Hobo Jungle

[clouser]

Did I recently read somewhere that the planet Mars will be the closest to Earth for viewing and that the next time this occurs will be 5,000 years from now?

hoax buddy

http://www.snopes.com/science/mars.asp

[Del Mar]

This just in....

Wed Aug 2, 7:30 AM ET

NEW DELHI - In an effort to keep monkeys out of the New Delhi subways, authorities have called in one of the few animals known to scare the creatures — a fierce-looking primate called the langur, the Hindustan Times newspaper reported Wednesday.

The decision to hire a langurwallah — a man who trains and controls the langurs — came after a monkey got into a metro car in June, the newspaper reported.

The langur handler is being paid a retainer of India rupees 6,900 ($160) a month, and "he will be called whenever there is a monkey problem," Anuj Dayal, the spokesman for the Delhi Metro Rail Corp., was quoted as saying.

On June 9, a monkey reportedly crawled through some pipes and ended up aboard a train, scowling at passengers and jumping around a car.

Passengers had to be moved to another car while staff chased the dexterous creature, causing delays.

The langur handler was being employed to prevent more such problems.

"There are too many monkeys," Dayal was quoted as saying.

[webenda]

Hev asks, "Who knows?"
San reports, "There are too many monkeys."

The only way to know if the Mars thing is true or from the monkeys is to figure it out for yourself.

EXPERIMENTAL METHOD

1) I went out and looked on October 27, 2005 (last close approach.) Mars looked like a star.

2) I took photos with my zoom lens at maximum (380 mm equivalent.) Mars was not as big as the Moon. I enlarged the image x75 to get it as large.

Conclusion: Mars did not look as large as the moon without magnification. The e-mail was half true (Mars was bright and large) and half lie (Mars was not as large as the Moon.)



MATHEMATICAL METHOD

Mars orbit = 227,940,000 km from Sun
Earth orbit = 149,600,000 km from Sun
Distance between orbits = Mars orbit - Earth orbit = 227,940,000 - 149,600,000 = 78,340,000 kilometers.
Angular size of Mars at close approach to Earth = arcsine (Mars diameter / Mars distance) = arcsine (6,794 / 78,340,000) = 17.9 arc seconds.

Now the orbits are not circular, so sometimes the closest approach is closer than at other times. The 2003 closest approach brought the Earth and Moon within 55,758,006 kilometers of each other.
Angular size of Mars at closest to Earth = arcsine (Mars diameter / Mars distance) = arcsine (6,794 / 55,758,006) = 25.1 arc seconds.

And the Moon...
Moon orbit = 384,400 kilometers
Moon diameter = 3,476 kilometers
Angular size of Moon = arcsine (Moon diameter / Moon distance) = arcsine (3,476 / 384, 400) = 1,865 arc seconds (1/2 degree.)

The original article about Mars Close Approach said that through a 75 power telescope, mars would appear a big as the Moon. Check it out. 25.1 arc seconds x 75 power = 1,882.5 arc seconds. So that was true. By leaving the telescope part out, the e-mail became a hoax.

The e-mail Hev received left out the part about a 75 power telescope. Us humans are easily deceived. A friend of mine (an engineer yet!) went out, saw the Moon, and got all excited. He came to work to report, "Its true!!! Mars looks as big as the Moon!!!!!!!) I showed him the math. Being an engineer, he immediately saw that he was fooled. Boy was his face red.

Regarding the date of Mars' next close approach, do a google search. You can find, "The next time Mars will be fairly close is December of 2007."

[Del Mar]

Another thing I would like to know is why do the Chinese put whitewalls on their nuclear missle transporters?



San

[2railjon]

Fish from heavens rain on Manna
Mon Jul 24, 2006 5:24 PM IST
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - The people of Kerala in India's southwest are famed for turning fish into spicy feasts fit for gods, but last week the heavens turned provider as fish rained down on the village of Manna, a newspaper reported on Monday.

When the clouds broke last Thursday, villagers said they saw small, pencil-thin live fish falling from the sky.

"Initially no one noticed it. But soon, we saw some slushy objects on the ground and noticed some slight movement," Abubaker, a local shop owner, was quoted as saying in the Hindustan Times.

"I alone collected 30 ice-cold fish of which many died," said the resident of Manna, 20 km from Kannur, in the north of the state.

Locals said the fish looked like parals, a common freshwater fish found in lakes and rivers.

[Del Mar]

fish rained down

Imagine the reaction of a pet cat.

San

[2railjon]

Interesting reading.
http://www.grumpyom.com/archives/2005/02/index.html

[dougdagrump]

I see Wayne is posting today, was kinda wondering if you mite be surfing on some of those desert flash floods you guys have had the past few days. Guess it's El Paso's turn last nite.

[webenda]

Doug,

No surfing on the floods. Just as Flitcraft got used to beams falling, I have gotten used to summers of 110 degrees and flash floods. If you want to see some photos, try clicking on the slide show in today's http://www.azstarnet.com/ site. It is about the floods.

I lived in California for 30 years. I got used to earthquakes. My wife is from Tucson. Shortly after we got married, we were vacationing in California. About 2 AM an earthquake occured. She woke me up and asked what was wrong with me. (She thought I was having convulsions.) I looked around, saw curtains swaying and lamps falling off the tables, and told her, "It is just an earthquake, go back to sleep."

As Sam Spade said, "Man is adaptive and habitual." Now, many years latter, I have gotten used to earthquakes not happening and flash floods happening. It is normal weather here.

[hev52]

Been hearin' about your floods out there Wayne. I guess the desert plants are fairly green now from the looks of the trees in the background of this picture...................






Sure miss that country out there since I stopped truckin'.



hev

[rogruth]

Echos of Charles Fort.

[dougdagrump]

Wayne, You know we don't call them "earthquakes" anymore. If they are small they're either a foot massage or a butt massage depending if you are sitting or standing. But if they are bigger they are now referred to as "Urban Renewel".

[2railjon]

The Chunky Creek Train Wreck of 1863:

http://nchgs.org/history/trainwreck/

[webenda]

Hev,

The Sonoran Desert is the greenest desert I have ever seen... all year long.

This year's floods do not deserve the name. As you can see, the water did not evern overflow the dry stream bed. We have a lot of river crossings without bridges. Lots of people got washed down stream when they tried to cross. Happens every year. Arizona even has a "Stupid Law." If those people have to be rescued, they pay for the rescue and are fined for being stupid.

A lot of new housing was built in areas that used to fill with water during flash floods. The new owners are mighty unhappy to be living in a temporary lake. The contractor is going to have to improve the drainage. They all should pay a fine for being stupid.

Doug,

LOL You see? What ever you have, you just get used to it.

[P&R Pete]

We got a 76 year old woman admitted last night. She was despondent over the recent death of her husband, so she decided to kill herself and join him in death. Thinking it would be best to get it over with quickly, she took out his old pistol and made the decision to shoot herself in the heart since she felt it was so badly broken in the first place. Not wanting to miss the vital organ and become a vegetable and a burden to someone, she had called her doctor's office to learn her heart's exact location. Her doctor had told her that "Since you are a woman, your heart is just below your left breast".

Later that night, she was admitted to the hospital with a gunshot wound to her left knee.