Merry Christmas!

Christmas waves a magic wand over this world, and behold, everything is softer and more beautiful.  ~Norman Vincent Peale

Christmas is forever, not for just one day,
for loving, sharing, giving, are not to put away
like bells and lights and tinsel, in some box upon a shelf.
The good you do for others is good you do yourself…
~Norman Wesley Brooks, “Let Every Day Be Christmas,” 1976

I wish we could put up some of the Christmas spirit in jars and open a jar of it every month.  ~Harlan Miller

A Christmas candle is a lovely thing;
It makes no noise at all,
But softly gives itself away.
~Eva Logue

Oh, for the good old days when people would stop Christmas shopping when they ran out of money.  ~Author Unknown

At Christmas play and make good cheer,
For Christmas comes but once a year
~Thomas Tusser

Nikola Tesla Childhood Accident

He almost died in a accident at a mill. He best described the accident in his autobiography:

“There was a large flour mill with a dam across the river near the city where I was studying at the time. As a rule the height of the water was only two or three inches above the dam and to swim to it was a sport not very dangerous in which I often indulged. One day I went alone to the river to enjoy myself as usual. When I was a short distance from the masonry,
however, I was horrified to observe that the water had risen and was carrying me along swiftly. I tried to get away but it was
too late. Luckily, though, I saved myself from being swept over by taking hold of the wall with both hands. The pressure
against my chest was great and I was barely able to keep my head above the surface. Not a soul was in sight and my voice
was lost in the roar of the fall. Slowly and gradually I became exhausted and unable to withstand the strain longer. Just as I
was about to let go, to be dashed against the rocks below, I saw in a flash of light a familiar diagram illustrating the
hydraulic principle that the pressure of a fluid in motion is proportionate to the area exposed and automatically I turned on
my left side. As if by magic, the pressure was reduced and I found it comparatively easy in that position to resist the force of
the stream. But the danger still confronted me. I knew that sooner or later I would be carried down, as it was not possible
for any help to reach me in time, even if I had attracted attention. I am ambidextrous now, but then I was left-handed and
had comparatively little strength in my right arm. For this reason I did not dare to turn on the other side to rest and nothing
remained but to slowly push my body along the dam. I had to get away from the mill towards which my face was turned, as
the current there was much swifter and deeper. It was a long and painful ordeal and I came near to failing at its very end,
for I was confronted with a depression in the masonry. I managed to get over with the last ounce of my strength and fell in a
swoon when I reached the bank, where I was found.”

Mariana Trench

The Mariana Trench

—————————————————————————————————————————————————————————–

The Mariana Trench (in the Pacific Ocean) supposedly was formed by “Ocean to ocean subduction” and is the deepest place in the sea and the earth, and at seven miles deep, only one attempt to reach the bottom has been successful. The names of the oceanographers who made it are: “Don Welsh” and “Jacques Piccard,” they reached the bottom of the Mariana Trench in a mini-sub called the Trieste and were members of the U.S. Navy.

The Navy purchased the “bathyscaphe” (or “deep subs” are the deepest diving subs) from Italy for $ 250,000 ($1,819,517 in 2010 value) in the 1960s for the purpose of scientific research. The sub was almost completely a gas tank, being able to carry 70 tons of gas, and the only occupied part of the sub was the dome on the bottom, which was plated with bronze.

The Trench is divided in several sections and the deepest of them is the Challenger Deep named by Piccard while on a fishing boat “Converted into a laboratory.” Their goal was to reach the bottom of the Challenger Deep. On 26 August 1953 they dived, and they went down using thrusters and at 9,840 feet they began to slow down as a impact would be fatal. The sudden pressure of stopping cracked one of the windows, but it was an outer window and was of no danger.  To come back up they released 2.2 tons of “iron-pellet ballast.” They reached the surface and they set the record for the deepest dive in history, the record has never been broken. One robot came within two feet of the record, but had to surface. Jacques died November 1, 2008 and Don Walsh is still alive at the age of 80

———————
“Just remember, you can do anything you set your mind to, but it takes action, perseverance, and facing your fears.” ~ Gillian Anderson

End Comments:
The Trench is located approximately 585.96 miles from Tokyo Japan
Visit the image gallery for more images.
You can see a video of the Trieste here.

Source[s]:
http://marianatrench.com/
http://www.pbs.org/wnet/savageseas/deep-side-journey.html
http://thinkexist.com/quotation/just_remember-you_can_do_anything_you_set_your/207562.html
Odious Oceans, by: Anita Ganeri

Kitt Peak National Observatory

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Kit Peak National Observatory, (abbreviated KPNO) member of NOAO (National Optical Astronomy Observatory) is “50 minutes southwest of Tucson” in Arizona. Aden B. Meinel (the first manager) chose the mountain as the building spot for an observatory with a contract from NSF (National Science Foundation) with the land being leased from Tohono O’odham (a group of native Americans in Arizona) in 1958. The “council” approved the lease for unknown reasons in the 1950s, charging a first-time payment of $25,000 and after that $10 per acre per year. By 2005 they had 22 telescopes for eight different organisations, and after the NOAO started planning 7 more telescopes called: The Very Energetic Radiation Imaging Telescope Array System (VERITAS) The Tohono O’odham became angry because they were trespassing on sacred grounds, and in 2005 they took legal action on NOAO.

“Kitt Peak observatory never should have been built, The one thing that keeps bothering me, is that they want to keep building and building and building. They keep desecrating the mountain over and over again.” ~ Mildred Antone, Tohono O’odham

They attempted to stop construction of the 17 million dollar project and harassed several employees, an example would be when they stopped someone in his car. “Most Tohono O’odham are friendly, but the tribe has shown no interest in tourism.”

You could take a free virtual tour here.
You can see there hours here.

Apollo 11

——————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

Apollo Mission Emblem

Apollo 11 was the first moon landing carrying Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin, it was launched July 16, 1969 13:32:00 UTC on the purpose of reaching the moon before the Soviets (who launched the 184-pound Sputnik I) and before the end of the 1960s. This goal was set by President John Fitzgerald Kennedy (John F. Kennedy) when he said in front of congress: “I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to the Earth.” Apollo 11 was part of NASA’s Apollo mission which had many failures, a rocket blowing up “Practically every day” “It looked like a … quick way to have a short career.” and everyone on board had been on other missions and so the were called “veterans.” It was launched from The Kennedy Space Center Launch Complex 39 A.K.A “Mission Control.” They then launched it and while in flight the switch for the Portable Life Support System (PLSS) broke and Buzz Aldrin used AG-7 black ink pen to fix it, Paul Fisher (who designed the “Space Pen”) took advantage of it instantly, saying they used it to “push in the bi-metallic strip of the breaker assembly, thus saving two of the Apollo 11 crew from being stranded on the moon.” —————————————– Bonus Material from taylorspectrum on Buzz Aldrin, “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.” ~ Neil Armstrong Buzz Aldrin punches conspiracy reporter, Source[s]:

1. http://www.nasm.si.edu/collections/imagery/apollo/as11/a11.htm
2. http://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/apollo/missions/apollo11.html
3. http://history.nasa.gov/ap11ann/kippsphotos/apollo.html
4. http://spaceflight.nasa.gov/history/apollo/apollo11/index.html
5. http://www.flightglobal.com/airspace/media/apolloprogram/images/32423/diagram-of-apollo-11-route.jpg
6. http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/07/090720-apollo-11-moon-facts.html

The Wardenclyffe Tower

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

The Wardenclyffe Tower was built by “The Man Who Invented the 20th Century” Nikola Tesla as the first telecommunications tower, but mainly as a demonstration that it is possible to send energy without the connection of wires. The accompanying building was designed by Stanford White, a wealthy and famous architect of the time. The tower was named after James S. Warden, the man who contributed 200 acres to the project. The initial funding was provided by John Pierpont Morgan who contributed $ 150,000 (which in 2010 dollars would be $ 3,878,091) but more  funding was found by other benefactors, the  second biggest benefactor being John Jacob Astor. Nikola  Tesla began planning the tower in 1898 and began building in 1901. The tower was designed by W D Crow,  who was an associate of White. In June 1902 Tesla Moved his laboratory from Houston Street to the  tower, because of his tight personal financial situation. The tower was to have been completed by 1903  but was still nonfunctional due to several last-minute changes in design (it was functional to the extent of lighting a light bulb up to 2 miles away). Around this time he talked to a radio operator across the pacific ocean. However a rumor was started  that the energy consumption from the outside, could not be measured, thus anyone could receive energy from it without being detected and Morgan, saw no reason for providing free energy to everyone and he then withdrew his funding and over a period of time, convinced the other benefactors to do the same.  By July 1904 all benefactors had cut their funding for the building of the facility. With no funding Tesla  looked for other Benefactors but met with little to no success. In May 1905 Tesla’s patents on alternating  current motors and other methods of power transmission expired, halting royalty payments and leaving  him with almost no funding. By 1905 most activity of the site had to be shut down, employees were laid  off then but parts of the building remained in use until 1907, but by 1908 the mortgage was foreclosed.  But Tesla procured a new mortgage from George C. Boldt, proprietor of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, but the tower was partially abandoned around 1911. Between 1912 and 1915, Tesla’s finances unraveled, and he was asked how he would repay the benefactors and could give no satisfactory answer. He had fallen into a depression at this time because a fire had destroyed most of his instruments and notes at his apartment. In 1915, legal ownership of the Wardenclyffe property was transferred to George Boldt of the Waldorf-Astoria Hotel for a $20,000 debt (about $400,000 in 2010 dollars). In September 1917, (during World War I) the government feared that the tower was being used as a reference point for German submarines, and acting on this, blew up the tower with dynamite. George Boldt wished to make the property available for sale, On April 20, 1922 Tesla lost an appeal of judgment versus his backers in the second foreclosure, This kept him from any further work on the tower.

On February 14, 1967, the nonprofit public benefit corporation Brookhaven Town Historical Trust was established. It selected the Wardenclyffe Tower to be designated as a historic site and as the first site to be preserved by the Trust on March 3, 1967. On July 7, 1976, a plaque from Yugoslavia was installed by representatives from Brookhaven National Laboratory, it said:

IN THIS BUILDING
DESIGNED BY STANFORD WHITE, ARCHITECT
NIKOLA TESLA
BORN SMILJAN, YUGOSLAVIA 1856—DIED NEW YORK, U.S.A. 1943
CONSTRUCTED IN 1901-1905 WARDENCLYFFE
HUGE RADIO STATION WITH ANTENNA TOWER
187 FEET HIGH /DESTROYED 1917/, WHICH
WAS TO HAVE SERVED AS HIS FIRST WORLD
COMMUNICATIONS SYSTEM.
IN MEMORY OF 120TH ANNIVERSARY OF TESLA’S BIRTH
AND 200TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE U.S.A. INDEPENDENCE

July 10, 19760

The plaque was stolen from the land in November, 2009 and an anonymous benefactor is even now offering a $ 2,000 reward for it’s return. The Tesla Wardenclyffe Project, Inc. was established in 1994 for the purpose of having the Wardenclyffe Tower placed in the national register of historic places, a attempt had been made earlier, but was rejected. Designation of the structure as a National Landmark is awaiting completion of plant decommissioning activities by AGFA corporation (its present owner).

————————————————————————————————————————————————————————————

“The glow retreats, done is the day of toil;
It yonder hastes, new fields of life exploring;
Ah, that no wing can lift me from the soil
Upon its track to follow, follow soaring!

A glorious dream! though now the glories fade.
Alas! the wings that lift the mind no aid
Of wings to lift the body can bequeath me.” – Nikola Tesla