Thursday 17 November 2011

Wave Star Mission completed - and all traces removed! This week our smaller 1:10 scale wave energy machine was towed to shore. After more than 5 years at sea, where it has proven our concept and shown sustainable in the harsh environment of the sea, its mission is complete. Close to 100% of the materials are recycled.

World's First INVENSENTIONS

1. World’s First Digital Camera (1975): Created by Kodak's engineer Steve Sasson
2. World's First Motel (1925): Motel Inn
3. World's First Album Cover (1938): Smash Song Hits by Rodgers and Hart
4. World's First Novel (1007): Tale of Genji
5. World's First Web Server and Web Site (1990): a NeXT computer at CERN
6. World's First Motorcycle (1885): Daimler's "riding car"
7. World's First X-Ray (1895): Röntgen's wife hand
8. World's First Computer Mouse (1964): by Douglas Engelbart
9. World's First Skyscraper (1885): Home Insurance Building in Chicago
10. World's First Concept Car (1938): Buick Y-Job
11. World's First MP3 Player (1998): MPMan 32MB
12. World's First Crossword (1913): Arthur Wynne's Invention
13. World's First Microprocessor (1971): Intel 4004
14. World's First Magazine (1731): The Gentleman's Magazine
15. World's First Photograph (1826): "View from the Window at Le Gras"

Wednesday 16 November 2011

200 Years - Abraham Lincoln - 200 Facts

 

gettysburg

Saturday, January 29, 2011


Civil War Photo Gallery

CivilWarPhotoGallery.com is a good site to begin looking for images from the American Civil War.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009


Mr. Traetow's Class Facts

Important Dates In Abraham Lincoln's Life
  1. February 12, 1809: born in a one room log cabin in Kentucky
  2. 1815: attends a log house school
  3. 1844: moves to Springfield, Illinois, buys a home for $1,500 and sets up his own law practice
  4. August 3, 1846: elected to the U.S. House of Representatives
  5. May 18, 1860: nominated to be the Republican candidate for president of the United States
  6. November 6, 1860: elected 16th president of the United States and is the first Republican president
  7. January 1, 1863: issues the final Emancipation Proclomation freeing all slaves in territories held by confederates
  8. November 19, 1863: delivers Gettysburg Address at a ceremony dedicating the battlefied as a national cemetary
  9. November 8, 1864: re-elected as president of the United States
  10. April 14-15, 1865: at 10:13 p.m the night of the 14th President Lincoln was shot while at Ford's Theater...he was pronounced dead at 7:22 a.m. the morning of the 15th.

Abe said the funniest things....

1. "You can fool all the people some of the time, and some of the people all the time, but you cannot fool all the people all the time."

2. "People are just about as happy as they make up their minds to be."

3. " If this is coffee, please bring me some tea; but if this is tea, please bring me some coffee."

4. Whatever you are, be a good one.

5. "Things may come to those who wait. But only the things left by those who hustle."

6. "Everything I am or ever hope to be, I owe to my angel mother."

7. "I'm a slow walker, but I never walk back."

8. "People who like this sort of thing will find this the sort of thing they like."

9. Common looking people are the best in the world: that is the reason the Lord makes so many of them.

10. "Tis better to remain silent and be thought a fool, than to speak and remove all doubt."

The Lincoln White House Facts by Mrs. Forster's Class

Some facts about the years the Lincolns were in the White House.

1. His Vice-Presidents were Hannibal Hamlin and Andrew Johnson.

2. One night while riding his horse home from the office, someone took a shot at him.  The bullet went through his stovepipe hat and knocked it off.

3. The silver service in the White House is engraved with "MTL" which stood for Mary Todd Lincoln.

4. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican President.

5. The Lincolns lived in the White House from 1861-1865.

6. President Lincoln disliked being called "Mr. President".  He preferred to be called Mr. Lincoln.

7. One of his nicknames was "Father Abraham."

8. President Lincoln preferred to dine at 6:00 p.m. each evening with a simple meal with his wife.  He disliked big State Dinners.

9. President Lincoln was shot at Ford's Theater, and died across the street in a hotel room the next day.

10. Lincoln had a dream one week before he was assassinated.  In the dream he heard crying down in the front hall of the White House. When he went into the room, there was a casket.  He asked a security guard, "Who died?"  The guard said, "The President."

11. Lincoln had four children, Robert, Edward, Willie, and Tad.  Only Robert lived to adulthood and never had any children of his own.

12. The Lincoln's had many animals during their time in the White House. He had horses, one of which was named "Old Abe", dogs, cats, and a turkey named Jake.


Tuesday, February 10, 2009


Mr. Williamson's Class with Goofy and Interesting Facts

1. Abe Lincoln didn't wear glasses until the age of 47. He needed reading glasses from then on.

2. Lincoln was called "Old Abe" by his friends when he was only 30 years years old because his skin was yellowish and wrinkled by that time.

3. Many people thought that Lincoln was color blind but in fact doctors later proved he was not.

4. Abe Lincoln had great prowess as a wrestler and an ax handler mainly because he had the arms of a 7-foot tall man.

5. Abraham Lincoln was afraid of the dentist. It was probably because one visit to the dentist ended in a great deal of pain for him. While pulling a tooth, a dentist actually broke away part of his jaw. All of this was done with no anesthesia.

6. The portrait used for the five-dollar bill was taken in February of 1864.

7. While visiting troops, Abe Lincoln grabbed an ax and started chopping wood. After that he held the ax straight out without any shaking. None of the troops present could accomplish the same feat of strength.

8. Lincoln had a loud high-pitched voice that could carry long distances. When he got excited, it would be even louder.

9. Lincoln nearly drowned in a creek near his home as a young boy. A neighbor boy saved his life. (Phew)

10. Abe Lincoln grew his beard based on the advice of an 11 year old girl.

Sunday, February 8, 2009


10 facts about the The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library by Mrs. Scott's 7th hour S.S. class

1. The Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library is in Springfield, Illinois.

2. The Library is not only a library but it also has a museum area.

3. The Newspaper Microfilm Collection has more than 5,000 newspaper titles preserved on nearly 100,000 reels. Many date from the early 19th century.

4. It houses more than 171,700 books and pamphlets, 3,000 maps, and 1,200 periodical series.

5. The Library has an area called the Henry Horner Lincoln Collection. It is the most complete holding of Abraham Lincoln's pre-presidential materials found anywhere.

6. Henry Horner, governor of Illinois from 1933-1940, donated his Lincoln collection to the Library shortly before his death in 1940. His collection remains at the core of the Library's magnificent Lincoln collection.

7. There are nearly 1,500 original letters and manuscripts written or signed by Lincoln in the Lincoln Collection.

8. The Lincoln Collection also has over 1,000 Lincoln related prints and photographs.

9. There are over 250 historical artifacts associated with Lincoln and his family in the Lincoln Collection.

10. Some of these items include the Edward Everett holograph of the Gettysburg Address, the Leland-Boker printing of the Emancipation Proclamation signed by Lincoln, Lincoln's original traveling shaving mirror, Tad Lincoln's toy cannon, the skirt to Mary Lincoln's wedding dress, and many more priceless items of historical importance.


Source: http://www.alplm.org/library/library.html

Thursday, February 5, 2009


Washington D.C. Models by Mrs. Forster's Class


Lincoln Facts by Mrs. Luhmann's Class

1. Abraham Lincoln was born February 12, 1809.
2. Lincoln was 6'4" tall.
3. He was 33 years old when he married Mary Todd.
4. Abraham and Mary were married on November 4, 1842.
5. The Lincoln's had 3 children.
6. Lincoln became president on March 4, 1861.
7. Abraham Lincoln was the 16th president.
8. Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863.
9. On April 14, 1865, Lincoln was shot and killed in Washington, D.C. while watching a play.
10. Lincoln was 56 years old when he died.

Tuesday, January 27, 2009


Halbert: Ford's Theater


1. Ford's Theater, in Washington, D.C., is where Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on April 14, 1865.
2. The assassin, John Wilkes Boothe, was a well-known actor at the theater.
3. "Our American Cousin" was the name of the play that Lincoln was watching when he was shot and killed.
4. The murder happened five days after Confederate General Robert E. Lee surrendered to end the Civil War.
5. Boothe was a Confederate sympathizer.
6. Lincoln's wife and Major Henry Rathbone and his fiance were sitting with Lincoln in his presidential box at the time of the murder.
7. Boothe delivered a single shot behind Lincoln's left ear. Rathbone was stabbed in the arm.
8. In the lower level of the theater is a museum that contains artifacts such as the clothes that Lincoln wore the night of the murder and the murder weapon.
9. A second tragedy happened at the theater: In 1893 the theater was being used as office space, and the interior floors collapsed, killing 22 office workers.
10. The theater was reopened in the 1960's when Congress authorized a renovation.

Wednesday, January 21, 2009


Facts About Lincoln's Pets and Children by Mrs. Welchlin's Class


1. Abraham Lincoln had 4 sons-Edward, William, Thomas, Robert
2. Thomas had the nickname of Tad
3. Lincoln had a dog named Fido--when Lincoln and his family moved to Washington they left
the dog with a neighbor because of the long train ride from Illinois to Washington DC
4. Lincoln's sons, Willie & Tad, took Fido to a photographer for the first picture ever of a
Presidential dog
5. Lincoln once found 3 stray kittens and gave them to a Colonel and made him promise he
would take good care of them
6. Lincoln had horses at the White House Stables--in 1864, the stables caught fire. Lincoln tried
go into the burning stable to save them but they died in the fire

Tuesday, January 20, 2009


Mr. Wells' Class, Lessor Known Facts about Abraham Lincoln

1. Abraham Lincoln was the first President to wear a beard. The following is the content of a letter Abraham Lincoln received from an 11 yr. old girl in October of 1860 during his Presidential Campaign:

Hon A B Lincoln...

Dear Sir,

My father has just home from the fair and brought home your picture and Mr. Hamlin's. I am a little girl only 11 years old, but want you should be President of the United States very much so I hope you wont think me very bold to write to such a great man as you are. Have you any little girls about as large as I am if so give them my love and tell her to write to me if you cannot answer this letter. I have got 4 brother's and part of them will vote for you any way and if you let your whiskers grow I will try and get the rest of them to vote for you you would look a great deal better for your face is so thin. All the ladies like whiskers and they would tease their husband's to vote for you and then you would be President. My father is going to vote for you and if I was a man I would vote for you to but I will try to get every one to vote for you that I can I think that rail fence around your picture makes it look very pretty I have got a little baby sister she is nine weeks old and is just as cunning as can be. When you direct your letter direct to Grace Bedell Westfield, Chatauque County, New York.

I must not write any more answer this letter right off.

Good bye.
Grace Bedell

2. Abraham Lincoln had the largest shoe size documented of all the presidents. He wore a size 14.

3. Have you ever used the excuse that the dog ate your homework? Abraham Lincoln’s famous “Gettysburg Address” was written by the President after his dog ate a much longer speech that had been written for him. He started out with , “Four score and seven years ago “, to give him time to think of what to say next while people were busy doing the math in their heads to figure out how many years he was talking about.

4. Abraham Lincoln always had a messy desk, (just like Mr. Wells), in his Law Office with William Herndon. Abraham Lincoln kept a big envelope on top of his desk marked, “When you can’t find it anywhere else, look into this.”

5. Abraham Lincoln was a great believer in psychic phenomena. He would host seances in the White House. It was the opinion of professional mediums who had worked with the President that Lincoln was definitely the possessor of strong psychic powers. He was also a great believer in dreams. On the day of his assassination, April 14, 1865, he was so troubled by a dream that he actually discussed it at a Cabinet meeting. He told his colleagues that he had seen himself sailing "in an indescribable vessel and moving rapidly toward an indistinct shore." Even more explicit was a dream that he discussed just a week before he was shot. In his dream, Lincoln awoke, and walked through the silent White House, following the sound of sobbing. When he came to the East Room, he saw a platform and casket draped in black. "Who is dead?" Lincoln asked. A military guard replied that it was the President.

6. Some of Abraham Lincoln’s hair was kept when he died. Some of his hair is going to be tested for DNA to see if he had any diseases. The rest is in a museum. Some was sealed in a ring that President Theodore Roosevelt wore during his Inauguration.

7. Lincoln floated down the Mississippi on a flatboat when he was a teenager, and sold fruits and vegetables in New Orleans. Then he sold the boat, and walked 800 miles back home.

8. Abraham Lincoln was the first Republican President.

9. Abraham Lincoln was the first United States President to be assassinated. There were two assassination attempts on his life. The first one missed his head and knocked off his hat seven months before he was shot by John Wilkes Booth.

10. Abraham Lincoln was the first president to “Pardon” a Thanksgiving turkey.

Monday, January 19, 2009


Lincoln and Music by Ms. Thompson's Class

1. Lincoln enjoyed going to plays and concerts, and preferred going alone.
2. Lincoln liked music because you can listen and simply enjoy.
3. Lincoln didn't like to sing.
4. Lincoln liked both poetry and songs.
5. Lincoln didn't know about the artistic ability of music.
6. Lincoln was inspired by music of both love and hate.
7. Lincoln preferred having bands play music rather than himself talking in front of crowds.
8. Lincoln enjoyed comic songs that humored him such as ones about cockroaches.
9. Lincoln especially liked tender and sentimental songs.
10. Lincoln loved talented musicians, and would ask friends to play their instruments.

The Lincoln Museum by Mrs. Halbert's class

1. The Abraham Lincoln Museum is located in downtown Springfield, Illinois.
2.  The museum welcomed its one millionth visitor in Jan. 2007.
3.  This museum is 50% larger than any other presidential museum/library.
4.  A log cabin similar to the one that Lincoln grew up in was constructed in the museum.
5.  The museum uses 21st century technology to bring 19th century history to life.
6.  The Plaza at the center of the museum is an open gathering place from which all the areas of the museum are accessed.
7.  The museum is a walk-through experience, like a journey, divided into two parts:  the pre-presidential years, and the White House years.
8.  Highly researched, dramatic, "you are there" settings put you "inside" dramatic moments in Lincoln's life through vivid dramatic environments.
9.  The museum is open 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily, but is closed on Christmas, New Year's, and Thanksgiving Day.
10.  An adult ticket to the museum is $10, children are $4.

Friday, January 16, 2009


response

 I read an interesting article in Newsweek about Abraham Lincoln. Sometimes it is hard to tell facts from opinions.

Thursday, January 15, 2009


Mrs. Fitzgerald's Classroom


Abraham Lincoln's Health Facts

1. Abraham Lincoln's health was generally good into young adulthood.
2. Abe's vigorous health was promoted in the 1860 Presidential Campaign because of his image as a railsplitter.
3. It is believed that Abraham Lincoln had malaria-1835-this was the first time he was seriously ill.
4. Abraham Lincoln loved to eat fruit, especially apples.
5. Lincoln had small pox during the time he gave the Gettsyburg Address in 1863.
6. He was nearly drowned while living in Kentucky as a young boy and in 1818 was kicked in the head by a horse.
7. Lincoln suffered from depression and chronic physical fatigue.
8. Lincoln long suffered from constipation, he took medication for awhile, but quit because the medicine made him irritable and
unable to sleep.
9. Lincoln was 6 feet 4 inches tall.
10. After the Gettysburg Address the President returned to Washing ton where he was confined in bed for 3 weeks with variloid-a mild form of small pox.


FULL STORY
Taken by http://abrahamlincolnblog.blogspot.com

Tuesday 15 November 2011

ENIAC

The machine itself

ENIAC was a beast of a computer. It weighed 30 tons and filled an entire classroom. It was the epitome of an overwhelming “Giant Brain” of the sort that spawned countless science fiction movies. It had to wait for a major upgrade before its program moved from tedious patch cords into lightning-fast electronic memory, and since microchips nor even transistors existed, it instead used more than 17,000 vacuum tubes. There was only one ENIAC ever built. But it was the first fully electronic general-purpose computer. It was used mainly for military and scientific research applications such as aeronautics, ballistics, meteorology, and nuclear weapons. It remained in operation until 1955.
The links on this page describe how ENIAC was built, how it worked, and what it was like to operate it.


ENIAC WORLD FIRST COMPUTER

ENIAC WORLD FIRST COMPUTER

Motivational and Inspirational Quotes Collection

Motivational and Inspirational Quotes Collection

Welcome to my collection of inspirational and motivational quotations. Reading and collecting books of quotations is one of my hobbies. Whenever I'm feeling down or have a looming personal problem, I turn to my books for some inspiration and words of wisdom.
The quotes in each of the categories listed below are some of my personal favorites that I've collected over the years. I hope you enjoy them as much as I do.

Inspiring Quotes





Other Topics

  • Teacher Quotes - teachers, books, reading, education, history, writers and writing.
  • Library - quotes and proverbs about libraries, librarians, and book collections





On the subject of quotes and proverbs.....


One must be a wise reader to quote wisely and well. - Amos Bronson Alcott
The maxims of men disclose their hearts. - French Proverb
To select well among old things, is almost equal to inventing new ones. - Nicholas Charles Trublet
I have gathered a posie of other men's flowers, and nothing but the thread that binds them is my own. - Michel de Montaigne
Proverbs are mental gems gathered in the diamond districts of the mind. - William R. Alger
What gems of painting or statuary are in the world of art, or what flowers are in the world of nature, are gems of thought to the cultivated and the thinking. - Oliver Wendell Holmes
Stealing someone else's words frequently spares the embarrassment of eating your own. - Peter Anderson
A short saying oft contains much wisdom. - Sophocles
It often happens that the quotations constitute the most valuable part of a book. - Vicesimus Knox
A collection of rare thoughts is nothing less than a cabinet of intellectual gems.- William B. Sprague
Good sayings are like pearls strung together. - Chinese Proverb
A proverb is to speech what salt is to food. - Arabic Proverb
Proverbs are the cream of a nation's thought. - Unknown
There is not less wit, not less invention, in applying rightly a thought one finds in a book, than in being the first author of that book. - Pierre Boyle
A proverb is much matter decocted into few words. - Thomas Fuller
A maxim is the exact and noble expression of an important and indisputable truth. Good maxims are the germs of all excellence; when firmly fixed on the memory, they nourish the will. - Joseph Joubert
It is delightful to transport one's self into the spirit of the past, to see how a wise man has thought before us, and to what glorious height we have at last reached. - Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Time is of of no account with great thoughts, which are as fresh today as when they first passed through their authors' minds ages ago. - Samuel Smiles

The diamond may adorn royalty, regardless of personal worth; but jewels of thought render even poverty illustrious and sublime.
- found in Gems for the Fireside

Proverbs may be said to be the abridgment of wisdom. - Joseph Joubert
The proverb answers where the sermon fails. - W. G. Simms
Human success is a quotation from overhead. - Charles H. Parkhurst
A well-cultivated mind is, so to speak, made up of all the minds of preceding ages; it is only one single mind which has been educated during all this time. - Bernard de Bovier de Fontenelle
Maxims are the condensed good sense of nations. - Sir J. Mackintosh
Many ideas grow better when transplanted into another mind, than in the one where they sprung up. - Oliver Wendell Holmes
Always have a book at hand, in the parlor, on the table, for the family; a book of condensed thought and striking anecdote, of sound maxims and truthful apothegms. It will impress on your own mind a thousand valuable suggestions, and teach your children a thousand lessons of truth and duty. Such a book is a casket of jewels for your housebold. - Tryon Edwards

Important "Quote of the Day" Notice:
Please note that while some daily quote or daily text message groups may link to this site, this site currently does not have a "quote of the day" feature and is not affiliated with any Yahoo groups, MSN groups, religious groups, Upoc groups or other organizations that send out daily inspirational messages. The owners of those sites are solely responsible for any quotes or messages they send out to the members of their groups.

Adam Osborne

Adam Osborne - born in Bangkok Thailand - in 1939 was the first man - to have invented the portable computer.  He is an American but died at the age of 69 in India.  A pretty unique man if you asked me - and smarter than anyone that I’ve read about - this man is a member of Memsa.  Now if I was a technical recruiter having lots of Technical Recruiter Jobs I would hope I find someone like Adam Osborne - because someone like him only comes once in a lifetime.  I wished I was as smart as some people that I so admire - ok - maybe not as smart - but just 10%?
The first ever computer invented by Osborne was 12Kg - and costing less than $2000 USD - in 1981 - so you can imagine - that a lot of rich people would have wanted it then.  In 1981 - I think I haven’t even learned how to use a computer yet - let alone can afford to own one.  His portable computer were shipped out at 10,000 unit per month.  Osborne had the foresight to build computers not for those who is into it for a hobby but for the serious minded - who will use it for our daily lives.  And even though Osborne 1 didn’t make Osborne millions - he didn’t despair for he started writing books about computers - easy to read manuals.   Although, all the above didn’t make him rich - he was nevertheless admired for trying - which also taught me - something about running a business. The Osborne effect after reading it - made me realized that some stuff that I was doing wasn’t right.

BLOGGER BUZZ 1

As we mentioned last week, some members of the Blogger team from Google HQ in Mountain View, Tokyo, Dublin, and Sydney (see group photo below) headed to Los Angeles to attend the 2011 BlogWorld & New Media Expo.



One of the primary reasons we attended the expo was to meet Blogger users 1:1, and to gain a better understanding of what we can do to improve the product to better meet your needs.

In addition to these discussions, we conducted surveys with many conference attendees to collect more in-depth feedback. Thank you! We really appreciate the valuable and candid responses.

In the survey results and our 1:1 discussions with you we heard a few common themes:
  • You’re hoping to widen your audience with Google+
  • You’d like more opportunities to customize and use gadgets with Dynamic Views
  • You’re looking for tips and best practices for how to make more money from your blog with AdSense
Your requests have been shared with the broader team and we’re hard at work making them happen for you. Stay tuned to the Buzz Blog in the coming weeks for follow ups, and in the meantime, check out some other photos from the expo below.
Bruce and Mara of MlovesM
Sabrina and Michael in the Blogger photo booth
Sabine and Lisa host a Google+ Hangout with bloggers from around the world


Posted by Michael Bolognino, Product Marketing Manager