29th August 1831 – Michael Faraday discovers electromagnetic induction

Michael Faraday (1791-1867) apparently discovered electromagnetic induction on this day in 1831.

And the significance of this?

Lets see…

• Do you have a transformer (or more likely many) in your house?
• Does your power company use an electrical generator to provide you with electricity?
• Do you have an induction cooker in your kitchen (those are the ones with a glass ceramic sheet that is easily cleaned)?

It is Faraday’s discovery that is the reason you have such luxuries.

Faraday had little formal education but became one of the most influential scientists of all time. One of my heroes.

10 things you should do before you die

1. Fall in love.
2. Look up at the Milky Way on a clear moonless night from a place far from the glare of city lights.
3. Experience a total eclipse of the Sun.
4. Speak openly and honestly to the ones you love about your own inevitable death.
5. See the Earth from space.
6. Hold a meteorite in your hand and consider where it came from.
7. Walk round a Saturn V moon rocket and know that humans can accomplish anything if they set their minds to it.
8. Walk around your home town for an hour and realize that none of this will exist in a thousand years.
9. Stand on a sandy beach by the surf and forcefully command the tide to turn back. Did you learn anything?
10. Talk to someone whose world view is radically different from your own. Realize that because you believe something to be absolutely true or a person of authority says something is absolutely true does not mean it must be true.
11. Look around you at all the things that make your life healthy, comfortable and interesting. Realize that almost all those things exist because of science and technology.

OK I lied. I listed eleven things. But that was mainly because at least one of the things will probably be unattainable.

20th August 1977 – Voyager 2 launched

Voyager 2 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida on 20th August 1977. Voyager 2 conducted a planetary grand tour of the solar system visiting Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune.

After 30 years Voyager 2 and her sister probe Voyager 1 are still active and sending back data from the extremes of our solar system.

I was with a group of Norwegian amateur astronomers that visited JPL in Pasadena California around the time of Voyager’s closest approach to Neptune on 25th August 1989. It was a memorable trip which included visits to Kennedy Space Center in Florida, Johnson Space Center in Houston Texas, Kitt Peak National Observatory in Arizona.

19th August 1646 – John Flamsteed born

John Flamsteed the first Astronomer Royal was born in Denby, Derbyshire, England on 19th August 1646.

He is perhaps best known for calculating the solar eclipses of 1666 and 1668 and for the earliest recorded sighting of Uranus in December 1690. Flamsteed did not recognize Uranus for what it was so the credit for discovering Uranus goes to Sir William Herschel on 13th March 1781. As the first Astronomer Royal, Flamsteed laid the foundation stone of the Royal Greenwich Observatory in August 1675.

18th August 1920 – 19th Amendment ratified

Women’s suffrage rights ratified in United States.

Amendment XIX to the United States Constitution states:

Section 1. The right of the citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.

Section 2. Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation.

I have listed the corresponding year for several other countries here:

Country	Year
New Zealand	1893
Finland	1906
Norway	1910
Denmark	1915
Sweden	1919
United States	1920
United Kingdom	1928
Switzerland	1971

Protected: No Perseids for me this year

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So long and thanks for all the fish (nets)

The Yangtze river dolphin is officially declared extinct.
This is BBC’s take on it.

This extinction represents the disappearance of a complete branch of the evolutionary tree of life and emphasises that we have yet to take full responsibility in our role as guardians of the planet.

And this is Channel 4 ’s article.

It is the first official extinction of a large vertebrate for more than 50 years.

UPDATE 29. August 2007: Not so dead after all apparently. This by Zooillogix and this according to the BBC.

6th August 1991 – World Wide Web

On 6th August 1991 Tim Berners-Lee releases the idea of the World Wide Web.

And the World took another step in the process of growing up.

Books read this year #17

Book: 17
Title: The Draco Tavern

Author: Larry Niven
Why did you get this book? Because I like Niven’s writing style.
Do you like the cover? Nothing special.
Did you enjoy the book? Yes.
Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? I have quite a few of Niven’s books. I pick up any I find that I have not read.
Are you keeping it or passing it on? I will keep it.
Anything else? The Draco Tavern is a collection of short stories centered around the owner of a tavern that caters for alien species visiting Earth. I have read and enjoyed some of these tales before.
Number of pages: 316
Total pages for the year: 6010

Books read this year #16

Book: 16
Title: Jane Eyre
Author: Charlotte Brontë

Why did you get this book? It is an audio book from Librivox.
Do you like the cover? What cover? It was an audio book.
Did you enjoy the book? Yes.
Was the author new to you and would you read something by this author again? Yes she was new to me. I do plan to read more of Charlotte Brontë’s works.
Are you keeping it or passing it on? It will stay on my hard drive until I need more space.
Anything else? It took a while to get through the book. Not because it was uninteresting but because of other priorities. I plan to get round to reading more of the Brontë sister’s books eventually.
Number of pages: about 300
Total pages for the year: 5694