12th November 2010Yesterday was (also) World Usability Day

Theme for 2010: Communication[http://www.worldusabilityday.org/]

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*Events [1]1847 (Sir)James Simpson, is the first physician, to use chloroform as an anaesthetic. In 1853 John Snow is using it on Queen Victoria during the birth of Prince Leopold (George Duncan Albert); a bleeder (1853 1884). Assisted childbirth becomes popular but Chloroform is soon phased out due to a tendency to cause, often fatal, cardiac arrhythmia (analogous to sudden sniffers death)1912 The bodies of Captain Robert Falcon Scott (18681912) , Edward Wilson, Henry Bowers, Lawrence Oates & Edgar Evans are discovered (8 months after their death from starvation, exhaustion, the freezing cold and (?) depression).

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*Events [2]1933 Hugh Gray walking back from Church sees, and photographs, Nessie, for the first time.1969 Independent investigative journalist Seymour Hersh first tells of the massacre of My Lai Village (16/03/1968) in which 347 (US) and 400+ (other sources) are killed. Images at: http://www.krysstal.com/democracy_vietnam_mylai.html1981 Space Shuttle Columbia (Mission STS-2) is the first manned spacecraft to be launched into space twice. Columbia is destroyed during re-entry on February 1, 2003 towards the end of its 28th flight.

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*Events [3]1982 Lech Wasa, (b.1943) a Polish Shipyard electrician and Solidarity leader, is released from prison after eleven months. Wins the 1983 the Nobel Peace Prize and is Polish president from 1990 -95.1990 (Sir) Tim [othy John] Berners-Lee, (b.1955) publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web. Apologises for the unnecessary slashes BBC14/10/09. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8306631.stm.)1998 Vice President Al Gore (b.1948) signs the Kyoto Protocol. (Films his An inconvenient Truth presentation, released 06, 2007 Nobel Peace Prize)))1998 Daimler-Benz merge with Chrysler.

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*Ins [1]1840 Auguste Rodin, sculptor (d. 1917)1842 John Strutt, 3rd Baron Rayleigh, and 1904 Nobel Prize for Physics winner (d. 1919). Explainer of the Blueness of the sky, discoverer of Argon &...1886 Ben Travers, playwright (farce) (d. 1980)1928 Bob Holness, TV Presenter and actor1929 Princess Grace of Monaco, American Actress (Grace Kelly) and Royalty by marriage. (d.1982)1939 Terry McDonald, footballer1943 Bjorn Waldegard, Swedish rally driver

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*Ins [2]1945 Tracy Kidder, American journalist & author. Pulitzer Prize winner (1981) for The Soul of a New Machine. This chronicles the experiences of an Skunkworks engineering team racing to design a next generation computer (Data Generals' Eclipse MV/8000) under a blistering schedule and tremendous pressure.

1945 Neil [Percival] Young, Canadian singer & musician. 1962 Mariella Frostrup, Norwegian, brought up in Co. Wicklow , now a journalist & presenter (radio and tv).

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*Outs [1]1035 Canute the Great (c40) (a natural death in Shaftesbury (Dorset) , not drowned, Harold succeeds. Let all men know how empty and worthless is the power of kings. For there is none worthy of the name but God, whom heaven, earth and sea obeyThe quote probably propaganda to show his wisdom (not arrogance) and, no doubt, helped by his support of the Church that could manipulate those that recorded and wrote the histories (which, generally, ignore his bigamy and responsibility for several expedient/political murders)! In 1017 he divided England into four super earldoms (Wessex, Mercia, East Anglia and Northumbria). In 1018 paid the last Danegeld of 82,000 ending the blackmail.

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*Outs [2]1595 John Hawkins (also Hawkyns), English shipbuilder, slave trader (?devisor of triangular trade) and treasurer of the Royal Navy (1577)(b. 1532)2001 Tony Miles, first English born chess Grandmaster player dies of heart complications from his diabetics (b. 1955). In 1980 he, most famously, wins (playing black) against reigning world champion Anatoly Karpov after using an opening that most of us would regard as amateurish or even silly but in his hand is simply an extremely unorthodox opening. http://www.chessgames.com/perl/chessgame?gid=1068157

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A Charabanc on a modified chassis of a Cork build Model T at the Stradbally Steam Fair, August 2009.

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Family Ford were of the Irish diaspora; emigrating at the height of the famine in 1847

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*(?)A pretty end - the Barrow bridge at Graiguenamanagh

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******Tom Crean's was left the main party (with 2 others) and thus survived. He contiuned Polar Exploration until, in 1920, here erturend home to Co Kerry and in his home town of Annascaul, he and his wife Ellen opened a pub ("South Pole Inn). He lived there quietly and unobtrusively until his death in 1938. (b1877).

(Sir) Peter Markham Scott (1909-1989) wildlife, conservationist (especially ornithologist (Slimbridge world wildlife founder) and Olympic (Bronze 1936) Sailor was only two when his father died. Godfather JM Barrie of Peter Pan fame!Robert Scott, in a last letter to his wife, sculptor Kathleen Bruce), advised her to make the boy interested in natural history if you can; it is better than games.Scott RF (editor Huxley, L) (1913) Last Expedition (vol 1), Smith, Elder & Co., London, 1913 (Quoted by Wikipedia).

*********Rayleigh scattering elastic scattering of light (or other electromagnetic radiation) by particles much smaller than its wavelength. (Can be by atoms/molecules common in gasses but can be solids/liquids. It is a function of the electric polarizability of the particles.) With sunlight the effect is most marked after dusk. It is a wave length energy elastic - effect.Argon, a noble gas (Ar = 18) is the third most common gas in the atmosphere (0.93%) more common than CO2.Argon gas has uses in incandescent and fluorescent lighting, and other types of gas discharge tubes. Argon makes a distinctive blue-green gas laser.

***Memory 2M (max) in 256 chips. PCB based, 1.3MIPS (CPU not interfaces)

Image downloaded from: http://www.google.co.uk/imgres?imgurl=http://mediaserver-2.vuodatus.net/g/63801/1231842865_mv8000.jpg&imgrefurl=http://inf_irr.vuodatus.net/blog/category/Yleinen&usg=__jUNsZB0awHrrdFITG7UB-R6RteA=&h=402&w=480&sz=162&hl=en&start=0&sig2=K1hNDl4Y-MNGvEZ-Rs76nQ&zoom=1&tbnid=aCyggq9-tqPQcM:&tbnh=139&tbnw=164&ei=2r3aTN2HLdWqhAe0iYz_Dw&prev=/images%3Fq%3DData%2BGenerals%2527%2BEclipse%2BMV/8000%2B%2522creative%2Bcommons%2522%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG%26rlz%3D1I7ADRA_en%26biw%3D1259%26bih%3D818%26tbs%3Disch:1&um=1&itbs=1&iact=hc&vpx=324&vpy=474&dur=8277&hovh=205&hovw=245&tx=102&ty=127&oei=2r3aTN2HLdWqhAe0iYz_Dw&esq=1&page=1&ndsp=24&ved=1t:429,r:13,s:0 [10/11/10] via a creative commons search

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