Wednesday, September 29, 2010

Gold hits over $1,300 per oz. today - an all time high


A total of 165,000 tonnes of gold have been mined in human history, as of 2009. This is roughly equivalent to 5.3 billion troy ounces or, in terms of volume, about 8,500 cubic meters, or a 20.4m cube. Although primarily used as a store of value, gold has many modern industrial uses including dentistry and electronics. Gold has traditionally found use because of its good resistance to oxidative corrosion and excellent quality as a conductor of electricity.
Gold prices on line

Tuesday, September 28, 2010

Am I nuts


At last one of my many fantasies has come to be. Last night I struggled and stained but with all my might I pushed up a wind turbine in the side yard. To me it is a thing of beauty, to others driving by, I can just imagine that they are thinking. "What is he sticking up in the air now"? It is a small unit only capable of producing 600 watts of power. At the base I have added a 60 watt solar panel. At this time I'm only charging batteries for emergency power. It sets atop of a twenty foot tower but in the near future I will add ten more foot. I am hoping for a nice breeze - Am I nuts or am I still just a kid at 65.

Click image to enlarge

Sunday, September 26, 2010

Things change


Things change in ones life, I did not attend the Versailles Pumpkin Show Parade nor work the open house at the Legion Post this year. This was the first parade I've missed sense returning home from the service. I must tell you I missed putting on my very tight fitting dress green army uniform and marching in the parade. The photos of the big event will have to come from someone else this year. My friend, Faith Ann Wood, snapped a few from atop the ferris wheel and I posted them in the Versailles Pumpkin Show 2010 album. They're quite good.
http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.demaree/VersaillesPumpkinShow2010#
See all of my albums at
http://picasaweb.google.com/jack.demaree

Friday, September 24, 2010

CompuServe ONLINE 9/24/1979

CompuServe, (CompuServe Information Service, also known by its acronym CIS), was the first major commercial online service in the United States. It dominated the field during the 1980s and remained a major player through the mid-1990s, when it was sidelined by the rise of information services such as AOL that charged monthly subscriptions rather than hourly rates. Since the purchase of CompuServe's Information Services Division by AOL, the CompuServe Information Service has operated as an online service provider and an Internet service provider. The original CompuServe Information Service, later rebranded as CompuServe Classic, was shut down July 1, 2009. The newer version of the service, CompuServe 2000, continues to operate.

Thursday, September 23, 2010

first day of the autumn

In the United States and the rest of the northern hemisphere, the first day of the autumn season is the day of the year when the Sun crosses the celestial equator moving southward (on September 22nd or 23rd). This day is known as the Autumnal Equinox.
Read more

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

B-29 Superfortress flew for the first time. Sept 21,1942


1942 – The prototype model of the Boeing B-29 Superfortress, a four-engine heavy bomber that became one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II, flew for the first time.

The B-29 was one of the largest aircraft to see service during World War II. A very advanced bomber for this time period, it included features such as a pressurized cabin, an electronic fire-control system, and remote-controlled machine-gun turrets. Though it was designed as a high-altitude daytime bomber, in practice it actually flew more low-altitude nighttime incendiary bombing missions.[citation needed] It was the primary aircraft in the American firebombing campaign against the Empire of Japan in the final months of World War II, and carried the atomic bombs that destroyed Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Unlike many other WWII-era bombers, the B-29 remained in service long after the war ended, with a few even being employed as flying television transmitters for the Stratovision company. The type was finally retired in the early 1960s, with 3,960 aircraft in all built.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Sunday, September 19, 2010

The Unabomber


1995 – The Manifesto of "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski (police sketch pictured) was published in The Washington Post and The New York Times, almost three months after it was submitted.

Also on this date:

The Betty and Barney Hill abduction
September 19–20, 1961
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Betty_and_Barney_Hill_abduction

Thursday, September 16, 2010

CPL. JOHN C. BISHOP Returns Home



Click the image to view larger photos


I have produced a custom made presentation with beautiful background music, edited/cropped photos with movement, and video interludes. If you would like a copy of this DVD, Please send a donation to benefit Cpl. Bishop’s children at:

Bishop’s children Fund
c/o Stratton - Karsteter Funeral Home
P.O. Box 84
Versailles, In 47042
Please include a separate check for postage made to the funeral home.

Tuesday, September 14, 2010

Sept. 14-15 1897 Legend of the Hanging Tree


A friend called and advised me to stay inside and not go out. Good advice, I should pass on to you, Why? If you fear ghosts or haints as my grandmother called them, this night Sept. 14th 113 years ago citizens awoke to find men hanging from a tree. This tree was located just to the East of what is now North Main street. The tree was quickly cut into small pieces by souvenir seekers. I know of only two small pieces, one of which is framed and displayed at The Stratton - Karsteter Funeral Home at Versailles.
There are several accounts of the night's happening, here is but one:
http://authspot.com/tales/a-strange-1897-indiana-lynching/


Click image to enlarge

Saturday, September 11, 2010

Tuesday, September 07, 2010

Wolfram Alpha Data Base

This is so neat, I typed in my birthday then Versailles, Indiana. Try it you'll like it.
http://www.wolframalpha.com/

A few things to try:

* enter any date (e.g. a birth date)june 23, 1988
* enter any city (e.g. a home town)new york
* enter any two stocks
IBM Apple
* enter any calculation
$250 + 15%
* enter any math formula
x^2 sin(x)
* enter any two first names
andrew, barbara
* enter any food
1 apple + 2 oranges
* enter any measurement
45 mph
* enter any chemical formula
H2SO4
* enter any musical notes
C Eb G C

Sunday, September 05, 2010

Labor Day


Observed on the first Monday in September, Labor Day pays tribute to the contributions and achievements of American workers. It was created by the labor movement in the late 19th century and became a federal holiday in 1894. Labor Day also symbolizes the end of summer for many Americans, and is celebrated with parties, parades and athletic events.

black and white TV


As you know I am old as dirt and remember the days of old cars, rock 'n roll, and black and white TV. Here is a web page that will bring back some great moments of the TV past. Can you believe we had to get up and change the channel (all 3 of them) because remotes were not invented yet. See the shows here.
I just thought of something, ask your kids, "do you know what a princes dial phone is? ''

Thanks Carol for the link !

Saturday, September 04, 2010

12 years of searching


1998Larry Page and Sergey Brin founded the company Google in Menlo Park, California, US, to promote the web search engine that they developed as a research project while attending Stanford University.

Google began in January 1996 as a research project by Larry Page and Sergey Brin when they were both PhD students at Stanford University in California.[24] While conventional search engines ranked results by counting how many times the search terms appeared on the page, the two theorized about a better system that analyzed the relationships between websites.[25] They called this new technology PageRank, where a website's relevance was determined by the number of pages, and the importance of those pages, that linked back to the original site.[26] A small search engine called Rankdex was already exploring a similar strategy.[27] Page and Brin originally nicknamed their new search engine "BackRub", because the system checked backlinks to estimate the importance of a site.[28][29] Eventually, they changed the name to Google, originating from a misspelling of the word "googol",[30][31] the number one followed by one hundred zeros, which was meant to signify the amount of information the search engine was to handle. Originally, Google ran under the Stanford University website, with the domain google.stanford.edu. The domain google.com was registered on September 15, 1997,[32] and the company was incorporated on September 4, 1998, at a friend's garage in Menlo Park, California.
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Friday, September 03, 2010

Picasa


Picasa lets you organize, edit, share, and order photos from your PC or Mac. Once you install it, Picasa will automatically import your computer's photos and organize them in the same folder structure as your hard drive. View slideshows, create collages, make movies, and geo-tag your photos to save the location where the photo was taken within the photo's file data. You can also order prints and fun creative products using your photos directly through Picasa: select the photos, then click "Shop" at the bottom. Back-up your photos online with on-line Picasa.

Thursday, September 02, 2010

Victory over Japan Day


Victory over Japan Day (also known as Victory in the Pacific Day, V-J Day, or V-P Day) is a name chosen for the day on which the Surrender of Japan occurred, effectively ending World War II, and subsequent anniversaries of that event. The term has been applied to both the day on which the initial announcement of Japan's surrender was made in the afternoon of August 15, 1945, in Japan, and because of time zone differences, to August 14, 1945, (when it was announced in the United States, Western Europe, the Americas, the Pacific Islands, and Australia), as well as to September 2, 1945, when the signing of the surrender document occurred.
Also See:
http://wb9otx.blogspot.com/2010/08/vj-day-august-15-1945.html