Did you know 2

Thursday, October 16, 2008

Did you know these the world largest relescope is...


The largest telescope in the world is currently being constructed in northern Chile.

The telescope will utilize four - 26 ft. 8 in. (8.13 meters) mirrors which will gather as much light as a single 52 ft. 6 in. (16 meters) mirror.

The Hubble Space Telescope weighs 12 tons (10,896 kilograms), is 43 feet (13.1 meters) long, and cost $2.1 billion to originally build.

The longest living cells in the body are brain cells which can live an entire lifetime.

The largest flying animal was the pterosaur which lived 70 million years ago. This reptile had a wing span of 36-39 feet (11-11.9 meters) and weighed 190-250 pounds (86-113.5 kilograms).

The Atlantic Giant Squid's eye can be as large as 15.75 inches (40 centimeters) wide.
Armadillos, opossums, and sloth's spend about 80% of their lives sleeping.

The starfish species, Porcellanaster ivanovi, has been found to live in water as deep as 24,881 feet (7,584 meters).

The tentacles of the giant Arctic jellyfish can reach 120 feet (36.6 meters) in length.

The greatest tide change on earth occurs in the Bay of Fundy. The difference between low tide and high tide can be as great as 54 ft. 6 in. (16.6 meters).

The highest temperature produced in a laboratory was 920,000,000 F (511,000,000 C) at the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor in Princeton, NJ, USA.

Did you know who's birthday is today, Oct 16?

Did you know who's birthday is today:

1980 Jeremy Jackson - actor

1977 John Mayer - singer-guitarist

1975 Kellie Martin - actress

1969 Wendy Wilson - singer (Wilson Phillips)

1962 Flea - rock bassist (Red Hot Chili Peppers)

1960 Gary Kemp - guitarist (Spandau Ballet)

1958 Tim Robbins - actor

1953 Tony Carey - keyboardist (Rainbow)

1947 David Zucker - director

1947 Bob Weir - guitarist, singer (Grateful Dead)

1946 Suzanne Somers - actress

1943 C.F. Turner - bassist, singer (Bachman Turner Overdrive)

1941 Tim McCarver - baseball player

1940 Barry Corbin - actor

1927 Gunter Grass - author

1925 Angela Lansbury - actress (Murder, She Wrote)

1923 Bert Kaempfert - composer

1906 George Lott - tennis player

1898 William O. Douglas - US Supreme Court Justice

1888 Eugene O'Neill - playwright

1886 David Ben-Gurion - Israeli prime minister

1854 Oscar Wilde - playwright

1758 Noah Webster - author (Webster's Dictionary)

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Did you know who's birthday is today, Oct 15?

Did you know who was Born today:
1970 Ginuwine - singer
1970 Eric Benet - singer
1962 Mark Reznicek - drummer (The Toadies)
1959 Sarah 'Fergie' Ferguson - Duchess of York
1955 Tanya Roberts - actress
1953 Tito Jackson - singer (The Jackson Five)
1948 Chris De Burgh - singer
1946 Richard Carpenter - keyboardist, singer (Carpenters)
1945 Jim Palmer - baseball pitcher, sportscaster
1942 Don Stevenson - drummer (Moby Grape)
1942 Penny Marshall - actress, director
1937 Barry McGuire - singer, songwriter (New Christy Minstrels)
1924 Lee Iacocca - Chrysler chairman
1921 Mario Puzo - author
1920 Chris Economaki - sportscaster (ABC)
1908 Robert Trout - broadcast journalist
1900 Mervyn LeRoy - film director
1858 John L. Sullivan - heavyweight boxing champ (1881-89)
1844 Friedrich Nietzsche - philosopher

Tuesday, October 14, 2008

Did you know that 30,000 Florida felons remain registered to vote



Did you know that in Florida - More than 30,000 Florida felons who by law should have been stripped of their right to vote remain registered to cast ballots in this presidential battleground state, a Sun Sentinel investigation has found. Many are faithful voters, with at least 4,900 turning out in past elections. Another 5,600 are not likely to vote Nov. 4 — they're still in prison. Of the felons who registered with a party, Democrats outnumber Republicans more than two to one. to see more

20 Amazing Facts AboutVoting in the USA

Did you know these 20 Amazing Facts AboutVoting in the USA?

by Angry GirlNightweed.com

1. 80% of all votes in America are counted by only two companies: Diebold and ES&S.http://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.htmlhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Diebold
2. There is no federal agency with regulatory authority or oversight of the U.S. voting machine industry. http://www.commondreams.org/views02/0916-04.htmhttp://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html
3. The vice-president of Diebold and the president of ES&S are brothers.http://www.americanfreepress.net/html/private_company.htmlhttp://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html 4. The chairman and CEO of Diebold is a major Bush campaign organizer and donor who wrote in 2003 that he was "committed to helping Ohio deliver its electoral votes to the president next year." http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtmlhttp://www.wishtv.com/Global/story.asp?S=1647886 5. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel used to be chairman of ES&S. He became Senator based on votes counted by ES&S machines.http://www.motherjones.com/commentary/columns/2004/03/03_200.htmlhttp://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/031004Fitrakis/031004fitrakis.html 6. Republican Senator Chuck Hagel, long-connected with the Bush family, was recently caught lying about his ownership of ES&S by the Senate Ethics Committee. http://www.blackboxvoting.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=26http://www.hillnews.com/news/012903/hagel.aspxhttp://www.onlisareinsradar.com/archives/000896.php 7. Senator Chuck Hagel was on a short list of George W. Bush's vice-presidential candidates. http://www.businessweek.com/2000/00_28/b3689130.htmhttp://theindependent.com/stories/052700/new_hagel27.html 8. ES&S is the largest voting machine manufacturer in the U.S. and counts almost 60% of all U.S. votes.http://www.essvote.com/HTML/about/about.htmlhttp://www.onlinejournal.com/evoting/042804Landes/042804landes.html 9. Diebold's new touch screen voting machines have no paper trail of any votes. In other words, there is no way to verify that the data coming out of the machine is the same as what was legitimately put in by voters. http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htmhttp://www.itworld.com/Tech/2987/041020evotestates/pfindex.html 10. Diebold also makes ATMs, checkout scanners, and ticket machines, all of which log each transaction and can generate a paper trail. http://www.commondreams.org/views04/0225-05.htmhttp://www.diebold.com/solutions/default.htm 11. Diebold is based in Ohio. http://www.diebold.com/aboutus/ataglance/default.htm 12. Diebold employed 5 convicted felons as consultants and developers to help write the central compiler computer code that counted 50% of the votes in 30 states.http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,61640,00.htmlhttp://portland.indymedia.org/en/2004/10/301469.shtml 13. Jeff Dean was Senior Vice-President of Global Election Systems when it was bought by Diebold. Even though he had been convicted of 23 counts of felony theft in the first degree, Jeff Dean was retained as a consultant by Diebold and was largely responsible for programming the optical scanning software now used in most of the United States.http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0312/S00191.htm http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#howhttp://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf 14. Diebold consultant Jeff Dean was convicted of planting back doors in his software and using a "high degree of sophistication" to evade detection over a period of 2 years. http://www.chuckherrin.com/HackthevoteFAQ.htm#howhttp://www.blackboxvoting.org/bbv_chapter-8.pdf 15. None of the international election observers were allowed in the polls in Ohio. http://www.globalexchange.org/update/press/2638.htmlhttp://www.enquirer.com/editions/2004/10/26/loc_elexoh.html 16. California banned the use of Diebold machines because the security was so bad. Despite Diebold's claims that the audit logs could not be hacked, a chimpanzee was able to do it! (See the movie here: http://blackboxvoting.org/baxter/baxterVPR.mov.) http://wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,63298,00.htmlhttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4874190 17. 30% of all U.S. votes are carried out on unverifiable touch screen voting machines with no paper trail. http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2004/07/28/sunday/main632436.shtml 18. All -- not some -- but all the voting machine errors detected and reported in Florida went in favor of Bush or Republican candidates. http://www.wired.com/news/evote/0,2645,65757,00.htmlhttp://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htmhttp://www.rise4news.net/extravotes.htmlhttp://www.ilcaonline.org/modules.php?op=modload&name=News&file=article&sid=950http://www.scoop.co.nz/mason/stories/HL0411/S00227.htm 19. The governor of the state of Florida, Jeb Bush, is the President's brother.http://www.tallahassee.com/mld/tallahassee/news/local/7628725.htmhttp://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A10544-2004Oct29.html 20. Serious voting anomalies in Florida -- again always favoring Bush -- have been mathematically demonstrated and experts are recommending further investigation.http://www.yuricareport.com/ElectionAftermath04/ThreeResearchStudiesBushIsOut.htmhttp://www.computerworld.com/governmenttopics/government/policy/story/0,10801,97614,00.htmlhttp://www.americanfreepress.net/html/tens_of_thousands.htmlhttp://www.commondreams.org/headlines04/1106-30.htmhttp://www.consortiumnews.com/2004/110904.htmlhttp://uscountvotes.org/

States That Bar Ex-Offenders from Voting


Did you know that these states bar Ex-Offenders from Voting?

AlabamaArizonaDelawareFlorida IowaKentuckyMarylandMississippiNevadaNew MexicoTennesseeVirginia WashingtonWyomingTexas

Alabama has disenfranchised 241,000 people, more than 40 percent of whom (105,000) are black men. Nearly one out of three black men in the state has lost the right to vote (31.5 percent). The right to vote can only be restored by a pardon from the governor. In 1996 and 1997, only 359 people were able to regain the ability to vote.


Arizona has disenfranchised 74,600 adults, or 2.3 percent of the adult population. But the rate is five times higher for black men, of whom 12.1 percent have lost the right to vote. First offenders have their right to vote restored automatically after they complete their sentence. Offenders who have been convicted of more than one offense can only get the right to vote back by waiting at least two years after release from prison and applying to the court or by obtaining a pardon from the governor.


Delaware has disenfranchised more than 20,000 people, or 3.7 percent of the population. Of those, 8,700 are black men. One in five adult black men cannot vote in the state of Delaware. The only way they can regain their voting rights is to obtain a pardon from the governor.

Florida has disenfranchised more people than any other state in the country - 647,100 people.

This constitutes a rate of 5.9 percent of the adult population, which is three times the national average. Florida also has taken the vote away from more black men than any other state in the country - 204,600 people. Nearly one-third of all the disenfranchised people in the state are black men. More than two-thirds of these disenfranchised people have already served their time and been released from prison, or finished their probation or parole. If they want their voting rights back, they need to obtain a gubernatorial order restoring their civil rights, or they must obtain a pardon.


Iowa has disenfranchised more than one in four black men, or 26.5 percent. In total, 42,300 adults have been disenfranchised, and 60 percent of them are not in prison. Only the governor can restore their voting rights.


Kentucky has disenfranchised 0.8 percent of the adult population, including 7.7 percent of the state's black men, because they are currently under correctional supervision. The state also disenfranchises ex-offenders, but those figures are not available. Of the disenfranchised people in the state, 29 percent are black men. Only the governor can restore the right to vote.

Maryland is one of four states in which black men comprise more than half of all disenfranchised people. Of the total adult black male population in Maryland, 15.4 percent cannot vote, or 67,900 people. Of the total adult population, 3.6 percent have lost the vote, which is double the national average. First offenders regain the right to vote automatically, but second offenders do not. They need a pardon from the governor.


Mississippi has disenfranchised 145,600 people. More than half of the disenfranchised (81,700) are black men, representing 28.6 percent of the black men in the state. Convicted felons can regain the right to vote through a pardon or executive order of the governor, or if the state legislature passes a bill, and the governor signs it, restoring their voting rights.
Nevada has disenfranchised 10 percent of the black men in the state, or 4,000 people, because they are currently under correctional supervision. The state also disenfranchises ex-offenders, but those figures are not available. One out of four of the currently disenfranchised people in the state are black men. They can regain the vote through various administrative procedures, or by a pardon from the governor.


New Mexico has disenfranchised one out of four black men. Four percent of the adult population has lost the right to vote, or 48,900 people. Of these, 38,000 have completed their sentences, or nearly 80 percent. Convicted felons can only regain the vote if they obtain a pardon or restoration of rights from the governor.


Tennessee has disenfranchised 97,800 people, or 2.4 percent of the adult population. More than half of these are people who have already served their time and been released. Nearly two-fifths of them are black men (39 percent), and 14.5 percent of all black men in the state cannot vote. People who were convicted before 1986 can only get their voting rights back by petitioning the court, while most of those convicted after 1986 get their rights back automatically.


Virginia has disenfranchised 269,800 adults, or 5.3 percent of the total population, which is more than twice the national average. Eighty percent of those people have already completed their sentences. More than forty percent of them are black men. One out of four black men in Virginia cannot vote, or 110,000 people. Convicted felons may apply to the governor to restore their voting rights five years after they've completed their sentences. In 1996 and 1997, a total of 404 ex-offenders had their voting rights restored.


Washington has disenfranchised 16,700 black men, or one out of four black men in the state. Ex-offenders convicted prior to July 1, 1984 remain disenfranchised unless they receive a pardon. After 1984, convicted felons lose the vote while in prison, on probation, or on parole.
Wyoming has disenfranchised 4 percent of the state's adults --14,100 people --which is a rate twice the national average. More than one in four black men (27.7 percent) in Wyoming is barred from voting. Three-quarters of the state's disenfranchised adults are ex-offenders who have completed their criminal sentences. The right to vote can only be restored by the governor.


Texas is not one of the fourteen states that permanently disenfranchises ex-offenders. But it does bar ex-offenders from voting for two years following completion of their sentence. Texas has the second highest number of disenfranchised people in the country: 610,000 adults, or 4.5 percent of its adult population, twice the national average. One quarter of those people are black. Twenty percent of the black men in the state cannot vote.

Did you know who's birthday is today, Oct 14?


Did you know who was Born today:

1978 Usher - singer

1974 Natalie Maines - country singer (Dixie Chicks)

1958 Thomas Dolby - singer

1956 Arleen Sorkin - actress, TV hostess

1953 Greg Evigan - actor

1952 Harry Anderson - actor, comedian (Night Court, Cheers)

1950 Sheila Young - Olympic gold medal speed skater

1948 Marcia Barrett - singer (Boney M)

1947 Charley Joiner - NFL wide receiver

1946 Justin Hayward - guitarist, singer (Moody Blues)

1942 Billy Harrison - guitarist (Them)

1941 J.C. Snead - golfer

1940 Cliff Richard - singer

1939 Ralph Lauren - fashion designer

1928 Robert Webber - actor

1928 Roger Moore - actor

1916 C. Everett Koop - US Surgeon General

1910 John Wooden - UCLA basketball coach

1905 Eugene Fodor - travel author

1890
Dwight D. Eisenhower - 34th US president; 5 star Army General

1644 William Penn - Quaker leader

Did you Know

Did you know that the average human brain contains approximately 86 billion neurons? These remarkable cells form intricate networks, allowing us to think, feel, and experience the world around us. Each neuron communicates with others through electrical impulses, creating a symphony of thoughts, memories, and emotions. So next time you ponder life’s mysteries, remember that your brain is orchestrating a cosmic dance of neurons!