Totally pointless thread...

[TEXASMAC]

Wolves

[Torurot]

RIP Andy Griffith 86 and a truly GREAT Actor

[TEXASMAC]

Very Sad.

[Torurot]

Happy 4th July to all our U.S. audience

[TEXASMAC]

I accept your salute as a founding memeber of this great nation.

[Torurot]

John Montagu, Earl of Sandwich: "Egad sir, I do not know whether you will die on the gallows or of the pox." John Wilkes: "That will depend, my Lord, on whether I embrace your principles or your mistress."

[TEXASMAC]

[Torurot]

"During times of universal deceit, telling the truth becomes a revolutionary act" George Orwell

[TEXASMAC]

Then "During the Times of Universal Truth, telling ... WTF there never has been Times of Universal Truth.

[Torurot]

This isn't pointless

Today is the anniversary date of a bit of useful magic

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/

Image at the link

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=78623

First ever landsat image 40 years ago. Landsat 8 is going up next year

Forty years ago, after more than a decade working to leave our planet, NASA launched an unprecedented mission to look back at home. Four decades later, the Landsat program is still going strong, with more than three million images of Earth in its archives and a new mission slated for launch in 2013.

On July 23, 1972, the Earth Resources Technology Satellite (later renamed Landsat 1) lifted off on a Thor-Delta (Delta 900) rocket from Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. The first images from the satellite's Multispectral Scanner System (MSS) were received a day later by scientists gathered at NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland. The very first image in the Landsat archive is the MSS image above, showing the greater Dallas area of Texas on July 25, 1972. The resolution is 60 meters per pixel in this false-color image, where shades of red indicate vegetated land and grays and whites are urban or rocky surfaces.

Scientists involved in the mission weren't sure what to expect of the MSS, which used new fiber-optic technology, took pictures in four different bands of the spectrum, and scanned the Earth in strips. (More conventional television-style cameras€”known as return beam vidicons (RBV)€”had been expected to be the main workhorse of the satellite.) A group of scientists and technicians gathered at NASA Goddard with great anticipation, as the first MSS transmission was translated onto film by an electron beam recorder and then put into a viewing device.

As the imagery scrolled into view, there were clouds...and then more clouds...and then land. But something looked strange. A technician in the room lamented: "lt's terrible. It has moiré patterns." But after figuring out the location of the image€”the Ouachita Mountain region in southeastern Oklahoma€”scientists realized that the imagery was showing circular outcrops of the ancient fold mountains.

Any lingering anxiety in the room quickly turned to excitement, and skeptics were promptly converted into supporters. The well-known U.S. Geological Survey cartographer Alden Colvocoresses, who had been cynical about any cartographically accurate data being collected with "a little mirror in space," turned to his colleagues after seeing the MSS imagery and said:"gentlemen, that's a map."

NASA Earth Observatory image created by Robert Simmon, using Landsat data provided by the United States Geological Survey. Caption by Michael Carlowicz and Laura Rocchio.

Instrument:
Landsat 1 (ERTS)

http://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/IOTD/view.php?id=78623

[Torurot]

For mostly Aussie/Pacific readers

http://australianaviation.com.au/2012....pad-ife

Qantas to provide wireless iPad entertainment on 767s

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/07/21/qantas_in_flight_ipads/

Australia's premier airline, Qantas, will provide an iPad to each and every passenger on its fleet of Boeing 767s, beaming free in-flight entertainment using what it dubs its "QStreaming" technology. "Following the successful trial of our QStreaming service this year,"...

[Tomcat]

Strange isnt it that many on Death row ask for a "Diet" Coke to go with their last meal. Around 25% i think...

[TEXASMAC]

That is one of the most insane things I have ever read !! And I am in Texas, the Leader in Death Row Justice.

[Tomcat]

I was reading article about  Death Row cuisine and it was interesting to read some of the requests through the years.

Now it seems the budget in some States is around 45 bucks . If you think that if you order Foi Gras, fresh Lobster and a Bottle of Bollinger it appears you may get a "not today Sir"

In Russia you practically get a Death sentence just by going to jail. Turbulosis is rife in most jails and 50% chance of catching this lurgy.Rwanda is the worst place to get incarcerated and id probably commit suicide if banged up in that shithole

[bugeye29]

Wow, Tomcat you definatly have different taste in reading material than me.

The last book I tried to read was Darwins Theory of Evolution ( Origin of the Species ) , never did find out why I am attracted to LADYBOY'S