Posts Tagged ‘environment’

An Introduction To Astronomy

Saturday, August 28th, 2010

Although astronomy is the oldest science, it is still at the forefront of not only scientific thought, but also that of the public at large. Who hasn’t looked up at the galaxy while walking home late at night and wondered? Having said that though, the ancient people of definitely the northern hemisphere, but probably both hemispheres, knew the movements of the stars and planets better than most of us do nowadays.

They knew even then, thousands of years ago, that most stars appear to rise in the Eastern skies at night and travel on circular paths. They also noticed that some ’stars’ were ‘wanderers’ (we call them planets) and that sometimes they went ‘against the flow’.

They also named groups of stars that we now call constellations or even galaxies and knew that those visible in the winter were different from those visible in the summer.and that others were visible all year round. The average common man of 5,000 – 10,000 years ago almost certainly knew more about the movement of the celestial bodies than the average common man of today does. (I mean men and women here, of course).

They learned how to work out or at least locate the extremities of the sunrise and went to extraordinary lengths to mark those points with huge stone structures, such as Stonehenge in the United Kingdom, probably to facilitate the location of certain positions of the sun or other planets or stars, which may have been vital to their religious beliefs or crop cycles.

In 1609, Galileo invented the first artificial device for looking at the stars and planets. It was the first astronomical telescope and through it he was able to see things millions of miles away that no person had ever seen before. Because of the deductions he drew from his observations, he clashed with the Roman Catholic Church and was often in serious danger for his life, so radical were his discoveries.

But mankind was not to be intimidated, and since then we have gone on to build ever bigger and ever better astronomical telescopes through which we can even detect radio waves, microwaves, X-rays, infrared waves and gamma waves from outer space. Forty years ago, we even travelled to our Moon. and we have sent rockets to eight of the nine planets in our Solar System, as well as to several comets and asteroids.

Where will we go next? That decision was always up to the government of the USA and the old Soviet Union, but now there are other players in the field. What will China or India want to explore with their possibly slightly different outlook on life? Or will it be just a question of financial benefit?

The world may be in a state of flux and power may be shifting from its traditional seats, but it has not diminished interest in questions that scientists think can only be answered in space. These are exciting times in the science of astronomy, but then man has always found astronomy exciting.

If you are fascinated by astronomy, then why not visit our website at: http://astronomy.the-real-way.com

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Astronomy – Important Dates BC

Thursday, August 5th, 2010

There is no doubt that astronomy is the oldest science and there is also no doubt that astronomy was being studied by everyone, not only the wise men, thousands and thousands of years ago.

We do not know precisely why they did it, but we can surmise that early man noticed a correlation between the weather and the stars, which were themselves not fully understood, of course.

Early man, probably even as far back as Neanderthal man, noticed the relationship between the weather and herd movements and crop growth, or at least fruit and nuts on local trees, if they did not have planted crops.

This means that people could see a connection between the stars and food availability. This relationship was probably ritualized into some sort of religion like early Wicca. Therefore, the stars became a very important part of the lives of every single person and it is likely that astrology and astronomy were widely intermixed by the average person.

However, there were also people who did not only use the stars as some enormous celestial clock and who tried to make sense of the whole shebang. I am going to relate below, eight of the most significant dates or years in the history of astronomy before Christ walked on the Earth. In no way forget that they had nothing but an abacus to do there calculations and no telescopes, which came about two thousand years later.

585 BC: Thales of Miletus (c. 625- c. 547), a Greek, predicted a solar eclipse in Asia Minor purely on the basis of his observations and calculations. It was not a lucky guess!

c. 400 BC: the astronomer Oenopedes (5th. century). also a Greek, announces that the Earth is tilted on its axis with respect to the Sun.

352 BC: the Chinese report what they called a ‘guest star’, a supernova, which was the earliest reported sighting.

340 BC: The astronomer, Kidinnu (b. Babylon c. 379 BC) discovers the precession of the Equinoxes, ie the apparent change in the position of the stars caused by the Earth’s wobbling on its axis.

c. 300 BC: a ‘committee’ of Chinese astronomers compile star maps of the visible universe.

c. 240 BC: Chinese astronomers observe and make notes about Halley’s Comet. Also Eratosthenes of Cyrene (c. 276 – c.194 BC), a Greek, correctly calculate the Earth’s dimensions.

165 BC: Chinese astronomers notice sunspots for the first time.

c. 130 BC: the astronomer Hipparchus of Nicea (b. 147 BC), a Greek, correctly calculates the distance to the Earth’s Moon and also rediscovers the precession of the Equinoxes.

You will see from the dates above that clearly not everyone let nature and the stars govern their lives, as the common farmer or hunter did. Some men actually put pen to paper, but before pen and paper even existed, and tried to work out ‘why these manifestations took place?’.

These individuals must have been remarkable men to have worked these measurements out by calculation, observation by the naked eye and rationalization alone.

Interested in astronomy, then why not pop along to our website at: http://astronomy.the-real-way.com

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Ideas For Painting Walls

Wednesday, June 23rd, 2010

So here you are, you’ve bought your new house! Its a bit of a mess because the previous owner was in a hurry to sell and had been in the middle of redecorating. You don’t really mind that though, since it gives you the perfect chance to do your house up exactly the way you want it to be done.

However, now you need to decide where everything goes and what colours will suit which rooms, but you don’t have any wall painting ideas.

So, you eagerly sort out your new keys and wander through your new home. The minute you step in through a door ideas assail you. That huge vase you bought last year ago would look fantastic over there, and you’re pretty sure that your existing sofa set will fit in that other room. And you know that an antique mirror table would look stunning in the hallway. The only thing you really get hung up on though are wall painting ideas.

You don’t want to just splash on a coat of neutral coloured paint and be done with it. What you want is a masterpiece, something that you can look at with pride every time you see it. Naturally, you should be able to keep looking at it with pleasure for some time to come as well, so it shouldn’t be too over the top.

But where do you get good wall painting ideas from, and how do you go about getting the wall painting actually done? There are a few ways that you could go about this, the easiest of which being if you have an artistic flair, so that you could get your wall painting ideas out of your head, so to speak and paint the walls as you like. Unfortunately, most of us aren’t too artistic and we are hesitant to pick up a brush or roller and apply the first coat of paint without supervision. In this scenario then, you will need some help.

You could begin by hiring a professional decorator to help you to decide what would look suit your home or you could sit down and watch some DIY TV programs, in which they show some pretty good ideas on what to do when re-decorating a house and will even give you some stylish wall painting ideas.

If neither of these is a viable option for you though, you could just settle for going down to your local hardware store with a few fabric swatches and colour sheets of your most prominent pieces of furniture and seek their help on stylish wall decorating ideas.

You might come up with a hodge-podge of wall painting ideas with this last suggestion, but I found that it was the one that worked best for me and now I’m very proud of my ‘personalized’ house, because it reflects who I am just perfectly.

If you are searching for more ideas on Stylish Home Decor, then you really must visit our website for more free ideas on Interior Design Ideas and more.

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Choose Golf Shoes Wisely

Sunday, May 30th, 2010

Your swing could well change, your accuracy and distance will definitely improve with practice, and you’ll become deadly accurate with at putting, but you will always do all these things while you are standing on your feet in your shoes.

So, your feet need to be comfortable! Have you ever developed a blister while walking or running? It’s all you can think about and it ruins the experience of what you are doing. Don’t let uncomfortable shoes ruin your game of golf.

This is one area where you shouldn’t let your desire to save money make the decision for you. You will be wearing these shoes many times over a long time and they should be considered a good investment in your game of golf.

Comfortability, not expense, should be your biggest concern when you are purchasing any shoes, not only golf shoes. Your foot should not move at all at the heel when you walk, but your toes shouldn’t feel at all cramped. Be sure to have your shoes fitted professionally and walk around in them before you actually buy them.

Proper golf shoes should also be waterproof, so that your feet remain dry under damp conditions. Good socks are important too as they will take perspiration away from you feet, keeping your feet dry and comfortable.

All golf courses forbid the use of metal spikes on golf shoes in an effort to protect their delicate greens. Purchase shoes that allow you to change the rubber spikes easily, and while you’re doing that, purchase a few extra spikes as you never know when you might lose one. You should also replace the spikes when they become worn.

You have many things to think about whilst playing your round of golf, but your feet shouldn’t be one of them. When it comes to golf shoes, quality counts, honestly.

If you are thinking about purchasing new golf shoes, or if you are just into golf, please come to our website entitled Golfing Tips for Beginners

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Wedding Decorating Ideas

Tuesday, April 27th, 2010

Yes! Yes, yes, and yes a thousand times more. That was the reply you gave two weeks ago when your boyfriend took you out to dinner and asked you to marry him. There was no second thought in your mind then and there isn’t any now either really. The only thing that you’re worried about though is the actual details of the wedding.

Your boyfriend, now your fiance is all laid back and casual and said that anything you want is OK with him. He was sure that you would do a great job, just tell him if you wanted anything.

That’s all good and fine, and usually you would have jumped at the opportunity, in fact you did jump at the chance. But now you’re stuck on what to do for your wedding decorating ideas. The motifs are all blending as one into your brain and you still don’t know where to have the reception.

Of course, you could hold the reception in an up-scale hotel with the works, everything catered for and all the niggily little details taken care of, but that seemed so impersonal, and you really want your wedding to be one that you, and everyone else, will remember for the rest of your life. So what can you do now?

Well, first off, just take a few really deep breaths and relax. Getting yourself worked up into a frenzied state won’t do you any good. Next call your bridesmaids, and anyone else you trust, to your side and have a council of war.

This is where you will hammer out the details and get a fresh perspective and new ideas on your planning, and where most of all, you can have some fun with your wedding decorating ideas. You’d be just amazed at how many great ideas a group of people can get if they’re working on something like wedding decorating ideas with wedding cards being only the least of it.

So you begin with an idea, say to have the all of the cards handmade so that they become extra special to you as time passes. Someone else has the great notion of providing a bunch of those little disposable cameras so that those who wanted to, would be able to take same photos, and you’d end up with a great many more unrehearsed pictures than you otherwise would have had.

Yet another person suggests a great overall design theme. Your wedding decorating ideas are now flowing fast and furious as one person after another speaks up giving you all the help you need to sort out your wedding plans.

Your mother however, comes up with the best wedding decorating ideas of all and such like being the least of all her concerns! Perhaps you’d like to get married and then have your reception at their place.

They could put up a marquee to cater for all the guests, and the house could be done up to suit the occasion. And you say, ‘Yes’, again because there’s nothing you want more than to get married from home.

If you are searching for modern Wedding Decorating Ideas, then you really ought to go along to our website for more free ideas on Stylish Home Decor and more.

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Decorating Ideas for Inside the Home

Tuesday, April 20th, 2010

The cold of winter has got hold of you and you’re pfaffing around trying to decide what to do with yourself. You’re snowbound and the only thing that you can think of doing is sitting in front of the fire, drinking hot chocolate and staring broodingly out of the window. The only thing with that is that you’ve already been doing just that for a while now and you’ve have had quite enough of fires, hot chocolate and brooding.

Now you’re ready to do something different. So, you turn to the only solace you have and switch on the TV. You’re instantly riveted to your seat as you come across one of those many shows about how you can jazz up your home. You find yourself inundated with decorating ideas: interior decor and exterior decor, you name it and they’ll have it on the TV.

So, you finally find yourself entranced by something that you would have dismissed earlier and jump out of your seat to get a pen and notebook to note down all those great ideas. Before long, you’ve run out of room in your notebook and have to leave your comfortable chair to go get another one.

And before you get back to your armchair, you’ve made a quick detour around your house and have spotted many of the things that you’ve spent a lifetime trying to avoid – the cracks in the bedroom walls, the growing patch of mildew in the bathroom, the paint chipping off many of the skirtings.

The list is very long and could easily fill several notepads. Therefore, you sit down, and alongside your notes on various decorating ideas on interior design and general refurbishing, you studiously note down all the little things that need fixing, renewing or refitting.

The list naturally spans more than even your second notebook can hold but you decide to stop there, because it’s giving you writer’s cramp, besides you already have all the pertinent facts to hand, so now you set about sorting them out into sections that you can easily carry out.

No easy task that, when your decorating ideas, interior designs and room-by-room list of flaws is all jumbled up into one horrible pile. You then turn to the tried and true, age-old method of sitting on the floor and surrounding yourself with your notes in an attempt at finding some order.

When you eventually reach that sublime state of order, you lay back with a tired but happy countenance. The knowledge that you’ll now have enough decorating ideas and interior design plans and less time on your hands during those long hard months of winter, sends a rush of contentment flowing through you. There’s nothing like a job well done and the knowledge that come springtime, your home is going to look nothing like its shabby former self.

If you are looking for more info on modern decorating ideas , then you must go along to our website for more free ideas on Stylish Home Decor and more.

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