Weblog for June 2002

Tolkien Inspired Art Gallery [permanent link]: Those who enjoy J.R.R. Tolkien's work may be interested in visiting this Gallery of Tolkien inspired artwork. There are plenty of images from the famous Alan Lee and Hildebrandt works to those from lesser known artists.
What's behind a name? [permanent link]: If you have ever heard some unusual (western) names and have wondered how they came about, then pay Behind the Name a visit. The site contains "the etymology and history of first names" of various English and European names, including mythological ones. It has a smaller section for other languages which I hope will expand soon.

On Curious Cellular Structures and 'Tensegrity' [permanent link]: This Science@NASA News story on NASA's interest in cytoskeletal structures lead me to a search on tensegrity or tensional integrity. There are amazing structures that keep their shape by being under tension via wires or rods or their equivalent biological structure. See the amazing 'Needle Tower' as an example of what is possible. Another web site shows how to create your own tensegrity structures using pens and rubber bands

O'Reilly Network CVS articles [permanent link]: CVS (Concurrent Versioning System) is a pretty useful piece of software that helps you keep track of changes in your code and just about any piece of text that you want. O'Reilly Network now has three articles that explain CVS and how to use it: Introduction to CVS, CVS Administration and Tracking Changes in CVS. Quite useful articles to get you started on CVS.
XHTML with CSS2 (continued) [permanent link]: ExtremeTech has put up part three of their tutorial on XHTML with CSS2. My previous weblog entry has pointers to the previous two parts.

Earth-like Solar System found [permanent link]: Scientist have discovered a new solar system that resembles the configuration and scale of our solar system. The system has several gas giant planets, one in a similar orbit to Jupiter's with two others in orbit closer to the star. A terrestial planet could potentially be in a stable orbit between the gas giants. After finding a series of solar systems with gas giants all over the place (so the speak), it good to know that solar systems that resemble ours may be out there and raises the possibility of those holding Earth-like planets in a stable orbit. You can read up about it at BBC News or Wired News

Finding out how Ketchup flows [permanent link]: Science@NASA News has an interesting article about an experiment that may help to figure out how ketchup flows. Ketchup is either thick and 'gooey' or liquid and flows; scientists are really sure how this works and hope work it out via experiments in space with xenon gas/liquid.

Volcanic 'flood' linked to Permian-Triassic exinction [permanent link]: According to this BBC News article, a huge volcanic outpouring half the size of Australia may have contributed to the extinction of 70-90% of life 250 million years ago. Scientist suspect that large amount of gases were released into the environment, which most animals and plants could not cope with. The mass extinction would lead to the rise of the dinosaurs as the dominant species.

Mozilla 1.0 Released [permanent link]: After many years in development, Mozilla 1.0 has been released. I have been using Mozilla as my primary graphical browser for many months and have been very satisfied with it. Mozilla is the base technology for a browser suite that people can use to build their own browsers or suite of software. Netscape 7 and Netscape 6.x are two examples of web browser suites that are build based on the Mozilla browser suite. There are also other Mozilla based browser suites under development. Check them out that use the one that suites you. This Mozilla 1.0 Guide and Mozilla 1.0 FAQ will give you more information on Mozilla.

How Air Force One (Might) Work [permanent link]: Probably the most well known US aircraft is 'Air Force One', the US Presidential plane. How Stuff Works has an article on how Air Force One (might) work. It has official details and some speculation on the secret parts of the plane.
Scientific American's 2002 Web Awards [permanent link]: Scientific American has just released their 2002 Web Awards. Check it to find out what they consider the best sites for the various fields of science.