POSTED by: Scott McKittrick on 10/31/2009
On October 30th 1938, a martian “cylinder” landed in Grovers Mill, New Jersey, heralding the beginning of a Martian invasion that created mass panic and caused immense damage throughout the world.
Luckily for us, it was only a radio broadcast.
In 1938, CBS was running a radio series named “Mercury Theatre,” narrated by Orson Welles. On October 30th of that year, Orson Welles ran a program based on H.G. Wells’ book, The War of the Worlds. It ran without commercial breaks and the first part was made up of mock news and public service broadcasts.
The broadcast caused panic and confusion among listeners as large numbers of them tuned into the show after it had started and believed it was a real report of an actual Martian invasion.
A recording of the original broadcast can be found on Mercury Theatre Online and makes good listening for Halloween.
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POSTED by: Scott McKittrick on 10/28/2009
Every Halloween,, front porches across the United States are invaded by carved, candle lit pumpkins. Yet, as common as Jack-o-Lanterns are, it seems an odd tradition to carve faces on pumpkins. Of course, there is a reason for the tradition, and it starts in Ireland.
According to Irish legend, a man named Stingy Jack twice tricked the devil into promising to not claim his soul when he died. Needless to say, making deals with the devil isn’t something God would be too happy about, and when it came time for Jack to die, God refused him entrance to heaven. The devil, as promised, also refused to take him. So Jack was given a piece of glowing coal and sent to wander the Earth for all eternity. He placed this coal in a hollowed out turnip and thus the Jack-o-Lantern was born.
Carved turnips (mostly without candles) existed in the British Isles for centuries, but it wasn’t until the Irish began immigrating to North America that the tradition turned to pumpkins, a fruit native to this continent.
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POSTED by: Scott McKittrick on 10/27/2009
Every year Americans eat so much candy corn that if the pieces were laid end to end, they would circle the earth more than 4 times.
Candy corn is made much the same way it was when it was invented, though machines have taken over much of the process. Candy corn is a mixture of corn syrup, sugar, marshmallow, and a few other ingredients. It is moded in a process called corn starch molding. The manufacturers first sift corn starch into trays and use plaster casts of candy corns to make impressions in it. Then the molten candy is poured in. When it’s cool, the trays are dumped and the candy is sifted out of the corn starch. Viola, Candy Corn.
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POSTED by: Scott McKittrick on 10/26/2009
Two Glow Sticks, one was broken normally and the other was cut open and the liquids mixed in a small bottle.
Glow sticks have become an extremely common trick or treating accessory. They are perfect for increasing the visibility of kids because they are safe, easy to use, and have an awesome spooky glow to them.
Most everyone has used a glow stick at some point or another, but have you ever wondered how they work? The answer lies in a simple chemical reaction.
The basic structure of a glow stick consists of a flexible plastic tube that contains a clear slightly oily substance (i’m not entirely sure what it is, but i’ve heard reports of it being some sort of ethyl group) and a glass ampule with hydrogen peroxide and a fluorescent dye. When you bend the stick, the glass breaks and the two chemicals are allowed to mix. This starts a chemical reaction that causes the stick to glow, an effect called Chemoluminescence.
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POSTED by: Scott McKittrick on 10/24/2009
Tonic water is a liquid that it often used as a mix in for alcoholic drinks, but did you know that it was originally used to prevent malaria? As the European powers colonized South Asia and and Africa, they began encountering new diseases such as malaria that caused much pain and suffering.
One of the solutions to the malaria epidemics was quinine, which was known to help ease the symptoms. However, quinine is extremely bitter and so it was diluted in water to create tonic water. In modern times, tonic water isn’t used as a cure or prevention of malaria, but that is how it began, as a medicine to prevent malaria.
An interesting note: tonic water glows blue under a black light, due to the quinine in it.
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POSTED by: Scott McKittrick on 10/23/2009
I was browsing Dark Roasted Blend and came across an article about an interesting toy called a Gomboc. The Gomboc has only one point of stable equilibrium and one point of unstable equilibrium, resulting in the Gomboc rolling around when placed on a flat surface.
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POSTED by: Scott McKittrick on 10/22/2009
In 1628 the Swedish navy sent their newest warship out on her maiden voyage. Upon leaving the harbor, the ship promptly heeled over and and sank to the ocean floor taking 30 to 50 of her sailors with her.
The reason for the sinking of the Vasa was her extremely unstable design. She was built too narrow with too little ballast and too much weight on the top. The instability of the design was quite obvious during stability tests of the new ship, but no one was willing to point it out to the king, thus allowing the ship to sail when it was obvious that she shouldn’t.
After a few attempts at raising her, the location of the Vasa was lost and she was not rediscovered until 1956. Finally, in 1961, the Vasa was raised and placed in the Vasa Museum in Sweden where she can be visited by the general public.
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POSTED by: Scott McKittrick on 10/21/2009
Papyrus is one of the first forms of paper ever used. It is made from strips cut from the papyrus reed that have been laid out and hammered together. This formed a bonded sheet of papyrus paper that could be used for writing. Papyrus quickly became popular and was the primary writing medium across the ancient world for centuries. Over time, papyrus feel into disuse as more durable alternatives were introduced.
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POSTED by: Scott McKittrick on 10/19/2009
So this past weekend, I went to visit my sister in Santa Cruz (thus I missed a few posts). While I was up there, my dad and I went to the Roaring Camp railroad to ride the train. This was the first time I had ever seen a geared locomotive up close and operating. n light of this, I decided to write a post about the type of locomotive I saw.
In the 19th century, as industrial logging became more prevalent in the west, there came a need for locomotives that were capable of operating on light, uneven and often steep track. The normal locomotive design just could not handle the grades, curves and cheap construction of the logging railroads and as such a new design was desperately needed. In 1877, Ephraim Shay came up with the solution: The Shay locomotive.
Shays take the original design of a steam locomotive and reconfigure it. Instead of having horizontal cylinders, they have vertical cylinders on the right side of the locomotive that are connected to a drive shaft down its side. The drive shaft connects all the axles through a series of slip joints and bevel gears. This design allows for a very flexible wheelbase that could handle the tight curves and rough track of the time. The design also created a high shaft to wheel turn ratio, thus boosting the power of the locomotive.
There were two other types of geared locomotives designed: the Heisler and the Climax.
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POSTED by: Scott McKittrick on 10/15/2009
Every day we use water from the tap, from our sinks and showers, our hoses and washing machines. What few people know about this water is that it is actually treated with flourosilicic acid. This flouridation of the water is designed to help prevent tooth decay among the general population in a similar manner to the iodizing of salt.
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