passed a bill which makes Greenwich time legal in France. When the law goes into effect, French time will become nine minutes and twenty-one seconds slower than it is now. In order to avoid the expense of altering charts and sailing instructions, the law will not apply to French naval or merchant marine vessels, and it is not likely that any change will be made to the almanacs. French railways are now run by a standard five minutes slower than Paris time, and the clocks inside stations are regulated by this standard, while the clocks on the outside of the station give the correct Paris time. This confusing system will be abolished, and both exterior and interior clocks will be regulated by Greenwich time, by which the trains will be run.”

April 1861

Caesium
“The first result of the new method of analysis by the lines of the spectrum was to inform us what substances exist in the sun; the next result is the discovery of two new metals on the earth. One of these has been named caesium, from the color of the peculiar lines in the spectrum of its light; the other is not yet named [later called rubidium]. Caesium resembles potassium in its properties, and exists only in exceedingly small quantities.”

Watchmakers
“Frederika Bremer gives the following picture of watchmaking in Geneva: ‘The manufacture of pocket-watches is carried to a great extent in Geneva. An immense number are required for the Chinese market. A well-equipped Chinaman, I have been told, carries a watch on each side of his breast, that he may be able to regulate the one by the other. Wealthy Chinese cover the walls of their rooms with watches. These watches are of a more ornamental character, and have more filigree work upon them than those made for Europeans. Long live the Chinese! At one of the greatest and best conducted manufactories of Geneva, nothing but watch faces are prepared, and eld­er­ly, well-dressed and well-looking women sat by twenties and thirties in clean, well-warmed rooms, working upon watch faces.’”



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  1. 1. scottryan1 09:57 AM 3/25/11

    making a force field like this.

    I think that magnetic fields that get zapped with EMP, will after being charged, act as a force field.
    well that's wrong probably, just be good to do it & see what you can do with it.

    Well it will do something useful, from a force field to a motor & strips atoms / something .http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0odJKYTzXg8 that’s the emp making devise I am talking about.

    You Should build a half a million gauss magnetic field, then use that EMP making devise, & hit the field with EMP.
    So the EMP making devise at this link.

    After you do that & the field is being hit with EMP, you should hit that magnetic field with other stuff like atoms molecules & everything.

    The EMP hitting that shield will make it a shield AGAINST OTHER ATOMS & RADIATION.

    So for earth magnetic field to work, it has to be hit
    by EMP.
    So yes it always is hit with EMP, but a very small does. Only massive amounts blast the field will show you the night sky’s in the pole.

    So you could say earths magnetic field is always being hit by EMP non stop 24/7. When a massive amounts comes along, it shows / lights up the sky big time.

    If its only a very small amount, it turns the earth magnetic field into a shield for say.

    So you could make a magnetic field on earth, but its not getting hit by any EMP, so it will be a different shield & will do nothing.
    But the shield getting hit by a micro amount of EMP will change it into earth magnetic field.

    In space particles & EMP are always hitting earth magnetic field, & that’s why it protects us from massive danger’s radiation.

    You could say but what about the earths magnetic field when it faces away from the sun??

    Well EMP & all the suns particles move away particles & every thing.

    So the sun sends out a force / solar wind, that it in its self is stoping a back draft of particles & so on entering
    the earth from behind.

    So the earth spins around, every time it turns & hit micro particles & radiation, it stop & charges the earth magnetic field, that stopes the really bad stuff getting in.

    If you make a magnetic field on earth & fling radiation at it, it will smile & keep on coming.
    If you hit the magnetic field with a micro amount of EMP, it will charge it & it will half reflect the particles / radiation. That or absurd them / push them on around the field.


    I would make a half a million gauss magnetic field, then would hit it with a micro amount or EMP & or particles. I would see
    what that does, then would put a x-ray scanner next to the field & turn it on, & see what happens.

    See if it stops the radiation getting past the field now.
    See if it makes the field stronger & more resistant to radiation or & so on.


    So in the end, I say the earth magnetic field only works because EMP is hitting it & or particle are non stop.

    The EMP electrify’s it, that makes it stop all particles & radiation getting in.

    that’s the force field we need to beat radiation in space. Well an heat shield.

    Even if that’s not right, it would be nice to test & and see what ells it can do, or if it can build some kind of a field or do something useful.

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  2. 2. scottryan1 10:55 AM 3/25/11

    so if you doped a bit of fuel on that magnetic field as its getting non stop zaps of emp that will give it energy because it lights up the sky's, that fuel will burn. so you could make a motor or something. will it times the force by more times because the force of it trying to get out or so on, or do anything. or any other atoms or molecules / particles would burn & give force instantly.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
  3. 3. JDahiya 04:36 AM 3/28/11

    Caesium was only discovered in 1861? Amazing! 150 years later, we are all worried about the impact of radioactive fallout of this super-reactive chemical.

    Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this
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