|
Santa in Space -- Saturday,
December 22, 2001
Here's a story about Santa
arriving at the space station. Don't pay any attention to
all their denials, it's really a true story. NASA has to make
a conspiracy out of everything otherwise they run out of funding
:) This holiday story tells about a visit by Santa to the International
Space Station (ISS), where he has to deal with uncooperative
tinsel, floating cookie crumbs, and a space-sick reindeer.
LotR One Week Countdown -- Thursday,
December 13, 2001
Only one week to go before the coolest movie
in existence arrives in New Zealand. Fellowship of the Ring,
part one of the Lord of the Rings saga, will be opening on December
20 here in New Zealand. The NZ Herald has compiled
some of the reviews, the good and the bad, that have been
written about it so far.
Freedom in Which Faith? -- Wednesday,
December 12, 2001
Here's an interesting article by Franklin Graham,
son of the famous american christian evangelist, Billy Graham.
Franklin is both a christian minister and the leader of several
large foreign aid programmes. He
talks here about some of the problems faced by non-muslims
in most of the muslim countries around the world.
School's Out! -- Tuesday, December
11, 2001
Yup, time to sing songs about all going on a
summer holiday. Many thanks for visiting us over the course
of the year. Make sure you don't forget about DeepScience cos
next year is going to rock.
In other news, Scrapheap
Challenge is going to be rescheduled at a more decent
time of day. Scrapheap Challenge will be moving to 8.10pm on
Sundays (Prime TV) from 23 December.
You may be interested in having
a quick
look at the article and photo on RedR NZ which appeared
in the NZ Herald last Saturday morning. It is now on the NZ
Herald website. Who is that guy anyway?
Hot Air Balloons are Back --
Sunday, November 25, 2001
Watch the sky this week as our annual hot hair
... sorry, our annual
hot air balloon competition gets under way. The classes
that look as if they are participating will be 10Tech, 9PS,
9TG, and possibly 9TM.
In other news, a reminder that
TONIGHT is the night for SCRAPHEAP challenge again!!! Don't
forget to tune in at 9:35 (what a stupid time) to Prime TV.
Also, later in the week is a very cool programme on the making
of The Lord of the Rings, Thursday, 7:30pm, TV2.
PAIA Video Complete -- Friday,
November 23, 2001
If you've been waiting for your pre-ordered copy
of Paia then you can pick them up from the student center. $14
for the video, $15 if you want the flashy colour cover as well.
If you didn't pre-order then you may, just may, be able to get
a copy directly from me. Oh yes, and it's very very good :)
Scrapheap Challenge Starts --
Tuesday, November 14, 2001
This note just in, direct from Prime TV:
I can confirm that Series 4 will be
screening on Sundays at 9.35pm from 25 November. Enjoy!
Kind Regards
Melanie
Assistant Programmer
Prime Television New Zealand Ltd
Scrapheap Challenge Returning
-- Friday, October 26, 2001
This news just in! We'll keep you updated.
Hi Trevor,
Just to keep you posted, the 2001 series is coming very very
soon to Prime. I'll let you know the date in a week or so. Cheers
Melanie
Assistant Programmer
Prime Television New Zealand Ltd
Faith and Science Work Together
-- Tuesday, October 23, 2001
The Washington Times has another interesting
article outlining how scientists believe in God.
"Mr. Phillips, the Nobel physicist,
attends Fairhaven United Methodist Church in Gaithersburg because
he takes the deity personally. "Einstein's god, who is really
just the laws of nature, is not for me," he said. "I'm strongly
of the conviction that God is personal, and this is the foundation
of my faith."
Added Another One -- Thursday,
October 18, 2001
Another pic on the funny
page. And Folding@home has put out the newest version of
the folding software. Go to our folding
page and read how to help the world (and boost our folding
statistics :)
Don't Believe It -- Monday,
October 15, 2001 (edited 9:50pm)
Before you resend crazy e-mail info about the
World Trade Center attack, think again. There's a lot of reallllly
crazy and totally fake stories going around so don't be
gullible, don't freak out, and be discerning. ++ I've
also added a new "funny" page
for stuff related to the terrorists. Sometimes the best
way to fight them is to laugh at them.
Ozone Holes -- Friday, October
12, 2001
The cause of ozone holes in the upper atmosphere
may still be only natural seasonal fluctuations. It might, however,
be caused by industrial pollution. But if that was the case
how come the ozone hole is in the southern hemisphere and not
in the northern artic area? After all, the north is where all
the major polluting countries are. Why? If you can wade through
all the gobbledegook, here's the full story
at nasa.
Back to School -- Sunday, October
7, 2001
Well, that was two wonderful weeks of working
on various projects but now it's back to school. Don't forget,
we've got daylight savings now so wake-up time is an hour earlier.
Although you probably realised that when arriving at church
just in time to find everybody leaving. News from PRIME TV is
that we'll be seeing the latest edition of Scrapheap Challenge
around November - it's gonna be good!
Join the Folding! -- Saturday,
September 23, 2001
Wired magazine has published an article talking
about the protein folding project that we are involved in. Read
the article then go to our folding
page to see what to do to help out.
Echelon is Out There -- Monday,
September 17, 2001
The super secret spy network called Echelon is
up the noses of the European Union. What is Echelon? That's
the spy base that Havoc and Newsboy got inside. They jumped
around, looked through the windows, and got zapped on the electric
fence when they tried to leave. Apparently it's all illegal
and you can
read about it at The Register.
1:00 am -- Wednesday, September
12, 2001
Some pictures and
poems. Also some short messages from the younger students
of James Cook High School, New Zealand, to those affected by
the tragedy in the USA.
Faked Moon Landing? -- Monday,
September 4, 2001
Ok, so that documentary appeared again. You know,
the one where they make out that all the astronauts that landed
on the moon were all lying. Well, it would be harder to make
a fake moon landing than to accomplish the real one ok??!! If
you're wanting some of the reasons why the "documentary"
was a load of codswallop (whatever that is) then NASA
has a nice article about it as well as more in depth links.
Yes, we posted this before but there you go (March 31 entry).
Computer Game Kills -- Wednesday,
August 29, 2001
A Thai 22 year old has apparently died
from playing Half-Life Counterstrike. He was addicted and
ended up with tension and fatigue leading to a heart attack
actually during an all night gaming session. Hmmm, what can
we learn from that?
Protein Folding Project -- Monday,
August 27, 2001
DeepScience has gone into the protein folding
project with Stanford University and the www.overclockers.com
folding team. Check out the statistics
and what it's all about on our new page. Also PLEASE NOTE
the new time for Scrapheap Challenge at 6pm not 7:30pm. I have
no idea why they changed the time for the show without telling
anyone and right in the middle of the 10 week series! Ignorance
is not bliss.
Sun Goes Bang! -- Sunday, August
26, 2001
The most powerful solar flare since April erupted
on the Sun last night. The X5-class explosion hurled a bright
coronal mass ejection into space and triggered a strong radio
blackout on the sunlit side of Earth. Visit
spaceweather.com for more information, images and updates.
Human Cloning, the Coming Evil
-- Monday, August 13, 2001
The Washington Times has posted a very
interesting article which is all about cloning, how it is
done, and some of the problems that make it a very bad, bad,
bad thing to try and do on humans. Well, Hitler would have loved
the idea wouldn't he? It's a great article and is reproduced
unchanged here with thanks to the Washington Times.
Use a Firewall -- Thursday,
August 9, 2001
If you have a computer and you use the internet
then you need to get some kind of firewall. That's a way of
stopping people hacking into your computer and a way of stopping
programs on your computer from accessing the internet without
you knowing about it. Want the good news? There are plenty of
good software firewalls out there which are totally free
and very small to download. First you can see how
vulnerable your computer is to internet probing via Gibson
Research Associates test page. And then read the results of
his tests of various
Firewalls. The free ones work just as well apparently.
Hmmmm, more power -- Tuesday,
August 7, 2001
It seems amazing that only 20 years ago (1981)
the coolest computer out there was the awe inspiring ZX81. The
ZX81 came with 1000 Bytes of memory. Yes, one thousand bytes
to play with. Nowadays the standard is 128,000,000 Bytes. Hmmm,
the ZX81 was, well, it was really slow. The latest PC is sitting
at 1.4GHz or 1,400,000,000 Hz. Now there's a thought... why
is it a Gigahertz and not a Billahertz? And more to the point,
is it true that the latest Dual 800MHz Mac beats all the other
PC's hands down?
"He was... a legend"
-- Thursday, August 10, 2000
Yes, the date is the right one. Here's a post
from one year ago. You may have seen the excellent documentary
by Rob Harley that screened on TV One this evening. No one wants
to live in the past except for the wonderful lessons we can
learn from it. I think this story was, indeed, something we
can learn from. Phil may not have been right all the time but
he was a man of principle - hold to your beliefs and don't be
bullied into doing anything against them.
DOCUMENTARY NEW ZEALAND Sox Up.
The last dramatic year in the life of NZ's most provocative
high school principal, Phil Rafills, of Auckland's Avondale
College. Documentary makers Rob Harley and Linda Gollan were
allowed to film an intimate portrait of Raffill's struggle with
leukaemia, his bid to get into parliament even while terminally
ill, and the aftermath of a bruising encounter between protestors
just a couple of months before he became gravely ill.
From last year: 10:54pm - Phil
Raffills, a man of faith, courage, tenacity. Starting in
education as a science teacher, Phil impacted countless lives
with his zest for life and the strength of his convictions.
DeepScience salutes Phil Raffills.
Skate Madness -- Tuesday, July
31, 2001
Alrighty then, here's some short
skateboard movies that show how to do the moves. Shot on
location today.
Lots of Pictures -- Monday,
July 30, 2001
I completely forgot about a whole bunch of photos
sitting in the camera from last year. Well, for your viewing
amusement you can check out the pictures taken towards the end
of 2000. There's some ones from Dry
Ice Day which are kinda smokey. Some body
sculptures from last year's 9PS are kinda cool. There's
the crazy
senior physics class. And finally, there are the pics from
the Simply Awesome Hot
Air Balloon Competition.
210 GHz Processors? -- Monday,
July 23, 2001
IBM has managed to get some very fast computer
chips indeed. If this
article is anything to go by we'll have 100 GHz computers
in just two years. Good grief!
And the Emmy goes to... -- Thursday,
July 13, 2001
Get ready to rumble! Prime TV is rescreening
the most awesome show in existence, Scrapheap Challenge. Don't
believe me? The American version has just been nominated
for an Emmy award, wow. It's either that or Survivor I reckon.
So fix up your TV cos DEMOLITION
is this Saturday at 7:30pm!
Unwinding Life -- Tuesday, July
10, 2001
Overclockers.com
have made a suggestion to those of you with lots of computer
and not much to do with it. You may have heard of distributed
computing. Well, that usually involves some mathematician somewhere
trying to break a really ocmplicated code like RC5. The only
way of doing it is just trying lots of combinations until you
hit the right one. They break the problem into lots of smaller
pieces and send the pieces to home computers via the internet.
The only problem is that it's really no big deal if you break
the code - it's not like you're saving lives or anything. Now
for something better! Stanford University is getting home PCs
to work on folding
protein molecules to stop cancer (among other cool things).
This is mostly for those of you with permanent internet connections
but apparently it still works with a modem.
Independence Day -- Wednesday,
July 4, 2001
July
4 is here and so is aphelion. Eh? That's when the Earth
is at its greatest distance from the sun. It's all something
to do with elliptical orbits (we don't go around the sun in
a perfect circle). This is interesting for all kinds of reasons.
A) Even though the Earth is further away from the sun, this
is the time when the Earth is about 2 degrees centigrade hotter
than normal B) Strictly speaking, Galilao was wrong about "the
earth circling the sun." It's not a circle path but an
ellipse with the sun sitting at one of the foci points. C) will
they make another space alien movie about it? Well, for more
info about A and B just follow the links. The answer to C is
"yes" they will keep making movies about space aliens
until the cows come home.
Making Waves -- Thursday, June
21, 2001
Our senior physics class is studying waves at
the moment. Due to popular demand, some of the pictures
from the filming have been put on the class page. There
is also a number of web sites linked where you can investigate
the topic via the wonders of java script animations.
Eclipse in Africa -- Wednesday,
June 20, 2001
Only for the other side of the planet, the moon
is going to pass between us and the sun on Thursday. Apparently
the darkness will be enough to wake nocturnal animals and fill
every hotel in the area. If you think that sounds strange and
you want some more information along with some pretty graphics,
check out the space
weather site.
Kiwis are first to fly -- Tuesday,
June 19, 2001
No, it wasn't the Wright Brothers in the USA.
The first person in the world to maintain powered flight was
none other than New
Zealand's own Richard Pearse. Adversity is sometimes the
mother of invention and Richard sure didn't have it easy flying
across a paddock into a 12 foot high gorse bush back in March,
1903... ouch!
Kiwi Inventors -- Monday, June
18, 2001
Well, after continual problems with Windows 98
and 98SE, I spent about an hour on Saturday installing Windows
ME. Apart from having a really stupid sounding name, Windows
ME works like a dream. Very nice indeed so yay.
In about half an hour there will
be a documentary on TV 1 which is about inventors in New Zealand.
Should be very interesting.
Dust Makes Dust -- Wednesday,
May 23, 2001
Well the folks at NASA have just
found out something that I've known for ages. Dusty ground
makes dusty weather. It doesn't rain much in the desert but
it rains heaps in rainforests at the same latitude. If you want
it to rain plant heaps of trees. Anyway, it's all very interesting.
BIG ENZ News -- Thursday, May 10, 2001
The New Zealand team application for Scrapheap
Challenge is still gaining news attention with our appearance
on the Engineers
for Social Responsibility website. In other news DeepScienceAV
is underway. DSAV is an audio and video project. Currently we're
putting two music CD's together with artists from Greenlane
Presbyterian Church and St
John's Presbyterian.
Welcome Back -- Saturday, April
28, 2001
Hi there, long time no see. What happened? Well
it was a combination of factors that resulted in the site not
updating for a while. They included a holiday and the computer
dying in a spectacular fashion. The most unfortunate bit of
news I can share with you is that we were not sucessful in our
application to be on Scrapheap Challenge. Hmmm, actually, that's
probably why I havn't posted for a while, I've been remarkably
down about it all. ;) Anyways, for those back at school it's
term 2 so enjoy and work hard!
Moon Landing a Hoax? -- Saturday,
March 31, 2001
Did NASA actually send humans to the Moon in
the 1960's? Of course they did! But a recent TV program claimed
the whole thing was faked! Many people are asking NASA about
it, so go read
the real story!
Teenage Sun Problems -- Thursday,
March 29, 2001
Now that the MIR is safely fragmented all over
the Pacific you might be interested in this little bit of space
news from spaceweather.com
HUGE SUNSPOT: The largest sunspot in ten years is
crossing the solar disk. The fast-growing spot, called AR9393, covers
an area of the Sun equivalent to the total surface area of 13 Earths!
Visit spaceweather.com to
learn how this sunspot compares to others in history and how to safely
observe it.
And here's that piccy of MIR zooming over Fiji
INCOMING!!! -- Saturday, March 17, 2001
That's no moon, that's a space station! MIR is on the
way down and is scheduled to land in my backyard in just 5 days time.
Time for Mir to eat earth dust and rather than have a completely random
crash it's going to have an initiated random crash, ie. somewhere in
the South Pacific (hey that's where New Zealand is!). All very exciting.
Don't miss this great opportunity to see billions of dollars burn. Sunday
morning 6am should see it zooming accross the northern sky. There's
lots of websites with up to the date news as well.
New
Zealand Herald
Auckland Observatory
NASA
MirReEntry.com
Projectile Motion -- Monday, March 12,
2001
Senior physics is learning about cannons that fire cheese
at the moment. Other things are golf balls, bombs, arrows, bullets,
bananas, and maybe even the odd piano. There are lots of nice web sites
out there with learning tools to help on this subject so we put them
into a video. If you want to look at them on the web you'll find the
list of links on the Physics page.
2000 Visitors to DeepScience -- Sunday,
March 11, 2001
Many thanks to all the regular visitors at DeepScience.
There's been added interest since the arrival of the BIG ENZ team. In
addition to their video, DeepScience is currently working on two other
movies. One is a teaching resource on the subject of waves, and the
other is an amusing look at the James Cook sports day. Actually, I'm
right in the middle of putting the JCHS
web site together so all in all we're pretty busy.
Science and Maths Students Needed --
Monday, March 5, 2001
The NZ Herald
had an interesting article today
about how we need more young people studying maths and science. Why?
Too many lawyers and accountants apparently. The latter group just play
with money while engineers and scientists actually build stuff. It's
not clear yet how the government plan on promoting science. It read
to me like they wanted to do it by 1) making a new government department
(oooh goodie) and 2) not letting people study other things. Hmmm, sounds
like Orwellian 1984 totalitarianism to me. What do I think they should
do? Hey, forget making more Government, just give students extra cash
if they take science or maths. Easy and I bet you it would work.
Technical Triumph -- Friday, March 2,
2001
Still more additions to the BIG
ENZ pages. I think I've sorted out how to put video on the web site
as well. Real Network have a free movie producer so here we go.
Major BIG ENZ additions
-- Thursday, February 22, 2001
I've been working on the BIG
ENZ site a lot this week. I've put up a walk-through of our application
video among other things. I've also started building the web site for
James Cook High School. OK,
so there's only a cute title on display so far but you can still make
the counter tick over by visiting! :) I've also added a java script
so your computer tells you what it thinks is the time (which may or
may not be very helpful as the case may be).
Deep Blue not as Fast as Life -- Thursday,
February 15, 2001
Ianman has sent in
some more info about the DNA issue. Apparently IBM has been building
a supercomputer that will simulate a protein molecule being created.
The new computer called "Blue Gene" will be 500 times as fast
as the fastest supercomputers (at the end of 1999) on the planet. It'll
still take Blue Gene a year to simulate the protein folding. In humans
the actual process only takes a second. Ianman continues:
You know, since there are (from memory) 31.56
megaseconds in a year, Blue Gene would have to be 31.56 million times
as fast as it's going to be to actually work at the speed of life. (One
year to model something that happens in one second.) That's 15.78 billion
times as fast as the fastest supercomputer (as of the end of 1999).
The proposed speed of Blue Gene is hardly the speed of life. Go life!
Unbelievable Super Complexity -- Tuesday,
February 13, 2001
Today the scientists working on mapping the human genetic
code decided to do another news release. Apparently the whole thing
is, get this, incredibly more complex than anyone ever thought. Human
DNA consists of about 3 billion base pairs (represented by just 4 different
bases). Out of that huge code (about 500,000 pages worth, or 756MB)
about 1% codes for proteins. But instead of bit of code making just
one simple protein, many proteins are made. Instead of being simple
they are incredibly more complex than proteins in any other living thing.
Wait, there's more. Each protein can be found in multiple forms and
each form can do multiple different jobs in the same cell (let alone
other cells). Then comes the interaction between the different proteins,
and finally, this matter of 99% of our DNA which they don't even have
a clue about what it does! This folks, is complex. If you found a watch
in a field you'd know someone made it. If you study the genetic code
of life you can't run away from the fact of it's Creator.
Noetic Nostrils & Poll Results --
Wednesday, February 7, 2001
I'm sick today so I've written a poem about it.
SICK
Sinuses feel like lead
Like an inappropriately placed impact screwdriver
Mind feels like a piece of gum
Sat on and then stretched a metre as the person stands up
But then comes pseudoephedrine hydrochloride and paracetamol
And nothing rhymes after that
Poll results: The clear winner of our DeepScience poll
for the favourite science fiction movie was The Matrix with 47%. The
second place getter with 17% was Armageddon. I think that shows very
good taste on your part as those are my favourites too. The Matrix for
the storyline and Armageddon for the humour but also the message of
self sacrifice for others. Check out the new DeepScience Survey!
New Classes -- Tuesday, February 6,
2001
Welcome to seven new classes at DeepScience. Last years
class pages are still available but the ones
shown on the navigation bar on the left are the ones with me for this
year. As with last year, I am planing on keeping an up to date record
of what we do in class each day.
Edit Finished -- Sunday, February 4,
2001
Craig Vrankovich and Keyframe Productions have done a
fantastic job of editing our Scrapheap Challenge entry so it's all finished!
We're going to send it off via courier and email. Regardless of whether
the team is chosen to be on the British show or not, we've had a simply
awesome time putting this together. Our own mini scrapheap challenge!
The team name... the Big ENZ.
Filming Finished -- Saturday, February
3, 2001
Well, we went over to Barry's house today for a 8am start
to our filming. I think we finished about 11am. Our Scrapheap Challenge
team then visited Brett's work and Michael's work to record some 40
second bits of info about each of them. Later this evening I'll be off
to edit it at another friend's house. How can I sum up the filming?
Let's just say it was a blast...
Back to School -- Wednesday, January
31, 2001
Lots of news at the moment. Firstly, yes, everyone
is back to school. The most impressive thing is the number of keys I
now have to carry because they've taken my classroom away. Oh well.
Second bit of news is that I'm the new webmaster for the James
Cook High web site. Some of the info from here will end up on it
but all in a revamped style. Third bit of news is that our Scrapheap
Dream Team is assembled and ready to go. We are filming the application
video on Saturday and it's looking VERY impressive. Remember, you heard
it here first. The team: Brett, Barry, and Michael. Here's a quiz for
you... what is the real team name? Is it:
- a) Mike and the Mechanics
- b) The Big Endz
- c) The Petrol Heads
!!NEWS FLASH!! -- Scrapheap ALERT! --
Thursday, January 25, 2001
This in yesterday from Mel at PrimeTV:
We've had some very exciting news here at Prime. RDF
International - the producers of Scrapheap
Challenge are interested in a New Zealand team competing in the
fourth series which is due to begin filming in April. Unfortunately
the deadline is very tight - they need applications within the next
two weeks... The first round is in April for one week. Then if you
get through to the next round you will be required to appear in July/August.
Crumbs, the official deadline is just 4 days away!Well,
needless to say DeepScience is putting an application together as we
type. Several potential team members have been collared already. I've
watched almost every Scrapheap episode and our team is looking at least
as good as any on TV. These are not dodgy bodgers... they're the real
thing!
In other news, I've just remembered that school
starts again tommorrow for those teachers who teach at James Cook. Seniors
are due back Tuesday. Juniors due back Wednesday. Have a fun long weekend
and if you're bored then check out the Parachute
Music Festival in Matamata - it's gonna rock!
Correction to Science Numbers -- Sunday,
January 21, 2001
Ianman has been reading DeepScience again and sent in
an email outlining a very important correction to our post of Thursday,
December 28, 2000. Good spotting!
>1 million microphones: 1 megaphone
Actually, 1 million microphones = 1 phone.
1 million phones = 1 megaphone.
1000 microphones = 1 milliphone.
1000 milliphones = 1 phone.
1000 phones = 1 kilophone.
1000 kilophone = 1 megaphone.
1000 x 1000 x 1000 x 1000 = 1 (American) trillion.
Therefore 1 million million (American trillion) microphones = 1 megaphone
What is IT? -- Saturday, January 20,
2001
On Dateline the other night they featured a program which
was from June 2000. It was mentioned Dean Kamen and his inventions,
in particular, a wheel chair that can stand up on two wheels and climb
stairs. Well, there's a new invention on the way labeled "IT".
everybody wants to know what IT is. Well, there are rumors aplenty so
I've collected some relevant bits and pieces on the best one - A super
efficient powered scooter that keeps its own balance. Lots of pics.
This is going to be very cool.
Make Peace not Computer War -- Tuesday,
January 16, 2001
This in the Washington Times: Rationing
TV, videotapes and video games can decrease children's aggressiveness,
says a study released in today's issue of the Archives of Pediatrics
and Adolescent Medicine. More than 1,000 studies have already shown
that when children watch violent media they become more aggressive,
but few studies have asked whether reducing media use would reduce aggressive
behavior. This study is the first to show that aggressive behavior can
be unlearned by reducing media exposure
Deep Thinking on the Net -- Thursday,
January 11, 2001
Mark sends this article from Computer World. Seems that the Internet
is actually the domain of those seeking religious enlightenment. Check
out the facts and figures.
More Scrapheap Hopefully -- Wednesday,
January 10, 2001
Chris, the programme manager with PrimeTV,
has sent me a note. They are definately sorting things out so we can
expect more great Scrapheap TV in the future.
Scrapheap Final Finished -- Sunday,
January 7, 2001
Wow, my first post this millennium. Doesn't it make you
feel old living in 2001? I suppose only if you were born in the seventies
;) OK, Scrapheap Challenge has wound down for the next little while.
There is a one and a half hour long Christmas special which may be coming
along some time. I'll phone Prime TV tommorrow and find out if they
are going to air it. That's the issue where they have to squash a mini
motorcar. Just back from Whangamata where we had one amazing game of
volleyball. Hi Nicola and Rachel!
Spam Warning -- Saturday, December 30,
2000
The web site that I mentioned yesterday about the number
quiz was attached onto a spam warez site. Do not type anyone's email
address into any web site so that the site knows someones email address.
What you think is a present becomes a flood of unwanted email. If you
find an interesting site forward the details without giving out peoples
addresses! There are only a few sites it is safe to do this on. The
only one I know belongs to a news paper.
In other news, if you save this website
in your favourites you get to see a cute little icon in the favourites
list if you are using IE 5 or higher.
Numbers and Bouncy Spheres -- Friday,
December 29, 2000
Go here ******* (site deleted) and see if u can figure
it out, and if u do, could u let me know the answer (i turned my brain
up side down and still couldn't figure it out) - ****
In other news, M asks, "Hi, is
your natty mouse pointer available to other users? If so, then where
can it be got for installation, thanks..." Here
is the answer to that one. There's a real science involved in web design
but you don't have to go it alone. Others have done the research for
you and voila! freely available to add to your site. It's like coding
pages by hand or using something like Macromedia's DreamWeaver
to help you. There's a big difference in what you can accomplish :)
I hope all DeepScience readers are trying to learn web page design -
you've obviously got the computer so might as well use it! - Ed
Serious Science Numbers -- Thursday,
December 28, 2000
Shal has sent in some interesting tidbits for the JPS
section. If you were confused by all the techno
jargon in science then this won't help ;)
Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its
diameter: Eskimo Pi
2000 pounds of Chinese soup: Won ton
Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the
pavement: 1 bananosecond
Weight an evangelist carries with God: 1 billigram
Half of a large intestine: 1 semicolon
1000 aches: 1 kilohurtz
Basic unit of laryngitis: 1 hoarsepower
1 million microphones: 1 megaphone
2000 mockingbirds: two kilomockingbirds (work
on it....)
52 cards: 1 decacards
3 statute miles of intravenous surgical tubing
at Yale University Hospital: 1 I.V. League
Real ALGORE quotes -- Friday, December
22, 2000
Yes, apparently these
are real things that Al Gore (the current vice president of the
USA) has said. Sounds like a good addition to the "Just
Plain Silly" section of DeepScience!
CPL - World Gaming LAN -- Thursday,
December 21, 2000
OK, so you can win $80,000 from just playing
computer games. Hmmm, you've still got to fight your way through
Dallas snow to get there. But people from about 44 different countries
did, indeed, get there. About 560 on the first day alone. Huge corporate
sponsership didn't stop some people from bringing their own machines
along as you can see from this interesting modification
to a BBQ.
NZ Norton Fix -- Monday, December 18,
2000
Well that's interesting. While zooming about trying to
find fixes, I found that I have a Beta
version of Norton's antivirus thingy. The folk in Australia are
sending me a replacement disk as we speak, yay. But like I said, that's
not the problem I have with the computer. It seems completely arbitrary
as to whether or not files will work at any particular time or not.
Hmmm.
The Scrapheap mower competition was marred
by a poor Prime TV signal last night. In addition they really didn't
explain how the blade gained alternating motion back and forth from
a motor spindle that was just spinning. Well, the next show is going
to be fireboats and looks hot.
Files Corrupted? -- Sunday, December
17, 2000
All is not well on this funny computer. My exe files
are going funny. A virus? I don't think so, with an updated Norton running
along happily. No, it looks like it is either the main hard drive packing
a sad or problems related to cpu overclocking ;) Either way, it's very
annoying and has slowed down the updates here.
If you've been enjoying the TV series
Scrapheap
then I totally recommend October
Sky. It's in your local video store now and is a very cool movie
about a bunch of kids from a no-hope little town school. Everyone from
the school ends up being a coal miner. But these kids decide that building
rockets is more interesting than digging coal... Good stuff.
Politics Schmolitics -- Tuesday, December
12, 2000
10:55 I was just chatting to a friend of mine over in
the United States. It's really cool the way you can use MSNmessaging
in Explorer to make free calls around the USA. Anyway, apparently Frank
is going to be on the radio in just an hours time. He's going to be
commenting on the presidential election that's going on there so you
might want to check it out.
Now, if you're into funny election stuff you might appreciate this piccy.
Of course, if you want Al Gore to win then you might
not appreciate it as much as everyone else does ... :)
Christmas -- Wednesday, December 6,
2000
Yikes, time just slips away when you're not having fun.
Well, when it's report time anyway. If you really hate your report at
least you can take comfort in the fact that it almost pushed dozens
of teachers over the edge of mental sanity into the abyss of whatever
it is if you fall down it. That's my lame excuse if not updating things
around here. Rest assured we've got literally dozens of photos on their
way to make an appearance in the next few days. Make sure you also keep
watching Scrapheap
Challenge on Sunday nights. And for those of you interested in all
those election things happening in the United States at the moment,
Mark V has found this useless bit of info for DeepScience readers:
Pythagorean theorem : 24 Words
The Lord's Prayer : 66 Words
Achimedes' Principle : 67 Words
The 10 Commandments : 179 Words
The U. S. Government regulations on the sale of cabbage : 26,911 Words
George Bush -- Thursday, November 9,
2000
I just found out that George W. Bush, the guy who looks
like winning the Presidency of the USA, has a dog. It's name is Spot.
Photos and the President -- Wednesday,
November 8, 2000
22:55 -- Due to popular demand we've added some Y12
Physics photos. The mystery question is... who was snapped eating
an apple? In other news, the election in the United States for the President
is very very very close. The state of Florida is the deciding issue
with George Bush only 200 votes ahead of Algore in a vote of over five
and a half million people. Now is that close
or what? Al Gore is the current Vice President of the United States.
George Bush is the son of former US president, George Bush. Obviously
there will be a recount in Florida as well as tallying of mailed in
votes. Al is seen as being anti-military, pro-big government, anti-morality,
and pro-abortion. Bush is conservative and seen as being pro-life, pro-defence,
pro-values, and anti-big government. Bush likes the phrase "compassionate
conservativism" and Gore says he wants to appoint federal judges
who will reinterpret the law however they like. Hmmm. What I can't understand
is why the election is so close.
A Beach -- Sunday, November 5, 2000
22:29 -- Just a reminder for everybody coming
up to exams... here's a picture I took when I was roaming around
the Bay of Plenty a few weeks
ago. The point? If you can study under a tree at the beach then
do it otherwise you'll get sunburn (Hey, it's late). The GeoWeb
has started here at DeepScience so take a look. It'll be updating
a lot over the next few months.
DeepScience Pushes the Limits -- Thursday,
November 2, 2000
I think I'll change the comet trails for a hanging swinging thingy instead.
Hits sitting on 993, that's since June 2000 which means over 8 hits
per day, every day, since DeepScience started! 692 unique visitors.
Remember, if you find something science or philosophy related that would
interest the rest of us then send it in (or a reference to it) and we'll
mention it on DeepScience.
Looking Around -- Wednesday, November
1, 2000
Here's something interesting. There's this website called
Globe Explorer that let's
you look at things from a satellite hanging around in space. You've
got to pay money if you want the whole world at your fingertips but
if you want to look at central Auckland, for example, you can do that
for free. DeepScience decided to look at one
of the places deemed to be most evil in the city and this is what
it looks like...
More from the Scrapyard -- Monday,
October 30, 2000
Here's the
official site for 2000. This year's competitors include three trainee
vicars, a 71-year-old granny who's mad on engines, and the series' first
team from the USA. Last year's Scrapheap favourite Bowser Munson
is back with The Filth - a team of fellow motorbike police officers
- and this series' winners will battle against last year's triumphant
trio, The Megalomaniacs, in the grand final.
Mad challenges include building machines
to do the following: Demolition, Aerial bomber, Mini-sub, Windmill,
Missile launcher, Bridging machine, Steam car, Giant mower, Fireboat,
and a Dragster for the grand final. Here's
a review. And here's an American
entrant to the Challenge called the Nerds. They have a nice
list of team web sites you can look at as well.
Scrapheap is Back! -- Sunday, October
29, 2000
The most riveting show in existence returns to the TV
screen only on Prime TV. Yup, the Scrapheap
Challenge is back for a third backbreaking series showing on Sunday
evenings at 8pm on Prime TV. This is science at its best - don't miss
it. The presenter is Robert Llewellyn
who you might recognise at Kryton the robot from Red Dwarf. Robert is
a very cool guy. He sent me a letter and this is what he said:
|
Very good to hear that the show holds
attention. The new series does have more engineers, but also a Christmas
special with 'celebrities!' Aaargh. Should be good fun though...
Hope you like the new stuff -- all the best Robert Llewellyn |
Hockey Legend Helen -- Monday, October
24, 2000
One of the Auckland sports award finalists for sportswoman
of the year was Helen Clarke of Olympic Hockey fame. I caught up with
Helen at a teacher training course last week. Helen graciously allowed
us an interview exclusive to DeepScience,
in the RealAudio format. Helen
is the goalkeeper of the New Zealand womens hockey team.
She joined the team in 1991 and went to
the Barcelona Olympic Games, although she just ended up sitting on the
sideline. She went to the World Cup in 1998 in South Africa where she
played her 50th test Game. She also went to to the KL Games in 98 where
the team won Bronze despite the overwhelming heat and humidity of that
country. She's one of New Zealand's most notable sports heros,
Helen Clarke.
The Great Debate -- Monday, October
16, 2000
23:19 -- The moot was something about should we stop
doing trivial stuff and start really living. The actors from Shortland
Street and Hercules were just fab as were the Epsom Girls and the MP.
The Parliment guy was quite impressive in that he did actually figure
out what the opposition were up to and countered their argument even
if it was in his last closing sentence. If you missed the celebrity
debate at Epsom Girls Grammar then this write up probably won't fill
you in on the details but it was all great fun and they all spoke very
well indeed.
In other news, if you are doing 7th form
physics then you might be interested in buying this bunch
of practice questions. It certainly looks good value to me. Look
for the info on the Great Cache or the Mechanics Guide.
Camp Food -- Monday, October 9, 2000
22:35 -- I always enjoy camps because of the food and
the Faith and Reason camp was no exception. We also had a great
worship band along as well as yours truly nattering away about truth,
world religions, the existence of God, and why Christianity is worth
investigating from a scientific, philosophical, and spiritual perspective.
Other notable happenings included non-stop break dancing, light bulb
removal, and trampoline competitions to see how many could sit on the
trampoline at once. Needless to say, these events did not happen all
at the same time (imagine that!)
100th Space Shuttle Flight, Thursday,
October 5, 2000
17:15 -- The world's only reusable space vehicle has
both soared far above expectations and faltered with heartbreaking consequences
since first roaring into the sky 100 flights and 19 years ago. The shuttle
Columbia lifted off for its first mission on April 12, 1981. CNN
has great write up of the shuttle's history including some little
known facts. The space shuttle was the rocket ship depicted in the movie,
Armageddon.
Most of the web sites for the movie seem to have closed down but we
still found one for you.
Building -- Tuesday, October 3, 2000
18:27 -- Here's some
pics of the building going on - it's looking very BIG. It's also
very noisy. My question is why do they only make noise between 7am and
9:30am? The rest of the day you don't hear a peep out of them but at
7am, whoa, then the electric saws come out and the hammers and everything.
Hmmm, so much for sleeping in :)
Half Way -- Tuesday, October 3, 2000
11:00 -- Well, I've taken a week off and it looks like
we're back into it. The Labour weekend camp is coming along and we're
also helping out in the sound department for that. The National Champs
in Whakatane were a blast, although at least one of the women there
seemed to be rather topped up on male anabolic steroids ( I don't think
girls should have muscles like that anyway.)
Last Day of Term III -- Thursday, September
21, 2000
22:53 -- We've had a busy week hence all the exciting
updates here at DeepScience (not). But school doesn't finish for the
teachers! We've got to learn all about the new assessment programme
being introduced in New Zealand, plan some stuff, clean up some stuff,
and go to the national bodybuilding championships in Whakatane. In the
meantime, in celebration of the Olympics going on, here's a piccy of
me at the Atlanta Olympic Games in 1996. I was a supervisor of security
at the Georgia World Congress Center. All very exciting.
Importance of Physics -- Wednesday,
September 13, 2000
22:32 -- This in from Steve:
One day our professor was discussing a
particularly complicated concept. A pre-med student rudely interrupted
to ask "Why do we have to learn this stuff?"
"To save lives," the professor responded
quickly and continued the lecture. A few minutes later, the same student
spoke up again. "So, how does physics save lives?" he persisted.
"It keeps the idiots out of medical school,"
replied the professor.
New Digital Cameras -- Tuesday, September
12, 2000
Ianman sends this report in about how
the new digital cameras are going to be upwards of 16Megabytes of
info in each picture (wow!)
And here's an interesting newsy thing about
how Microsoft IE 5.x allows websites to know
stuff about you. DeepScience doesn't do that though
Saturday, September 9, 2000
Campin' Time -- DeepScience is off to camp
in October. It's the last weekend of the school holidays and it's a
weekend that's gonna have music, mayhem, and a bunch of deeply thunked
thoughts. For more info you can probably try speaking to Colin.
New Poll -- OK, what's your
favourite science fiction movie? There's a new survey happening so let
people know what you think. The poll is on the right hand side
bar. The results of the previous poll showed Biology to be the favourite
at 60% of the vote, with Physics and Philosophy tied for second with
both getting 12% each.
Thursday, September 7, 2000
The Rock in Takanini is the highest indoor
rock climbing place in New Zealand. DeepScience had a bunch of investigators
there on Saturday checking things out (Sarah, Nathan, Matt, etc). I
managed to fall off a 25 metre high wall and hurt my ankle a little
bit. It's a good thing that I was only half a metre up the wall at the
time I fell off it. Anyway, we're planing another trip in a week or
so.
Tuesday, September 5, 2000
Some new building
pics are up and we've got another 5 or 6 on the way. The carpenters
have turned up. I don't think they are the well known musical group
but they do have great musical talents which they practise from 6:45
in the morning onwards (ugh). This week DeepScience passed a birthday
of sorts, we welcomed the 500th visitor since June this year. Yayyyyy!
Also, Scott says that he's sending some funny info in,
so we're looking forward to an update in the humour section soon.
Thursday, August 31, 2000
Wow, long time no update. A bunch of things are going
on around DeepScience. One of the things that is coming is the massive
mural competition. More about this later but it involves science, a
car, a lot of paint, and a chance to be quite famous as well as letting
your creative side go crazy.
The quote for this week is from the book
I'm reading at the moment, "The Christian Philosophy of St. Thomas
Aquinas." There's nothing like reading some great metaphysics for
relaxing after a long day at work.
I've shifted some of the older news to,
funnily enough, a page called "old news."
After it disappears from this page, that's where it goes.
Expensive Power -- Wednesday, August
23, 2000
Just an update on the cost (NZ$) of those XGD driving
lamps... $2000 each. Hmmmm, quality sure costs.
More Power -- Tuesday, August 22, 2000
For those car freaks out there wanting more power in
the lighting department, Ianman found this info:
Xenon Gas Discharge (XGD) system for auxilary
driving lights. Two of these babies supposedly outperform four 100W
normal halogen spotlights, but use just 35W each (ie, 75W vs 400W) and
are much closer in colour to daylight.
>The Predator XGD spread beam has a distance
of 655 metres at 1 Lux
>with an unprecedented amount of foreground and side illumination.
>The pencil beam distance is 906 metres at 1 Lux in a tight spot with
>a smaller amount of spread at the end. ...
>Note: *Predator Lamps are only suitable for off-road Applications
Yeah, right. They offer a XGD work lamp
also. Hella site here.
Hidden Updates -- Monday, August 21,
2000
Just a reminder that DeepScience gets updated every
weekday. Yes, all the class pages get a one-line summary of what we've
done on that day. Today I borrowed the school camera so we've got some
pics up for a few of the classes as well. Also, what you've always wanted
to know, what does a real staff meeting at JCHS
look like?
Perpetual Motion -- Tuesday, August
15, 2000
The latest in wild physics
theories. The scary thing is that there is some truth to one of
them. The question is, which one?
"He was... a legend" -- Thursday,
August 10, 2000
10:54pm - Phil Raffills,
a man of faith, courage, tenacity. Starting in education as a science
teacher, Phil impacted countless lives with his zest for life and the
strength of his convictions. DeepScience salutes Phil Raffills.
Awesome Abs -- Wednesday, August 9,
2000
9:16pm - Tony Martin visited JCHS today. Here's a bit
of a write up about it. Man, were those muscles!
Interface for this Place -- Tuesday,
August 8, 2000
10:21pm - What is an interface? You can find out in this
exclusive DeepScience article from Steve.
We've put it under the Physics section. Tomorrow (Wednesday) is Bodybuilding
day so we'll try and get some pics from that for you.
Jokes and Buildings -- Saturday, August
5, 2000
2:16pm - Carla sends some more
ridiculous things that have been said (supposedly) in court rooms.
There's also a new front page listing all
such snippets. Also, we've got a whole bunch of new building
photos that'll be showing up over the next few days.
Tony Martin -- Tuesday, August 3, 2000
9:19pm - National Champion Body Builder, Tony Martin,
is coming to James Cook High School. He's going to be giving a special
performance and talk about being on the cutting edge of this physical
training sport. This will be for special classes only. Wednesday
9th August, period 3, in the hall. Koha 50 cents each. 9PS, 11PED, 12PEK,
12PEA, 11SPL. Organised by DeepScience.
Those other JCHS pictures
are now up.
New news page -- Wednesday , August 2, 2000
10:55pm - For the odd bit of JCHS
news and photos I've put up another page. The first piccy is of
the physics classroom. Over the next couple of days we've got pics coming
of the dog visit as well as everybody on the field during the fire evacuation.
A very ordered group on the field - well done.
More Humour -- Monday, July 31, 2000
11:42pm - Jan sent me
these ones. I want to focus on the Science section of DeepScience
in the next few weeks but I just couldn't resist them.
Site of the Week -- Sunday, July 30, 2000
12:05am - Web Elements
has the most up to date periodic table around. Just select an element
and you can read some basic information about it or have a look at it's
atomic structure. Very nice.
In other news, The class pages are being updated almost
everyday. So stuff is happening even though we only had one news posting
this week :) We've also got three articles in the wings which I need
to think about posting.
Future of Lighting -- Wedneday, July 26, 2000
9:34pm - An
article on LEDs and LEPs. "UNIAX claims to have developed LEPs
with demonstrated efficacy exceeding 3 lumens per watt and brightnesses
of approximately 500 candelas per square meter at 3 volts. The company
believes that achieving 25 percent efficacy would enable manufacturers
to develop polymer LEP products like wallpaper lighting that would entirely
change the lighting industry..." Imagine your whole ceiling glowing!
- Ianman
Wendys Wombles -- Sunday, July 23, 2000
Hi to everyone that I met tonight at Wendys. Like I said,
you're most welcome to write an article based on whatever topic you're
doing in science at the moment and we'll pull funny faces then put it
on DeepScience. (Were you all from EGGS? Well not the boys I guess.)
There's another funny page up. I've
also recieved two new articles on computer science from Steve. Just
a little editing and they'll be ready.
Science Internet Radio -- Saturday, July 22, 2000
Want to hear the latest discussions in science? Well, in
the United States, National Public Radio has a programme called "Science
Friday." You can listen
to the weekly show on the internet using the Real Audio player format.
This week they are talking about Phage therapy - killing bacteria by using
bacteria, not by using antibiotics. They are also talking with scientists
from the Access Research Network on the
subject of how evolution or its opposition, intelligent design, is taught
in public schools.
Also, in other news, here's
some info on how to make the LED flashlight.
Man on the Moon -- Thursday, July 20, 2000
Today in history Neil Armstrong
climbed the last step down from the Apollo 11 lander and stepped onto
the surface of the moon. His famous words stirring in our memory, "That's
one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind."
Expensive Urine? -- Monday, July 17, 2000
Mark sends a copy of this article to us all about how diet
supplements are all the rage at the moment (well I buy them).
Back to School -- July 16, 2000
Yup, that time of being completely lost for cerebral activity
is over. Here at DeepScience we've had to get another filing cabinet to
deal with all the extra paper. Hmmm, that makes 10 file drawers in total,
what a lot of fulfilling filing. Ianman
has sent in some building pics of the night
moving experience. He also reminds folk of the lunar eclipse happening
tonight (darn, and it did have to be cloudy...):
The following info is from Auckland
Observatory where there are also some pictures and diagrams. This
will be the longest lunar eclipse between AD1859 and AD3000 - 1 hour 47
minutes of totality. ... Make the most of this eclipse. There is not another
lunar eclipse visible from New Zealand until 28th August 2007.
Science Illiteracy -- Thursday, July 13, 2000
Woah, there are some surveys of how well people in the
United States understand basic science principles. Here's
an article from the Washington
Times which talks about some of the crazy things that people believe
when they don't know the truth.
Building Noise -- Wednesday, July 12, 2000
OK, so here's what I did, I stuck a microphone out the
window and recorded the sound of the digger digging a real big hole right
next to my house. Listen
to it as a mp3 file and wish you were not here :)
Building at DeepScience -- Tuesday, July 11, 2000
There's a whole lotta building
going on about 2 feet (60 centimeters) from my window. If you want to
keep up with what it's like being next to such a building commotion check
out the new pages under the DeepScience.com heading on the left. I've
also added a building update area on the right. The latest pictures will
be there in mini format. Many thanks to Edward from PB
Technologies for the idea behind the idea (he said I needed more pictures).
Duracell Site is Cool -- Monday, July 10, 2000
In the general roam for cool internet sites, Ianman
points out this doozy. Yup, it's all
about batteries and it's goooood. Everything from battery science,
games, and Invention Challenge to other cool science links. Duracell is
our Site of the Week. Check it out!
 
Computer Science Coming -- Friday, July 7, 2000
I'm very excited about some articles that we'll be publishing shortly
on computer science subjects. Steve has sent in some rough copies for
us to have a look at and when the finished ones come in you can be sure
to find them here on DeepScience. They're quite funny too. Here's a snipit.
But wait!
Theres more! We can dig even deeper still. If you take out your CPU and
open it up the whole process continues. (Don't do this at home folks,
we are experienced professionals.... not!) A CPU has a whole bunch of
components that talk together using well defined, simple interfaces. But
these are actually etched into the silicon and too small for us to see.
Logic for Lunch -- Tuesday, July 4, 2000
Nowadays people are getting more and more esoteric and
waffly about reality. That makes it really difficult to teach science.
Everything is "just your opinion," and this apparently is a
real fact. Last year, while teaching at Epsom Girls Grammar School, I
wrote an article about logic. I wanted to summarise the most important
points without getting bogged down in detail. I wanted to provide a good
thinking foundation for scientific investigations
and this short article is the result.
Scrapheap Final -- Monday, July 3, 2000
Just a reminder, the final in the latest series of Scrapheap
is on this evening at 8:30pm on Prime TV - don't miss it! On other matters,
I have put individual pages up for each of my classes. Particularly excellent
work may end up there or basic reminders of projects and current topics
and things.
BOREDOM! -- Friday, June 30, 2000
Yes, it's sad but true. The end of term 2 has arrived and
all the school students will have to spend the next very sad two weeks
completely bored out of their minds until the excitement of studying the
world can continue in our science classes... DeepScience doesn't have
a holiday so feel lots of pity if you can :)
Mapping Human Genes -- Wednesday, June 28, 2000
You've probably seen it in the news lately,
there's a revolution in science going on with the human genome project
hitting the 80% complete mark. What's that all about? Well, just like
there is a blueprint or plan used to build a car, there is a blueprint
for you. It's your DNA, a fantastically complex code with 3 billion letters
in it. This code is written on every cell in your body which is pretty
cool considering it's the same as 1000 books of 500 pages each worth of
text. As they say, God writes small.
Anyway, people like Doubletwist have been hard
at work trying to write it all out (all 1000 books worth). They
need very powerful computers to do that and have been helped
in that regard by the same people who invented the Java programming
language that helps run even this site!
Apparently there are about 30,000 chapters (total) in
all those books and it looks like they've worked out pretty much where
all the chapters start and stop. What they actually mean is another question.
Anyway, it's all very exciting and very DeepScience.
|
