Posts Tagged ‘science’

Astronomy – An Introduction

Tuesday, August 31st, 2010

Although astronomy is the oldest science, it continues to be at the forefront of not only scientific thought, but that of the public at large too. Who has not looked up at the galaxy while walking home late at night and wondered? Having said that though, the ancient people of certainly the northern hemisphere, but probably both, knew the movements of the stars and planets better than most of us do nowadays.

They knew even then, thousands of years ago, that the majority of stars seem to appear in the Eastern skies at night and travel on circular paths. They also noticed that some ‘stars’ were ‘wanderers’ (we call them planets) and that sometimes they travelled ‘against the flow’.

They also named groups of stars that we now call constellations or even galaxies and knew that those visible in the winter were different from those visible in the summer.and that others were visible all year round. The average common man of 5,000 – 10,000 years ago almost certainly knew more about the movement of the celestial bodies than the average common man of today does. (I mean men and women here, of course).

They learned how to calculate or at least locate the extremities of the sunrise and went to extraordinary lengths to mark those positions with huge stone structures, such as Stonehenge in the United Kingdom, probably to facilitate the location of certain positions of the sun or other planets or stars, which may have been important to their religious beliefs or crop cycles.

In 1609, Galileo invented the first artificial device for studying the stars and planets. It was the first astronomical telescope and through it he was able to observe things millions of miles away that no one had ever seen before. Because of the deductions he drew from his observations, he clashed with the Roman Catholic Church and was often in serious danger for his life, so radical were his discoveries.

But mankind was not to be intimidated, and since then we have gone on to construct ever bigger and ever better astronomical telescopes with which we can even detect radio waves, microwaves, X-rays, infrared waves and gamma waves from outer space. Forty years ago, we even travelled to our Moon. and we have sent probes to eight of the nine planets in our Solar System, as well as to several comets and asteroids.

Where will we go next? That decision was always up to the government of the United States and the old USSR, but now there are other players in the field. What will China or India want to explore with their possibly slightly different outlook on life? Or will it be only a question of financial advantage?

The world may be in a state of change and power may be shifting from its traditional seats, but it has not lessened interest in questions that scientists think can only be answered in space. These are exciting times in the science of astronomy, but then man has always found astronomy enthralling .

Fascinated by astronomy? Then please pop along to our website at: http://astronomy.the-real-way.com

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Marketing To The Masses

Sunday, August 22nd, 2010

If you were to create a self-cleaning textile, the world may want to beat a path to your door to acquire some from you, but first of all they will have to know that the fabric exists, that it is available for purchase, and they have to know where your door is. This means advertising.

There are two types of advertising: institutional and product. Institutional advertising promotes the name of your business in general and product advertising markets a product or range of products or services. The type of advertising that a business needs, depends on the products or services that it provides.

Moreover, some kinds of advertising lend themselves better to institutional advertising rather than product advertising. For instance, a shop sign, a sign-written van or a promotional calendar are better suited to institutional advertising, while a newspaper or magazine advert would be better for advertising the latest special offer.

There are few facts and figures available that bring to light the extraordinary growth of the mass consumption society as well as those dealing with the expansion of the advertising industry. For instance, before the Second World War, US average annual expenditure on advertising per year had been about $2 billion for decades.

In 1950, as the post-war economy started to recover , American businesses spent $5.7 billion to advertise its goods and services. By 1960, that amount had doubled to $12 billion. By 1970, American business was spending $20.

Between 1970 and 1990, as the children Baby Boomers became adults and started earning and spending, advertising expenditure went through the roof, so that by 1986, it had reached $100 billion.

That phenomenal rate of growth could not be sustained, but by 1999, total expenditure on all forms of advertising exceeded $215 billion . The latest available figures are for 2007 and they stand at $280 billion.

In 1999, nearly 60% of all advertising dollars were spent on adverts in newspapers, magazines, on the radio and on TV. By 2007, that figure had fallen to about 54% as the Internet started to have an effect on advertising trends. These trends are expected to continue as every firm is expected to have its own website these days.

The country’s biggest advertisers are the manufacturers of cars, food, soft drinks, tobacco and beer and they filter most of their expenditure through about 13,000 advertising agencies., who usually create the ads and buy the space or air time from the media too.

These agencies have been transformed over the last decade by amalgamation. The most successful advertising agencies these days are huge international concerns. WPP, the largest advertising agency in the world, billed $37 billion in 2008 and had this to say about itself:

“Our total revenue in 2008 surpassed that of all our competitors, regaining the No.1 worldwide position for the third time”.

Owen Jones, the writer of this article, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with researching promotional wall calendars. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

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Astronomy – Important Dates Before Christ

Friday, August 6th, 2010

There is no uncertainty that astronomy is the oldest science and there is also no doubt that astronomy was being studied by everyone, not only the wise men, thousands and thousands of years ago.

We do not know exactly why they did it, but we can surmise that early man noticed a correlation between the weather and the stars, which were themselves not fully understood, of course.

Early man, probably even as far back as Neanderthal man, noticed the relationship between the weather and herd movements and crop growth, or at least fruit and nuts on local trees, if they did not have planted crops.

This means that people could see a connection between the stars and food availability. This relationship was probably ritualized into some sort of religion like early Wicca. Therefore, the stars became a very important part of the lives of every single person and it is likely that astrology and astronomy were widely intermixed by the average person.

However, there were also people who did not only use the stars as some vast celestial clock and who tried to make sense of the whole shebang. I am going to narrate below, eight of the most significant dates or years in the history of astronomy before Christ walked on the Earth. In no way forget that they had nothing but an abacus to do there calculations and no telescopes, which came about two thousand years later.

585 BC: Thales of Miletus (c. 625- c. 547), a Greek, predicted a solar eclipse in Asia Minor purely on the basis of his observations and calculations. It was not a lucky guess!

c. 400 BC: the astronomer Oenopedes (5th. century). also a Greek, announces that the Earth is tilted on its axis with respect to the Sun.

352 BC: the Chinese report what they called a ‘guest star’, a supernova, which was the earliest reported sighting.

340 BC: The astronomer, Kidinnu (b. Babylon c. 379 BC) discovers the precession of the Equinoxes, ie the apparent change in the position of the stars caused by the Earth’s wobbling on its axis.

c. 300 BC: a ‘committee’ of Chinese astronomers compile star maps of the visible universe.

c. 240 BC: Chinese astronomers observe and make notes about Halley’s Comet. Also Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276 – c.194 BC), a Greek, correctly calculate the Earth’s dimensions.

165 BC: Chinese astronomers notice sunspots for the first time.

c. 130 BC: the astronomer Hipparchus of Nicea (b. 147 BC), a Greek, correctly calculates the distance to the Earth’s Moon and also rediscovers the precession of the Equinoxes.

You will see from the dates above that clearly not everyone let nature and the stars govern their lives, as the common farmer or hunter did. Some men actually put pen to paper, but before pen and paper even existed, and tried to work out ‘why these manifestations took place?’.

These individuals must have been remarkable men to have worked these measurements out by calculation, observation by the naked eye and rationalization alone.

Do you like to read about astronomy, why not visit our website at: http://astronomy.the-real-way.com

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Hybrid Cars VS Plug-In Hybrid Cars

Monday, July 5th, 2010

Hybrid cars are on everyone’s lips these days. Twenty, forty, or fifty dollars for a tank of fuel? Who really wants to pay that sort of money? But, frustrated, the fuel consumer sighs, but pays up. However, hybrid vehicles are being richly applauded for the small amount of gas they need to operate, and they are being driven off the forecourts of car dealerships each and everyday in ever increasing numbers.

So, what about a plug-in hybrid? Most users have heard that these vehicles are great too. So, a person might be asking him or herself, what exactly a plug-in hybrid is? How they work, and what the difference between a plug-in hybrid and a regular hybrid is?

Plug-in hybrids are capable of running solely on batteries, but they can run on petrol also. These kinds of hybrid cars share some of the characteristics of hybrid vehicles. They are also very similar to all-electric vehicles.

Plug-in hybrid cars must be charged externally by plugging them into an electrical power source. The combustion engine of plug-in hybrid vehicles is used only as a back up. These cars can run only on batteries if desired, but it is expected that these types of hybrid cars be plugged in every day.

Hybrid cars travel just as many miles as a conventional car. Designed to go the extra mile where gas-mileage is concerned, hybrids can be driven on the highway, in cities, or wherever else a person needs to travel.

On the other hand, plug-in hybrids are designed to be driven commuter-type distances, meaning between twenty and sixty miles between destinations. This way, the plug-in hybrid does not have to use its back up combustion engine, but plug-in hybrids can go further using gas as well.

Hybrids help to reduce pollution, but they do still pollute the air. Compared with plug-in hybrids, hybrid cars still have a long way to go as far as pollution is concerned. Because plug-in hybrid cars can run solely on their battery power, they don’t have to emit waste gases at all.

Plug-in hybrids really do fight against greenhouse gas emissions and plug-in hybrids use virtually no oil, imported or not. Studies have shown that electric hybrids emit at least 67% less greenhouse gases compared with petrol cars. Since the electric used to power plug-in hybrids is completely renewable, the difference in greenhouse gas emissions may be even greater than the study determined.

And so there you have it. Those are the main differences between plug-in hybrids and regular hybrid cars. It makes a big difference, but you would be surprised how little that matters at the current moment. And that’s only because plug-in hybrids are not being marketed to consumers at this present time. But this article should get you excited about the wonderful plug-in hybrid car, coming soon to a forecourt near you.

And it’s going to be a great debut too, since people already like the regular hybrid car models, but they haven’t seen anything yet until they see the new plug-in hybrid cars. However, for now, maybe we should just be satisfied with what we already have, because who knows? Before plug-in hybrid cars are brought out onto the forecourts, something even better might be introduced onto the market.

If you are interested in the insides of New Hybrid Vehicles, just visit our website at http://new-hybrid-vehicles.com Free reprint avaialable from: Hybrid Cars VS Plug-In Hybrid Cars.

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Avoid Home Schooling Burnout

Wednesday, May 19th, 2010

It doesn’t matter if you are studying in a traditional school or in a home schooling program, there will come a time when you will go through burnout. This is something that you must prevent so that your educational progress is not adversely affected.

Here are a couple of helpful tips that you can make use of to prevent possible home schooling burnout:

Know your abilities. From the very start, you should already know your limitations and those of your child. You must be capable of taking things slowly sometimes, especially if your child is still very young since you have to consider your child’s capacity to absorb. Most students are average learners (obviously), so you will have to give the lessons according to your child’s learning pace. Never expect your small child to read complicated selections nor your teenager to get top marks in SAT exams.

Try not to follow rigid schedules, as this can put undue pressure on your child. You should just set an interesting routine for your child to follow. Children spend most of their time doing routine activities like getting up, eating large breakfasts, reading books, practising writing, doing light chores, etc. You must ensure that they complete their routine activities before they can go outside or play with the computer. Even these routine activities change from day to day, but you must ensure that your child completes these routine activities. You can throw in occasional incentives or fun activities if they finish their routine tasks early.

You should enjoy home schooling with your child. This is one way you can develop a good relationship with your child and if you and your child can relate to each other, you will find it very easy to handle curriculum struggles and motivation problems later. Aside from motivating and guiding your child, you can also pursue some of your own interests like gardening and cooking. If your child sees you pursuing your own interests, then he or she will also be motivated to do the same.

Since your child is in a home schooling program, you should not try to copy a traditional schools environment. Try to use unusual ways when teaching your child. Home schooling is also about flexibility and creativity, and if you can achieve an easy-going but firm atmosphere, you can probably avoid burnout.

Just always try to remember that with home schooling, you don’t have to structure your teaching methods in the normal way. You can just do things in an enjoyable way especially when teaching very young children, so that they learn easily. Make sure you keep the day in the right balance to prevent burnout. Although your children might forget some of the day’s lessons, that’s all right too because somehow children develop their intelligence as well as their stature.

For sure, your children will always look back on your moments together and remember fondly how well you treated them. The old song goes: “… there’s no place like home” and for little pupils, home is the best place to learn the first lessons of life. If your teenagers are already in high school or in college, they can still do home schooling if they want to. That would also a good decision because you’d get to keep an eye on your children’s performance.

Parents always try to look after their children’s best interests, so, if after careful consideration, you still reckon that home schooling is the right option for your family, then run with it. Just follow the tips stated above in order to avoid burnout. Make time for enjoyable activities from time to time in order to avoid monotony, which could lead to burnout.

If you are practicing avoiding burnout in home schooling then please visit our web-based resource at Home Schooling This and other unique content ” articles are available with free reprint rights.

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Should I Buy A Hybrid Car To Save On Gas?

Tuesday, May 18th, 2010

When you pull up to the gas station pump and fuel your car up with $10-$40 worth of gas, you may find yourself heaving a huge out sigh. How on Earth did petrol get to be so expensive? Should you consider one of those new hybrid cars you saw on the TV? Everyone’s talking about hybrid cars anyway. Hybrid cars and other types of cars may seem like a good idea, but before you go out and do something rash, maybe you should ask yourself a few basic questions about how you can start to save on petrol.

There are so many options out there including everything from staying home to purchasing a hybrid car, but you have to find out what is best for you. You can only do that by asking yourself the following questions.

Maybe you should drive less mileage?

For sure, you could spend the rest of your life at home watching TV, but how would you eat then? I know what you’re thinking! You will walk more and so get more exercise. That may be true, but what will happen when you get bored with walking and riding your bike? How are you going to be able to get to the gymnasium then? And, have you forgotten about work? You know you love listening to your books on tape while you are sitting in traffic at the end of the workday. Should you drive less? Probably not then. But what should you do? Well, have you ever considered buying a hybrid car?

Should I buy a car that is more economical on gas?

Yes, of course you could do this, but what about when the vehicle starts to get older and it becomes less fuel-efficient than you thought it would be? Moreover, because you know you have a car that is getting more mileage per dollar, you are going to start driving more miles than you travelled beforehand.

How about getting up earlier each morning to look for the cheapest gas prices in the area?

Come on, who has the time for all that? If you really think about it, you could probably spend your time more profitably finding the right answer to the real question. Do you really want to spend extra time looking for a cheap gas station? What would your boss think if you arrive late for work and tell him you were trying to save money on petrol? And anyway, how long do you honestly think you’d keep that up?

Should I find a way to run my car on electric batteries?

Well, let’s see now, you definitely don’t want to have to charge your car’s batteries every day before you go to work because that might make you late too. However, with a hybrid car, you wouldn’t have to worry about that. Therefore, the next question should be quite obvious.

How about buying a hybrid car?

Perhaps you should. It’s possible that buying a hybrid car would be a wise way to avoid higher fuel prices. Would your car depreciate as soon as you drive it off the forecourt? A hybrid won’t do that so quickly as it brings the buyer in more and more money as they save on petrol. A hybrid car just could be a good choice here. However, it’s still a good idea to conduct further research on a hybrid car.

If you are interested in the working parts of New Hybrid Vehicles, just visit our website on http://new-hybrid-vehicles.com Click here to get your own unique version of this article with free reprint rights.

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Christianity’s Holy Days

Wednesday, May 5th, 2010

Christmas – is the celebration of Jesus’ birthday. Although the exact date of his birth is unknown, December 25th was probably chosen because it coincided with a pagan mid-winter festival. The ‘Twelve Days Of Christmas” mark the days between Christmas and Epiphany (January 6th), which was the day of the wise men’s visit.

Easter – is the most important day in the Christian calendar, because it celebrates Christ’s Resurrection, which gave / gives Christians the hope of salvation and eternal life. Easter always falls on the first Sunday after the first full moon after the vernal (Spring) equinox, which is on 21st March.

Shrove Tuesday – (Mardi Gras or Fat Tuesday) was originally a day of penance, but is now marked by merrymaking. It is the day before the beginning of Lent.

Ash Wednesday – is derived from the marking of a cross on the forehead of believers with the ashes from the burnt palms used on Palm Sunday.

Lent – 40 days of atonement and fasting

Palm Sunday – the Sunday before Easter, celebrates the entrance of Jesus into Jerusalem, where palms were strewn on the road before him.

Maundy (Holy) Thursday – the day of the Last supper.

Good Friday – is the day of Christ’s crucifixion.

Holy Saturday – is the day before the Resurrection.

The Annunciation – March 25th is celebrated by Catholics as the day that Archangel Gabriel told Mary about her imminent pregnancy.

Trinity Sunday – is celebrated by some denominations in honour of The Father, The Son and The Holy Spirit. It was declared part of the holy calendar in 1334 by Pope John XII.

Corpus Christi – Catholics remembers the presence of the body of Christ on the Thursday after Trinity Sunday.

All Saints Day – this mainly Catholic remembrance is on November 1 and honours all Christian saints.

Advent – a religious season that starts on the Sunday nearest to November 30 and lasts until Christmas Day. It celebrates the birth of Jesus and anticipates his Second Coming. It was once a period of fasting, but now no longer.

Holy Days Of Obligation – are feast days in the Catholic calendar marked by attendance at mass and the avoidance of unnecessary work. There are six in the USA: Solemnity of Mary – January 1: Christ’s circumcision, ie his first shedding of blood Ascension – 40 days after Easter Assumption – August 15: Mary is accepted into Heaven All Saints’ Day – November 1 Mary’s Immaculate Conception – December 8 Christmas Day – December 25.

Owen Jones, the writer of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with Franklin Covey planner refillss If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

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US Minor Holidays And Occasions

Tuesday, April 6th, 2010

Hereunder is a list of minor holidays and occasions in the United States. Some of them are virtually unknown, and others are quite obscure.

April Fools’ Day – (April 1): the day for practical jokes (only before noon in the UK). Its origins are obscure, but it bears a resemblance to an ancient Roman f?te for the goddess of nature.

Arbor Day – (last Friday in April): devoted to trees and their preservation. It is held on December 22 everywhere else in the world.

Armed Forces Day – (third Sunday in May): a day to honour the US armed forces.

Citizenship Day – (September 17): replaced Constitution Day in 1952 by presidential proclamation.

Daylight-Saving Time: was first suggested by Benjamin Franklin in 1784, but became the Uniform Time Act in 1966. It is not exercised in Hawaii, the Eastern Time Zone of Indiana, most of Arizona (except on the Navajo Reservation), American Samoa, Puerto Rico, the Virgin Islands and Guam.

Election Day – (Tuesday after the first Monday in November): presidential elections are held in years divisible by four and elections for all members of the House of Representatives and one-third of the Senate in years evenly divisible by two.

Fathers’ Day – (third Sunday in June): was first celebrated in West Virginia in 1908, but this distinctively American holiday was not made official until 1972.

Flag Day – (June 14): was first observed in 1877, which was the centenary of the adoption of the modern design. Truman approved the Flag Day Bill in 1949.

Groundhog Day – (February 2): on this day the groundhog looks out of his burrow. If he sees his own shadow there will be six weeks of Winter to follow, otherwise Spring is just around the corner.

Halloween – (October 31): All Hallow’s Eve is the day before the feast of All Saints. It began as a pagan custom honouring the dead and a celebration of Autumn. ‘Trick or Treat’ is purely American with no historical foundation.

Kwanzaa – is a secular observance by African-Americans to commemorate their African heritage. It begins on Dec.26th when a candle in a candelabrum is lit every day for seven days. It was first practiced by Maulana Karenga in 1966.

Mothers’ Day – (second Sunday in May): was thought of by Anne M. Jarvis of Philadelphia as a way for children to pay homage to their mothers. It received presidential proclamation in 1914.

National Maritime Day – (May 22): was initiated in 1935 to memorialize the SS Savannah’s first successful transatlantic voyage by a steamship in 1819. It is also a day of remembrance of merchant mariners who died in defense of their country.

National Teachers’ Day – (Tuesday of the first full week in May): is when pupils are meant to honour the teaching profession.

St. Patrick’s Day – (March 17): has been borrowed from Ireland where it is their national saint’s day.

St. Valentine’s Day – (February 14): was originally to honour two saints martyred by Emperor Claudius (214 – 270), but has been devoted to lovers since the Middle Ages.

Susan B. Anthony Day – (February 15): Anthony (1820 – 1906) worked for women’s rights and suffrage.

United Nations’ Day – (October 24): commemorates the endorsement of the UN Charter in 1945 by the then five permanent members of the Security Council.

Owen Jones, the author of this piece, writes on many topics, but is currently involved with researching Franklin planner pages. If you have an interest in calendars, organizers or promotional calendars, please go over to our website now at Promotional Desk Calendars

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Hybrid Cars and Conventional Cars

Monday, March 22nd, 2010

Today, the question on everybody’s lips is, what is the significant difference between a hybrid car and a conventional vehicle? They suppose that there has to be some good reason why people are asking themselves whether hybrid cars are worth the cost and checking their wallets and savings accounts to see whether they have enough money to buy a hybrid car.

There has to be some reason why other people wouldn’t consider shelling out the money for a hybrid car because they feel their conventional car gets them to where they need to go well enough. Here are some of the reasons why a person might choose a conventional car over a hybrid car and vice versa.

Hybrid cars are more expensive than conventional cars: because hybrid cars have a complex internal design, they do still have a pretty hefty price tag. On the other hand, conventional cars, which have gotten more efficient in design as the years have gone on, are quite affordable these days. Many people are selling their old conventional cars in favour of newer, more efficient versions.

In fact, they are so inefficient, in comparison, that some people even give their old cars away. However, since a large percentage of the general populace has never owned a hybrid, there aren’t many people selling used hybrid cars yet. Therefore, a person wanting to buy a hybrid would probably have to purchase a new one from a car dealership.

Both a hybrid car and a conventional car make use of a similar type of battery: a hybrid car and a conventional car both use lead-acid batteries that have enough renewable stored energy to turn over a small electric motor. These batteries are what are called “gear reduced”. That means that they can turn over this electric motor at approximately 300 rpms, which generates enough torque to turn over the engine. It is this process that starts the main petrol or diesel engine.

But even though a hybrid car uses a lead-acid battery, its battery that works to drive the car’s electric engine is constructed differently. This kind of battery is known as a deep cycle battery and it can be compared to the batteries that are used to power golf carts.

That’s the main difference between a hybrid car and a conventional car. One person could choose a hybrid car because it makes them feel more secure. For example, if a person buys a hybrid car, they can feel safe because their car will be less likely to run out of gas. Another person might choose a conventional car because the price of petrol doesn’t really bother them that much at all.

However, a conventional car provides security as well, but of a different type. With a conventional car, a person can be sure that they can always go to a scrapyard, if they need to replace old parts on their car. On the other hand, those with a hybrid car will probably have to pay some pretty pricey bills receipts if something goes wrong.

However, the final decision is up to you. There are risks involved with both types of cars. But those who like to try out new things might just consider splurging out on a hybrid car.

If you are interested in the working parts of New Hybrid Vehicles, please visit our website at http://new-hybrid-vehicles.com Don’t reprint this exact article. Instead, reprint a free unique content version of this same article.

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