Miscellanea

Film Babe Ballerina

2010-09-03T18:00:58Z

Dancer and actress, Moira Shearer, who is best-remembered for her breathtaking performance as Vicky in the 1948 musical drama, The Red Shoes, will be the woman in the spotlight as our film babe for the weekend. The lithe and lovely redhead had already tasted success as a ballet dancer before she became internationally famous as a movie star with the release of The Red Shoes. Her film career would span a dozen years, though she appeared in only six motion pictures.

This scene comes from 1953 musical comedy, The Story of Three Loves, and gives one a sense of Shearer's dancing skills:

Higher Up

2010-09-03T16:00:24Z

Moving away from airplanes, and for that matter, the Earth, we'll turn to events from off-planet next and examine this simulated overview of the NASA Viking space program to commemorate the landing of the Viking 2 space probe on Mars today in 1976:

Tiny Speedsters

2010-09-03T15:00:04Z

In other airplane news, Jimmy Doolittle, who would later lead the first air attack against Japan in 1942, set an airspeed record of 296 miles per hour on this date in 1932 in the Thompson Trophy Air Race in Cleveland, Ohio; flying a Granville Brothers Aircraft Gee Bee Model R1, a strange looking little airplane with a fuselage that resembled a farm silo. The video clip below appears to provide a very brief glimpse of the R1 model flown by Doolittle (at the video's start), though the subject of the film is the R2, which was identical in looks to the R1, but equipped with a much less powerful engine:

The R2 depicted in the video is actually a replica.

Rocket Killers

2010-09-03T11:00:47Z

The British Hawker Tempest, which made its first flight yesterday in 1942 and was introduced to combat early in 1944, was especially effective against the German ME-262 jet fighters and V-1 rockets, credited with shooting down over 600 of the unmanned flying bombs. The Tempest had a top speed of 432 miles per hour, a service ceiling of 36,500 feet, and a range of 740 miles. The aircraft was used almost exclusively by the British Royal Air Force.

The airplane depicted in the above video is the Tempest Mark V.

A Dot on the Map

2010-09-02T15:00:51Z

The Principality of Sealand, the first nation to be formed on a man-made construct (atop a Maunsell sea fort), was founded today in 1967 in the North Sea. Situated off the coast of England near Suffolk, the tiny country has yet to be recognized by any other nation.

Flame On

2010-09-02T11:00:46Z

Beginning on September 1st, 1859, an intense solar flare, believed to be a coronal mass ejection, was spotted by British astronomer, Richard Carrington. It impacted the Earth the next day in a burst of electromagnetic radiation known as a solar storm, disrupting telegraph service in both North America and Europe. Fortunately, our civilization was not yet dependent on computers and other products of micro-circuitry (which are especially vulnerable in these events), or our recent ancestors might have had a much more trying experience...

According to NASA, the sun is expected to generate more of these solar storms in 2012-13.

Recent Discoveries

2010-09-01T15:00:42Z

Juno, one of the biggest asteroids in the belt between Mars and Jupiter, was discovered today in 1804 by the German astronomer, Karl L. Harding. A few more of these flying rocks have been discovered since, as the following video illustrates:

Actually, the film depicts asteroids discovered since 1980. The large yellow circle in the center is the sun, and the large turquoise dots circling it are the inner planets. The tinier green dots are the known asteroids. Initial discoveries will flash white when found before turning green. And those red dots? They are asteroids that could potentially hit Earth. (A big thanks goes out to one of our readers, Scott, for mentioning this video).

Into the Record Books

2010-09-01T11:00:33Z

The Lockheed SR-71 Blackbird made the flight from New York to London in 1 hour, 54 minutes and 56 seconds on this date in 1974, a record that still stands. The plane reached a peak speed of close to Mach 3.2 (average speed Mach 2.68), and was piloted by the U.S. Air Force pilot, Major James V. Sullivan. As a comparison, the Aérospatiale-BAC Concorde took almost three hours to make the trip, while the Boeing 747 required a little over six hours.

Let's examine the Blackbird this morning with some nice musical accompaniment:

New Club Member

2010-08-31T15:00:29Z

Other events in August...

France joined the thermonuclear bomb association this month in 1968 after concluding tests in the last week of August as part of their Canopus program, an exercise that would culminate with the detonation of a 2.6 megaton hydrogen bomb over the Fangataufa atoll, in the South Pacific, leaving the small island uninhabitable...

The Emperor's Month

2010-08-31T11:00:00Z

The month of August was named in honor of the first Roman Emperor, Caesar Augustus, who came into his own in 31 BC after defeating Marcus Antonius at Actium to become the sole leader of Rome. Proclaimed Augustus in 27 BC, he led the empire until his death in AD 14.

Although Augustus is no longer around to share his thoughts with us regarding this honorific, his house on the Palatine is still up and standing, and waiting for us to visit:

In the Showroom

2010-08-30T15:00:47Z

Concept cars...part 2

While we are out and about today shopping for new automobiles, let's go ahead and examine a few of these concept cars individually. The first vehicle on the block is the Pontiac Firebird...

...followed by the Plymouth Road Runner:

...and finally, the original American sports car, the Chevrolet Corvette:

Reader Assistance

2010-08-30T11:00:44Z

Concept cars...part 1

Hoping to address his perennial office tardiness, Danny took the day off and went car-shopping today. But as he browsed through the various automobiles in the showroom, he found it difficult to choose the appropriate vehicle. Perhaps you can help him: