Odd and Interesting Links
For your morning reading pleasure.First off, an absolutely fantastic link from David Gloier about the Gimli Glider Incident. Here's an excerpt:
If a Boeing 767 runs out of fuel at 41,000 feet what do you have? Answer: A 132 ton glider with a sink rate of over 2000 feet-per-minute and marginally enough hydraulic pressure to control the ailerons, elevator, and rudder. Put veteran pilots Bob Pearson and cool-as-a-cucumber Maurice Quintal in the in the cockpit and you've got the unbelievable but true story of Air Canada Flight 143, known ever since as the Gimli Glider.
It happened in 1983, it's an amazing story, and you can read the full article here. The Wikipedia page is basically a rehash of the article, but the external links are very interesting, so look at the bottom of this page.
The new monthly edition of Matthew Sakey's Culture Clash is online and you can read it here.
Here are two remarkable links from Jessie Leimkuehler, both about the Soviet probes sent to Venus. The first, which you can read here, describes the history of the probes. Here's an excerpt:
The Soviet exploration of Venus, from 1961 to 1985, is the largest effort ever undertaken to study another planet. The fundamentals of interplanetary spacecraft design and remote sensing were first realized in these missions. Successes included 3 atmospheric probes, 10 landings, 4 orbiters, 11 flybys or impacts, and 2 balloon probes in the clouds. Much of what is known today about our neighboring planet was discovered by these missions.
The second link, which is here, shows the images taken from the probes.
Here's another link from David Gloier about the source of the so-called "black diamonds." They're interstellar, believe it or not, and you can read about it here.
Lastly, a link from Sirius on the Rongorongo of Easter Island. The rongorongo are large wooden tables with hieroglyphics that have never been deciphered--some researchers claim that they're not even writing. It's a very interesting story, and you can read about it here.
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