Did You Know.....

[Warph]

Longest Polar Bear Swim Recorded—426 Miles Straight

Study predicts more long-distance swims due to shrinking sea ice.

The data in this study was acquired between 2004 and 2009, when biologists collared 68 female polar bears to observe their movement patterns. The incredible mother bear traveled a length approximately equal to the distance between Boston and Washington, D.C.! The bear also lost 22 percent of its body weight during the nine-day aquatic journey, and tragically, her young cub alo passed away. These sorts of marathon swims are a new phenomenon for polar bears with the shrinking ice caps caused by global warming, and it appears that they will only be getting longer. The data was also compared to cub losses, and the researchers found that mothers who swim long distances are more likely to experience the death of their young.


Source:  http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2011/07/110720-polar-bears-global-warming-sea-ice-science-environment/

[Warph]

You can fit all the planets in our solar system into Jupiter and there still would be room.  Jupiter has a volume of 1.4313×10^15 km3 or equivalent 1321.3 Earths.  The combined volume of all the other planets in our solar system, Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune is only equivalent of 886.48 Earths.  Adding in Pluto, which has only 0.0059 the volume of Earth, doesn't help much either.  Not only that, but the mass of Jupiter is more than twice the combined mass of the rest of the solar system's planets.

Source:[/b]  http://www.solarviews.com/eng/jupiter.htm

[W. Gray]

As we all know, fellow Kansan Clyde Tombaugh discovered the "planet" Pluto back in 1929.

I have now read that Pluto has four moons.

[larryJ]

Let me intrude on your thread, Warph.

Did you know?  Orvon Grover Autry (1909-1998) is, of course, better known as Gene Autry, "The Singing Cowboy."  His signature song was "Back in the Saddle Again," but he might be better known for Christmas holiday songs, including "Here Comes Santa Claus," "Frosty the Snowman," and "Rudolph, the Red-Nosed Reindeer."  He was married to Ina May Spivey from 1932 until her death in 1980.  The following year, Autry married Jacqueline Ellam, who had been his banker.  He had no children by either marriage.  Autry has five stars on the Hollywood Walk of Fame --  the only celebrity to hold that distinction.  There is one for each of the five categories maintained by the Hollywood Chamber of Commerce.

Larryj

[W. Gray]

I would like to add that Gene Autry was the star of a 1937 movie in which he played a sheriff looking for the bad guys.

One of the bad guys got the drop on Autry, but Autry was able to knock the gun out of his hand and then engage in a fistfight knocking the bad guy down a hill and defeating him.

The bad guy he fought with was a bit part actor using the stage name Dick Weston.

One year later, the Dick Weston stage name was changed to Roy Rogers.

[Warph]

Guys, you can intrude anytime you want.  The more, the merrier.  If you have any stories of interest, by all means bring 'em on.  The Orvon Grover Autry and Leonard Franklin Slye (Gene and Roy) info was great.  When I was a kid growing up in Carpinteria, CA, I would spend my Saturday's mornings at the old Plaza Theatre watching Roy, Gene and Hopalong riding in on Trigger, Champion and... (forgot Hoppy's horse) ... taking out the bad guys.  They always started out with a Phantom Empire episode with Gene and then a full length movie with one of the three of them.  I must have saw Ph. Empire episodes (12 of them) 20 times back then.  After the movie, I'd hustle down to the beach to my Dad's Snack Shack and clean the surfboards that he rented out.  Oh yeah, those were the days.  Not a care in the world.

[Warph]

To Boldly Go: What Made 400 People Volunteer for a One-Way Mission to Mars?

An edition of the Journal of Cosmology has prompted more than 400 people to volunteer for a trip to Mars as colonists, according to an article in Fox News.

"I've had a deep desire to explore the universe ever since I was a child and understood what a rocket was," Peter Greaves told FoxNews.com.  Greaves is the father of three, and a jack-of-all-trades who started his own motorcycle dispatch company and fixes computers and engines on the side.

It would take a special breed to handle the difficulties of a trip to Mars with currently available technology, a typical minimum cost trajectory would take about 260 days.  And then, you'd be stuck there.

"It's going to be a very long period of isolation and confinement," said Albert Harrison, who has studied astronaut psychology since the 1970s as a professor of psychology at UC Davis.  He also warned that life on Mars wouldn't be as romantic as it sounded.

"After the excitement of blast-off, and after the initial landing on Mars, it will be very difficult to avoid depression.  After all, one is breaking one's connections with family, friends, and all things familiar," he told FoxNews.com.

"Each day will be pretty much like the rest.  The environment, once the novelty wears off, is likely to be deadly boring.  Despite being well prepared and fully equipped there are certain to be unanticipated problems that cannot be remedied.  One by one the crew will get old, sick, and die-off."

Source:  http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2011/01/10/space-volunteer-way-mission-mars/

[Judy Harder]

I looked it up, and his name was Topper.
I too grew up with Roy and Gene and Hopalong and Tom and Tim Mix and (his horse was Tarzan, I think) and then
there was Sky King and I even liked Jack Elam........and Slim Whitman and then when Disney came out with kids books
I liked Spin and Marty...........anything dealing or showcasing horses. Oh, don't forget Dale Evans and ButterMilk, Smiley Burnett, and Gabby Hayes............Oh, they don't bring us good ending story's anymore. I know the shoot-em-ups didn't kill anyone.
and today when I watch, I am just in awe how gullible I was when they showed them..
Oh, to go back to such innocence.

[frawin]

Guys, you can intrude anytime you want.  The more, the merrier.  If you have any stories of interest, by all means bring 'em on.  The Orvon Grover Autry and Leonard Franklin Slye (Gene and Roy) info was great.  When I was a kid growing up in Carpinteria, CA, I would spend my Saturday's mornings at the old Plaza Theatre watching Roy, Gene and Hopalong riding in on Trigger, Champion and... (forgot Hoppy's horse) ... taking out the bad guys.  They always started out with a Phantom Empire episode with Gene and then a full length movie with one of the three of them.  I must have saw Ph. Empire episodes (12 of them) 20 times back then.  After the movie, I'd hustle down to the beach to my Dad's Snack Shack and clean the surfboards that he rented out.  Oh yeah, those were the days.  Not a care in the world.

Hopalong's horse was Topper.
Warph, When I first went to Midland Texas there was a great old gentlemen, named Bob Denton that was the Magnolia/Mobil Crude oil Rep, retired. Bob and Gene Autry worked together on the Railroad as Telegraphers at Tioga Texas. They stayed in touch by mail and an occascional phone call. Bob would bring in the letters that he got from Gene, they were always signed Orvon. I thought it was interesting that they had stayed in touch all of those years eventhou Gene had made it big time in the Movies and Sports ownership. Bob told me that Gene would set on the bench at the Railroad Depot and play his guitar and that is where Will Rogers first heard him play and talked him into doing some recordings.

[W. Gray]

Roy Rogers – Trigger
Gene Autry – Champion
Hopalong Cassidy – Topper
Tex Ritter – White Flash
Rex Allen – KoKo
Jimmy Stewart – Pie
Ken Maynard – Tarzan
Tom Mix – Tony
Bob Steele – Pirate
Wild Bill Elliot – Sonny, Dice, Thunder
Johnny Mack Brown – Rebel
Don "Red" Barry – Thunder
Smiley Burnette – Nellie
Leo "Poncho" Carillo  - Loco
Buster Crabbe – Falcon
Andy "Jingles" Devine – Joker
Allen Rocky Lane – Black Jack
Guy "Wild Bill Hickok" Madison – Buckshot
Cisco Kid – Diablo
Lone Ranger – Silver
Tonto – Scout
Durango Kid – Raider
John Wayne (early on) – Duke
Jimmy Wakely – Sunset
Robert Livingston  (one of the three mesquiteers)  - Shamrock
Buck Jones – Silver
Eddie Dean – White Cloud