4
POPSClimate of the Carboniferous Period Earth's atmosphere today contains about 380 ppm CO2 (0.038%). Compared to former geologic times, our present atmosphere, like the Late Carboniferous atmosphere, is CO2- impoverished! Understanding Earth's geologic and climate past is important for understanding why our present Earth is the way it is, and what Earth may look like in the future.
5
POPSIroquois Blueprint for the U.S. Our constitution has many Iroquois features. Iroquois lawmakers didn't go to war. Civilian and military rule was separate. The Iroquois had no royalty -- no hereditary rule. Their nations could naturalize new citizens. The League didn't just conquer other nations. It could also admit them to membership. We didn't adopt the Iroquois unicameral system. They had only one council. Franklin fought for that. Because he lost, we have both the senate and the house. Franklin also wanted to let soldiers elect their own officers. That's what the Iroquois did. He lost on that one, too. Still, our constitution is a fine piece of engineering design. We looked at the European kingdoms we'd left behind. And we looked at these people who'd governed themselves so well for so long. In the end Canassatego and the Iroquois tipped the scales in shaping our way of life. And we can be very glad they did.
2
POPSMargaret Corbin - Soldier for Liberty Life was difficult because of her injury, and in 1779 she received aid from the government...the first woman in the United States to receive pension from Congress. After Congress’s decision, Margaret was included on military rolls until the end of the war. After being discharged, Margaret remained near West Point, known to officials and acquaintances as “Captain Molly”. In 1926, the Daughters of the American Revolution had Margaret’s remains reburied in the West Point military cemetery, becoming the only Revolutionary War soldier to be buried there.
3
POPSAncient Greek Music Theory - Modes The Greeks had developed a complex system of relating particular emotional and spiritual characteristics to certain modes (scales). The names for the various modes derived from the names of Greek tribes and peoples, the temperament and emotions of which were said to be characterized by the unique sound of each mode, which included the Ancient Greek subgroups (Ionians, Dorians, Aeolians), one small region in central Greece (Locris), and certain neighboring (non-Greek) peoples from Asia Minor (Lydia, Phrygia). Thus, Dorian modes were "harsh", Phrygian modes "sensual", and so forth.
6
POPSHow Anti-Matter Propulsion Works It's not rocket science...at least rockets as we know them. :) So, why haven't we built a matter-antimatter reaction engine? The problem with developing antimatter propulsion is that there is a lack of antimatter existing in the universe. For now, we will have to create our own antimatter. Luckily, there is technology available to create antimatter through the use of high-energy particle colliders, also called "atom smashers." But these high-energy particle accelerators only produce one or two picograms of antiprotons each year. A picogram is a trillionth of a gram. It states that anti-matter propulsion is the most energy efficient propulsion. I suspect that will be true as long as the process of making the anti-matter is itself efficient enough to make it feasible.
3
POPSThe First American Patent - Turning Ash Into Gold We don't get the potassium salts we need from wood anymore. But for a long time, Hopkins had put us at the center of a great chemical process industry. So our first patent was one of the great American patents after all.
2
POPSThe Incredible Flying Monk Given the geography of the abbey, his landing site, and the account of his flight, to travel for "more than a furlong" (220 yards, 201 metres) he would have had to have been airborne for about 15 seconds.
3
POPSShot Tower - Applying Nature to Production Up to then, most shot was cast. That was very labor-intensive. Shot was also made by pouring lead into a sieve over a barrel. That really did give tear-shaped drops. Watts's invention teaches us the two essential elements of good invention. The first is perception. Watts gazed more closely at nature and saw what other people had missed. The other element is simplicity. Others had labored to control the process with their own hands. Watts had the grace to stand aside and let nature do the work for him. The real beauty of this process is that, in the end, there is no human process at all.
6
POPSMedical Quackery Devices Patented Dec. 12, 1905, the Timely Warning was manufactured as a solution to amorous dreaming. OMG! See those spikes? And while not listed at this site, I'm sitting here with a Dr. Pepper. It was originally created as a potion by pharmacist.
1
POPSPondering the Size of Things So we dwell in the right place at the right time. It's a huge and ancient place made to our measure. It's large enough to contain a free people. And it's small enough that we can either spoil it or shape it into a fit dwelling.
3
POPSForgotten Inventor - The Fresno Scraper Fresno Scrapers served the US army in WW-I. The two-horse model retailed for $28, yet today's bulldozer blades are its direct offspring. The gigantic scraper-carryall earth mover is its grandchild.
1
POPSBirth of Radio Astronomy This now includes seeing some of it visually as "snow" on televisions. Yet with the new transition to digital tv coming next year (in the U.S. at least), I wonder if "snow" will be a thing of the past?
1
POPSDark Stars The study says that particles of dark matter may have interacted with each other, producing other particles that heated the collapsing clouds. The heat kept the clouds from shrinking enough to ignite nuclear fusion.
5
POPSScientific Literacy And that's what science really stands to give them. That's the reason you and I are drawn to science. And I can see no reason to offer them anything less.
2
POPS2300 Year Old Model Airplane Did anyone actually build a large version of this thing? Well, no one could have come this close to the real shape of flight without working on a larger scale. This little wooden model could hardly exist unless someone had worked with large, light models, or even with man-carrying versions. Archaeologists have looked in vain for a prototype. A large model light enough to fly would be too delicate to stand the ravages of 2300 years. The original -- if it ever was -- has long since joined the desert dust. Whatever form this Egyptian airplane might have taken, it has long since returned to the world of dreams and imagination from which it first came.
0
POPSStarry-eyed Quetzalcoatl in Texas Quetzalcoatl was one of the most important gods in Mesoamerica, and was worshipped by most major Mesoamerican cultures, from the Olmecs and Maya to the Aztecs.
10
POPSAncient Chinese Bells The importance of that discovery grows when we realize that it took the West a thousand years to develop the cathedral bell, and we didn't have it until the middle ages. Bells are very hard to make, yet China had these remarkably sophisticated Zhong bells during the Golden Age of Athens. The bells produce a rich tone, they take far less bronze to get it than a cathedral bell, and then they deliver two sounds for the cost of one. It's easy to look right at something that's very sophisticated without seeing the sophistication. It took us eighty years to catch on to these remarkable, but unassuming, bells. The best inventions are like that. In the best inventions, elegance masquerades as simplicity.
4
POPSGalileo's Experiment This was one of the first controlled scientific experiments. Like most of today's experiments, it was imperfect. But this experiment changed Galileo, and it changed history.
3
POPSThe Liberty Bell Among the more historically important occasions, it tolled when Benjamin Franklin was sent to England to address Colonial grievances, it tolled when King George III ascended to the throne in 1761, and it tolled to call together the people of Philadelphia to discuss the Sugar Act in 1764 and the Stamp Act in 1765. On every Fourth of July, at 2pm Eastern time, children who are descendants of Declaration signers symbolically tap the Liberty Bell 13 times while bells across the nation also ring 13 times in honor of the patriots from the original 13 states.
2
POPSDoes War Influence Ingenuity? We're told that "necessity is the mother of invention," but history doesn't really bear that out. The true mother of invention is our powerful driving internal need to invent. We invent because we want to invent. It's freedom that's the real mother of invention.
1
POPSGeriatric Star Giving Birth There’s no evidence of planets around BP Piscium, but the disk could be giving birth to some — a new generation of planets for a geriatric star.
6
POPSResenting the Rich - An Experiment of Envy Apparently, it matters a great deal whether people believe that others deserve their good fortune. If they don't believe they do, then less well-off people will further impoverish themselves to bring the rich bastards down a peg or two. Socialists often claim that capitalism is based on humanity's worst impulses, greed and selfishness, despite the fact that people who live in societies that participate in markets tend to be more generous and cooperative than those who don't. Oswald and Zizzo's research suggests that socialists who believe that their ideology appeals to humanity's better instincts have it backwards. Envy is behind the leveling spirit of socialism. A truly generous and rational soul would wish others well, especially if they have done no one any harm. This is further evidenced by wide support of "soak the rich" platforms of populist politicians.
4
POPSSeven Signs of Non-Competitive States As written by Ralph Peters, a retired Lieutenant Colonel formerly with U.S. Army Intelligence. Some of the poorest nations and most repressive autocracies suffer all of these traits.
6
POPSColorado's Great Sand Dunes Notice in the first pic the semi-buried branches. The bulk of the dunes is stationary, but there are "escape dunes" that can migrate, sometimes daily, and can create patches of ghost forest. This clip inspired by this one, and by experiencing them firsthand.
1
Clips
Latest Pops
Latest Comments
Most Pops
Tags
Print
Save
Turn on live update