The O'Neill Cylinder

The O'Neill cylinder (also called an O'Neill colony) is a space settlement design proposed by American physicist Gerard K. O'Neill in his 1976 book The High Frontier: Human Colonies in Space. O'Neill proposed the colonization of space for the 21st century, using materials extracted from the Moon and later from asteroids.

An O'Neill cylinder would consist of two counter-rotating cylinders. The cylinders would rotate in opposite directions in order to cancel out any gyroscopic effects that would otherwise make it difficult to keep them aimed toward the Sun. Each would be 5 miles (8.0 km) in diameter and 20 miles (32 km) long, connected at each end by a rod via a bearing system. They would rotate so as to provide artificial gravity via centrifugal force on their inner surfaces.

While teaching undergraduate physics at Princeton University, O'Neill set his students the task of designing large structures in outer space, with the intent of showing that living in space could be desirable. Several of the designs were able to provide volumes large enough to be suitable for human habitation. This cooperative result inspired the idea of the cylinder, and was first published by O'Neill in a September 1974 article of Physics Today.

O'Neill's project was not completely without precedent. In 1954, the German scientist Hermann Oberth described the use of gigantic habitable cylinders for space travel in his book Menschen im Weltraum – Neue Projekte für Raketen- und Raumfahrt ("People in space – New projects for rockets and space travel"). (read more)

Frida Pushnik

In a 1966 interview, Miss Pushnik told The Orange County Register that she had never resented her condition. ''I never said, 'Why me?' That would be a wasted emotion. You can ruin your life like that,'' she said.

From the beginning, her mother insisted she do as much as possible for herself. By holding things between one small stump of an arm and her chin, she could feed herself, sew and crochet. Her brother remembers her going sledding, and laughing uproariously when she fell off. She also received an award for penmanship.

In 1933, Robert L. Ripley, creator of ''Ripley's Believe It or Not!,'' heard of her and visited. He put a cartoon of her in his nationally syndicated feature, calling her ''little half girl'' and misspelling her name as Freda. He then asked her to appear at the World's Fair in Chicago in 1933. Freaks Trailer

atomicus

Dirty Dali

The Revelation

all the way

liberty leading the people

Eugène Delacroix 1830

deviant art

H. R. Giger

no beast

“No beast so fierce 

but knows some touch of pity. 

But I know none, 

and therefore am no beast.”

things to do

mutiny !

the art of asking

Roger Swanson

Most Minnesotans have never heard of Roger Swanson. But among voyagers around the globe, he's known as the man who circled the world not once -- but three times -- on a 57-foot sailboat whose home port is listed as "Dunnell, MN."

His travels carried him from the tip of South Africa to the Arctic, winning international honors along the way. He also happened to launch a half-dozen manufacturing businesses in rural Minnesota, overseeing production of everything from snowblowers to farm equipment.

Swanson is being remembered this week as an extraordinary adventurer who lived an otherwise ordinary life in southwestern Minnesota.

"Roger Swanson was one of the greatest long-distance voyagers of this era or any other era," said Herb McCormick, senior editor of Cruising World magazine. "Few sailors have gone from the Arctic to the Antarctic and everywhere in between. He was one of a kind." He died December 25th 2012. R.I.P. Roger Swanson.

Royal Ruckus

Prince Charles and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, react as their car is attacked by protesters in London. Photograph: Matt Dunham/AP

A Rolls-Royce limousine carrying Britain's Prince Charles and his wife Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall, was attacked and 12 police officers were injured in London late Thursday amid violent student protests.

A rear window was smashed and the vehicle was splattered with paint as up to 20 demonstrators lunged at the vehicle, carrying the couple to a theater in the West End.

Clarence House said the couple were "unharmed" and they arrived on time at the London Palladium for the Royal Variety Performance, although the Duchess of Cornwall appeared shaken by the ordeal.

Reports said the vehicle was attacked with fists, kicks and bottles, with protesters chanting "Off with their heads!" and "Tory scum."

Clashes escalated among thousands of students gathered in parts of the capital Thursday evening after MPs controversially voted to increase UK college fees from £3,290 ($5,200) to £9,000 ($14,000) per year -- a vote that saw splits within the ruling Conservative-Liberal Democrat coalition. (read more)

Our Sacred Duty

Civil disobedience...

becomes a sacred duty...

when the state has become...

lawless or corrupt.

...Mahatma Gandhi...

Keep On Hope-ing

Happy Birthday Mr. President

The Audacity Of Hope

The title of The Audacity of Hope was
derived from a sermon delivered by
Obama's former pastor, Jeremiah Wright.

Wright had attended a lecture by
Dr. Frederick G. Sampson in Richmond,
Virginia, in the late 1980s, on the
G.F. Watts painting Hope, which
inspired him to give a sermon in 1990
based on the subject of the painting.

"With her clothes in rags, her body
scarred and bruised and bleeding,
her harp all but destroyed and with
only one string left, she had the
audacity to make music and praise God ...
To take the one string you have left
and to have the audacity to hope ...
that's the real word God will have us hear
from this passage and from Watt's painting."

Get busy living...or get busy dying...

The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 drama film written and directed by Frank Darabont. It is an adaptation of the Stephen King novella Rita Hayworth and Shawshank Redemption. The film stars Tim Robbins as Andrew "Andy" Dufresne and Morgan Freeman as Ellis Boyd "Red" Redding.

The film portrays Andy, who spends nearly two decades in Shawshank State Prison, a fictional penitentiary in Maine, and his friendship with Red, a fellow inmate.

Despite a lukewarm box office reception that was barely enough to cover its budget, the film received favorable reviews from critics, multiple award nominations, and has since enjoyed a remarkable life on cable television, VHS, DVD, and Blu-ray. This revival is reflected in its high placement on various lists of great movies.

Chicago Sun-Times film reviewer Roger Ebert suggests that the integrity of Andy Dufresne is an important theme in the story line, especially in prison, where integrity is lacking.

The Shawshank Redemption is an allegory for maintaining one's feeling of self worth when placed in a hopeless position.

Angus C. Larcombe suggests that the film provides a great illustration of how characters can be free, even in prison, or unfree, even in freedom, based on one's outlook in life. (read more)

Have Sympathy For The Devil

The Great Pyramid

The Great Pyramid of Giza is the oldest and largest of the three pyramids in the Giza Necropolis. It is the oldest of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World, and the only one to remain largely intact. It is believed the pyramid was built over a 20-year period concluding around 2560 BC. Khufu's Great Pyramid originally rose 479 feet but has been reduced to 449 feet with the loss of its limestone casing.

The mass of the pyramid is estimated at 5.9 million tonnes. The volume, including an internal hillock, is roughly 2,500,000 cubic meters. Based on these estimates, building this in 20 years would involve installing approximately 800 tonnes of stone every day. Alternatively looking at the construction from another angle, since the Great Pyramid consists of an estimated 2.3 million blocks, completing the building in 20 years would involve moving little more than 12 of the blocks in place each hour, day and night, during the 20 year period.

The accuracy of the pyramid's workmanship is such that the four sides of the base have an average error of only 58 millimeters in length. The base is horizontal and flat to within 21 mm. The sides of the square base are closely aligned to the four cardinal compass points (within 4 minutes of arc) based on true north, not magnetic north, and the finished base was squared to a mean corner error of only 12 seconds of arc. The completed design dimensions equate to π/2 to an accuracy of better than 0.05% (corresponding to the approximation of π as 22/7).

Based on measurements taken on the north eastern casing stones, the mean opening of the joints are only 0.5 millimeters wide (1/50th of an inch). The largest granite stones in the pyramid, found in the "King's" chamber, weigh 25 to 80 tonnes and were transported more than 500 miles away from Aswan. The Great Pyramid was the tallest man-made structure in the world for over 3,800 years.
(read more)

Revelation of the Pyramids

Take It To The Edge - Look Over - Don't Fall

"Conan the Destroyer"
Frank Frazetta


That which does not kill us

makes us stronger