 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
 The
Planetary Society's mission is to encourage the exploration of our
solar system and the search for extraterrestrial life through education,
research, and public participation. Founded in 1980 by Carl
Sagan, Bruce Murray, and Louis Friedman, the Society is a nonprofit
organization funded by its members. Their current projects include
Mars Exploration – the Mars Microphone, Rover Technology, A 2001 Mars Odyssey:
The Student NanoExperiment Challenge, Planetfest, Red Rover Goes to Mars,
The Search for Extraterrestrial Life, Near-Earth Objects Research and Missions.
If you are interested in space exploration, this is a very important organization
to support.  If
you don't want to join but are still interested in helping in a small way,
take a look at the SETI@Home
project. It is a fascinating project where you download a computer
program that analyzes scientific data while acting as a screen-saver on
your personal computer. The data collected are from the Arecibo radio
telescope looking for signals from intelligent life outside our solar system.
You could take part in answering one of humanities most awesome questions:
Are we alone? To learn more about the Search for Extraterrestrial
Intelligence vist the Harvard
SETI Home Page or the SETI
Institute.
|
Enya - I once heard the
music of this beautiful Celtic woman described as hauntingly sublime --
I could not, myself, do a better job describing it. Some people are
deeply moved by her music, others can't tell one song from another.
You either like it or you don't -- I like it. It deeply moves me.
 The
Lord of the Rings by J.R.R.
Tolkein -- my all time favorite story. Any brief description
that I write will not do justice to this epic saga. I first read
it my sophomore year in high school and each subsequent time I read it
. . . it still stirs something inside me. The story is beautifully
detailed -- rich in texture, physical landscape, history, inhabitants,
language and customs. A notable achievement considering it is about
a world and people who never existed. Before Tolkein wrote the Lord
of the Rings trilogy, he created a very detailed history of Middle
Earth, the land where the story takes place. Four years after his
death, this history was put into a book titled the Silmarillion.
When I read The Hobbit and The Lord of the Rings trilogy,
the stories are so endearing that I'm tempted to forget that it is just
fiction. Great news: The Lord of the Rings trilogy is being
made into a movie. Check out the following sites to learn more.
Lord of the Rings.net.
The One Ring.net.
I hope they do justice to the story . . . . We will see.
The first of a series of three movie is here. I loved it!
Read a detailed critics review of The Lord of the Rings (click
here).
  The
Hubble Space Telescope
sees the raw beauty of the universe from above Earth's atmosphere and sends
back a portrait of the universe in exquisite detail. Forgive the
pun, but the beauty of celestial objects is truly unearthly. Take
a look at the incredible pictures this telescope has captured for us.
If you are really interested in space photos, take look at the Photography
Links section of my web site.
Other Hubble Links:  The
Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS). You could discover
one of the most coveted finds in all of Mathematics - a new Mersenne prime
number. Join in on this fun, yet serious research project. All you
need is a personal computer, patience, and a lot of luck. In addition
to the joy of making a mathematical discovery, you might win some cash
($100,000 award to the first person or group to discover a ten million
digit prime number!). The project is similar to SETI@Home in that
you download software that crunches numbers while your computer is not
being used. An integer greater than one is called a prime number
if its only divisors are one and itself. The first prime numbers
are 2, 3, 5, 7, 11, etc. For example, the number 10 is not prime
because it is divisible by 2 and 5. A Mersenne prime is a prime of the
form 2P-1. The first Mersenne primes are 3, 7, 31, 127,
etc. There are only 39 known Mersenne primes.
my College Notes - notes from various classes that I have taken. Scott Toste's Sierra Nevada - My Tribute to the Sierra Nevada Mountain Range |
