Astounding facts about my heart…

• Your body has about 5.6 liters (6 quarts) of blood. This 5.6 liters of blood circulates through the body three times every minute. In one day, the blood travels a total of 19,000 km (12,000 miles)—that’s four times the distance across the US from coast to coast.

• The heart pumps about 1 million barrels of blood during an average lifetime—that’s enough to fill more than 3 super tankers.

• lub-DUB, lub-DUB, lub-DUB. Sound familiar? If you listen to your heart beat, you’ll hear two sounds. These “lub” and “DUB” sounds are made by the heart valves as they open and close. See the valves in action.

Take this test. Its a cool test of your general knowledge of Space and Science. It can’t hurt to learn more about the universe, the planets, energy, matter and similar fun stuff.

Image courtesy of NRAO/AUI and Kristal Armendariz, Photographer

The Very Large Array consists of 27 radio antennas, each weighing 230 tons and reaching 82 feet in diameter. The array, in the desert south of Socorro, New Mexico, combines to give the resolution of a 22-mile-wide antenna to aid scientists in the search for frequencies of molecules in interstellar space. Scenes from the movie Contact were shot at the VLA site.

I thought Contact (written by Carl Sagan) was a cool movie, but nothing compared to the PBS series “Cosmos” that Carl Sagan put together to vividly explain the universe and all of its wonder.

Thought this was cool too: The melodic use of the notes C#, D#, E, are recurring audio punctuations in Carl Sagan’s ‘Cosmos’, and also are used in key scenes of ‘Contact’. Notably when Dr. Arroway touches the then invisible interior of the space pod.

top 10 observatories

Check out this animation of the planned construction of the next generation centimeter-wavelength radio telescope that is expected to be built by 2020.

This little robot (Keepon) and others like it are being used to help children with autism spectrum disorders (ASD). It turns out that the children more readily accept “Keepon” as a means of social interaction, creating an an environment to help therapists draw the child out socially and study their emotional states. Quite an entertaining piece of helpful technology with cameras in its eyes and nose. Heck, I’d like to have one. Its a rockin stress reliever! Check out Keepon groovin to “I Turn My Camera On” by Spoon.

Check out more about Marek Michalowski, a Ph.D student in robotics at Carnegie Mellon University, and Hideki Kozima of Miyagi University in Japan and their robotic ideas at Beatbots.net

Check out the changes in the International Space Station over the last seven years. Its become quite a space junk target.

Below, I had to throw in the cool picture of Stephen Hawking giving a lecture.

Dr. Stephen Hawking, a professor of mathematics at the University of Cambridge, delivers a speech entitled “Why we should go into space” during a lecture that is part of a series honoring NASA’s 50th Anniversary, Monday, April 21, 2008, at George Washington University’s Morton Auditorium in Washington. Photo Credit: (NASA/Paul. E. Alers)

General Electric toaster 1920

Check out this compilation of six success stories of businesses that grew from ideas during times of economic downturn.

If you’re peddling hard and fast to grow your own business, you might go through this site for some business start-up ideas.

In the year 1, the world population is estmated at 200,000.

old world

Nina Fedoroff has been the science and technology advisor to the US secretary of state since 2007, initially working with Condoleezza Rice. Under the new Obama administration, she now advises Hillary Clinton.

“We need to continue to decrease the growth rate of the global population; the planet can’t support many more people,” Dr Fedoroff said, stressing the need for humans to become much better at managing “wild lands”, and in particular water supplies.

Current world population – 6.8 billion

Net growth per day – 218,030

Mortality rate per day – 150,000 (approximation based on CIA – World Factbook )

Forecast made for 2040 – 9 billion

THE MOST POPULOUS NATIONS

China – 1.33 billion
India – 1.16 billion
USA – 306 million
Indonesia – 230 million
Brazil – 191 million

United States population fact figures

In 1915, immigrant citizens came mostly from Germany; in 1967 from Italy; and in 2006 mostly from Mexico

The average US family had 4.5 people in 1915, 3.3 in 1967 and 2.6 in 2006

Some 45.9% of Americans were property owners in 1915. That grew to 63.6% in 1967 and reached 68.9% in 2006

There were 4.5 million people aged 65 and older in 1915, or 4.5%; 19.1 million in 1967 (9.5%) and 36.8 million in 2006 (12.4%)

Life expectancy was 54.5 years in 1915, 70.5 years in 1967 and 77.8 years in 2006

About 23% of women were in the work force in 1915, compared to 41% in 1967 and 58% in 2006

There were 2.5 million cars in 1915, 98.9 million in 1967 and 237.2 million in 2006

2007 – U.S. Cities Population

New York, N.Y.  -  8,274,527

Los Angeles, CA.  -  3,834,340

Chicago, Ill.   -  2,836,658

Houston, Tx.  -  2,208,180

Philadelphia, Pa.  -  1,449,634

Phoenix, Az.  -  1,552,259

San Antonio, Tx.  -  1,328,984

San Diego, CA.  -  1,266,731

Dallas, Tx.   -  1,240,499

San Jose, Ca.   -  939,899

big stretch globe - 30% dry - 70% wet