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Pat Tillman - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 14:45:34 -0800

Born on This Day
Pat Tillman
November 6, 1976(1976-11-06)- April 22, 2004 (aged 27)

Corporal Patrick Tillman.jpg
Pat Tillman
Place of birth San Jose, California
Place of death Sperah, Afghanistan
Allegiance United States of America
Service/branch United States Army
Years of service 2002-2004
Rank Corporal
Unit 2nd Ranger Battalion
Battles/wars 2003 Invasion of Iraq
Operation Enduring Freedom - Afghanistan (OEF-A)
Awards Silver Star
Purple Heart
Patrick Daniel Tillman (November 6, 1976- April 22, 2004) was an American football player who left his professional sports career and enlisted in the United States Army in May 2002 in the aftermath of the September 11 attacks. He joined the United States Army Rangers and served multiple tours in combat before he was killed by friendly fire in the mountains of Afghanistan. Details about the circumstances surrounding his death have been the subject of controversy and military investigations.

He is the second recently active professional football player to be killed in combat; the first was Bob Kalsu of the Buffalo Bills, who died in the Vietnam War in 1970.

Train Station Photo, India Picture - National Geographic Photo of the Day

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:20:03 -0800

Train Station, India
Photograph by Erin Smith
This Month in Photo of the Day: Your Photos
India seems to be constantly in motion, a country that continues to shift before your eyes. As travelers, we also seem to be on a pendulum, shifting back and forth through space, and often end up at hubs of transit. I took this photograph while waiting for a train in Rajasthan, India. The woman walking by was also on a journey, and our very different lives overlapped, for just a moment, in this transitional environment.

BBC NEWS | Health | Babies cry in mothers tongue

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:17:21 -0800

Babies 'cry in mother's tongue'
Crying newborn

Babies' cries imitate their mother tongue as early as three days old

German researchers say babies begin to pick up the nuances of their parents' accents while still in the womb.
The researchers studied the cries of 60 healthy babies born to families speaking French and German.
The French newborns cried with a rising "accent" while the German babies' cries had a falling inflection.
Writing in the journal Current Biology, they say the babies are probably trying to form a bond with their mothers by imitating them.
The findings suggest that unborn babies are influenced by the sound of the first language that penetrates the womb.

Flying With America's Most Famous Female Aviators | History &Archaeology | Smithsonian Magazine

Fri, 06 Nov 2009 13:07:29 -0800

Flying With America's Most Famous Female Aviators
Dozens of talented women preceded Amelia Earhart, and thousands have followed, and each has her own groundbreaking story to tell

By Patricia Trenner
Smithsonian.com, October 22, 2009

Mary Riddle ( c. 1912- )

In 1930 Riddle became the first Native American woman to earn a pilot's license; she also earned her commercial license soon after. With a group of women pilots from Seattle, she barnstormed across the country and made 40 exhibition parachute jumps. A member of the Clatsop and Quinault tribes, Riddle appeared in traditional native attire on the June 1934 cover of The 99er, a publication of the Ninety-Nines organization and the first magazine published for and by women fliers.

NASA - Enigmatic Titan

Tue, 03 Nov 2009 04:25:33 -0800

Enigmatic Titan

Titan�s golden, smog-like atmosphere and complex layered hazes appear to Cassini as a luminous ring around the planet-sized moon. The world beneath that haze has become slightly less mysterious under the gaze of Cassini and its Huygens probe, but many new discoveries await.
This mosaic view of Titan represents "Target 3" in the fall 2009 edition of the Cassini Scientist for a Day contest. (See http://saturn.jpl.nasa.gov/education/scientistforaday8thedition/ .) The contest is designed to give students a taste of life as a scientist by challenging them to write an essay describing the value of one target choice among three for Cassini to image.
Images taken using red, blue and green spectral filters were combined to create this color view. Six images �" two sets of three colors �" were combined to create the mosaic. The images were acquired with the Cassini wide-angle camera on Oct. 12, 2009 at a distance of 145,000 kilometers (90,000 miles) from Titan.

Michael Collins (astronaut) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:13:52 -0700

Born on This Day
Michael Collins

Michael Collins Signature.svg
NASA Astronaut
Status Retired
Born October 31, 1930 (1930-10-31) (age 79)
Rome, Italy
Other occupation Test pilot
Rank Brigadier General, USAF[1]
Time in space 11d 02h 04m
Selection 1963 NASA Group
Missions Gemini 10, Apollo 11

Michael Collins (born October 31, 1930 in Rome, Italy) is a former American astronaut and test pilot. Selected as part of the third group of fourteen astronauts in 1963, he flew in space twice. His first spaceflight was Gemini 10, when he and command pilot John W. Young performed two rendezvous with different spacecraft and Collins undertook two EVAs. His second spaceflight was Apollo 11 where he served as the command module pilot. While he orbited the Moon, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin performed the first manned landing on the lunar surface. He is one of only 24 humans to have flown to the Moon.

Prior to becoming an astronaut, he had attended the United States Military Academy, and from there he joined the United States Air Force and flew F-86s at Chambley-Bussieres Air Base, France. He was accepted to the USAF Experimental Flight Test Pilot School at Edwards Air Force Base in 1960. He unsuccessfully applied for the second astronaut group but was accepted for the third group.

After retiring from NASA in 1970 he took a job in the Department of State as Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs. A year later he became the director of the National Air and Space Museum. He held this position until 1978 when he stepped down to become undersecretary of the Smithsonian Institution. In 1980 he took the job as Vice President of LTV Aerospace. He resigned in 1985 to start his own business.

nightsky4520s blog - StumbleUpon

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 05:09:45 -0700

an example of Deb's site, so full of great photos, inspirational signs, friendship and all out fun .
go by and see for yourself and be sure to look around. thanks Deb for this one.

Norwegian graduation students use expensive buses to party | This Blog Rules

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:41:24 -0700

Norwegian graduation students use expensive buses to party

From the page:
Being russ and celebrating the russ period called "russetiden" is a Norwegian culture phenomenon that started in 1905. It can be seen in Norway every year from between the 21st of April and 17th of May.
The tradition was first started in Denmark where students finishing high school called themselves russ and marked this with partying and other rituals. Almost every country has their graduation and celebration but the Norwegian russ celebration is different and special in every way. The students dress up in overall that is even red, blue, black, or green depends on what they have studied and what school they belong to. The most common is red and blue.
Most of the students split up in groups with their friends and buy either a bus or a van so they can drive around every night to all the parties and russ gatherings in Norway. But the buses and vans are not ordinary, they get painted in different colors and have different themes.
The students use a lot of money on these buses, up to $25 000 per person, but the average is $5000. Some of the buses have huge speakers either inside the bus or on the roof, so you can hear them and feel how the ground is shaking when a russ bus drives by your neighborhood. During the russ celebration the students are driving around in their buses and vans and partying all day and night long, and after the celebration the vehicles are sold to other students that will be russ so they can paint it over again in their own way for the next year. In other countries like Holland there are no cool buses, instead they have scary advertisements.

Mayflower II Photo, New York Harbor Wallpaper - National Geographic Photo of the Day

Sat, 31 Oct 2009 02:34:35 -0700

From the page: "Mayflower II, New York Harbor

Photograph by B. Anthony Stewart

This month in Photo of the Day: Images From the National Geographic Archive

Mayflower II entering New York Harbor "

James Cook - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Tue, 27 Oct 2009 14:08:42 -0700

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Born on This Day
James Cook

James Cook, portrait by Nathaniel Dance, c. 1775, National Maritime Museum, Greenwich
Born 7 November [O.S. 27 October] 1728
Marton, Yorkshire, England
Died 14 February 1779 (aged 50)
Hawaii
Nationality British
Education Postgate School, Great Ayton
Occupation Explorer, navigator, cartographer
Title Captain

Captain James Cook, FRS RN (7 November [O.S. 27 October] 1728 - 14 February 1779), was a British explorer, navigator and cartographer, ultimately rising to the rank of Captain in the Royal Navy. Cook was the first to map Newfoundland prior to making three voyages to the Pacific Ocean during which he achieved the first European contact with the eastern coastline of Australia and the Hawaiian Islands as well as the first recorded circumnavigation of New Zealand.