Trump blocking Twitter critics violates First Amendment, lawsuit says – Chicago Tribune

Posted on by

First Amendment advocates sued President DonaldTrumpon Tuesday, saying it is unconstitutional toblockhis critics from following him onTwitter.

The Manhattan federal court lawsuit from the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University cited seven individuals rejected byTrumpor his aides after criticizing the president. BesidesTrump, the lawsuit also named as defendants White House Press Secretary Sean Spicer and Dan Scavino, White House director of social media.

Jameel Jaffer, the institute's director, said dozens of people reached out after his organization told the White House three weeks ago that it wasn't permitted toblockindividuals from following the president's 8-year-old @realdonaldtrump account.

Trumpdoesn't seem to be the only politician trying to limit his audience. Jaffer said numerous people have said they wereblockedfrom the accounts of Republican and Democratic politicians after posting critical comments.

A federal judge in Washington, D.C., recently ruled that a local official's Facebook account was a public forum under the First Amendment, but higher courts have not yet addressed the issue, Jaffer said.

"It's fair to say that this is a new frontier," Jaffer said. "The First Amendment principle is well-settled, but the applicability of that principle to this context isn't an issue that the courts have yet had many occasions to address."

The lawsuit asks a judge to stopTrumpand his media team fromblockingcritics from following his personal account, which has 33 million followers, 14 million more than @POTUS and 19 million more than @WhiteHouse.

Dawn Dearden, a spokeswoman for government lawyers, declined to comment.

According to the lawsuit,blockingpeople from followingTrump'saccount was a viewpoint-based restriction the U.S. Constitution doesn't allow.

It noted thatTrumpon July 2 tweeted: "My use of social media is not Presidential it's MODERN DAY PRESIDENTIAL." It also quoted Spicer saying a month earlier at a press conference thatTrump'stweets should be understood as "official statements of the president of the United States."

Federal agencies and courts treatTrump'stweets as official statements, and The National Archives and Records Administration has advised the White House that the tweets must be preserved under the Presidential Records Act, the lawsuit said.

Among plaintiffs was Rebecca Buckwalter, a Washington-based writer and political consultant who wasblockedfrom the account on June 6 after she replied toTrump'stweet saying he would have had "ZERO chance winning WH" if he'd relied on "Fake News" from major media outlets. Buckwalter received over 9,000 likes and 3,300 retweets after posting: "To be fair you didn't win the WH: Russia won it for you," according to the lawsuit.

Others to beblockedincluded Philip Cohen, a University of Maryland sociology professor who calledTrumpa "Corrupt Incompetent Authoritarian," and Holly Figueroa, a national political organizer and songwriter who was cut off May 28 after posting an image of the pope looking incredulously atTrump, along with the statement: "This is pretty much how the whole world sees you," the lawsuit said.

Read the rest here:

Trump blocking Twitter critics violates First Amendment, lawsuit says - Chicago Tribune

Opinion/Editorial: First Amendment matters, must be applied equally – The Daily Progress

Posted on by

There is a powerful photograph circulating online from the July 8 Ku Klux Klan rally of an African-American Charlottesville police officer stoically standing at a crowd-control barrier, with robed Klansmen milling behind him.

That moment in time is the Constitution in action.

Some activists have been outraged that the city agreed to let the Klan hold a rally on public land and then protected them with law enforcement. Others even see it as a tacit government endorsement or extension of white supremacy.

But as repulsive and morally bankrupt as the Klan is, the city had no choice under the First Amendment.

This is a critical distinction.

The law, the Constitution,mustbe applied equally to all even (perhaps especially) toward those with whom we disagree.

Otherwise, what are we saying? That the law shall beunequallyenforced? That some people or some groups get a pass, while others do not?

This is precisely the kind of bias that the law is designed to prevent.

Ironically, once upon a time it was groups such as the Klan that received favoritism, while civil-rights protesters were met with officially sanctioned, even brutal resistance.

Through liberal, progressive new legislation such as laws banning the wearing of masks (i.e., KKK hoods) and through decades of efforts to ensure that the First Amendment is indeed applied more evenly, we have reached todays pivot point: Now it is the Klan that is the minority and the progressives who are the majority.

And, yes, the Constitution still protects the rights of the minority, even when we are disgusted by minority viewpoints.

Free speech is a two-way street. If we do not, in our time, protect the overriding value of free speech for all, then censorship may be turned againstuswhen the political pendulum next swings left or right.

If the Supreme Court overturned reams of jurisprudence and declared that hate speech was no longer a First Amendment right, conservative-leaning censorship could become law. Flag desecration and blasphemy could be barred, as well as vociferous attacks against government entities like law enforcement and the military.

This isn't all that far-fetched: Louisiana last year became the first state to offer police hate crime protections.

Wearea nation of laws: the Constitution, as well as law and order.

This is no new development. There are decades of U.S. Supreme Court precedents confirming that offensive or even hateful protest speech has First Amendment safeguards, as long as there is no "imminent lawless action."

Some rulings involve the Klan itself, including a 2003 case that overturned most of Virginia's ban on cross burning.

The court summed it up in 1989 over flag burning: "The Government may not prohibit the verbal or nonverbal expression of an idea merely because society finds the idea offensive or disagreeable."

If the city refused to grant a permit to the Klan for its rally, when it would grant one to any other group, then officials would assuredly be sued for content-based censorship and bias. The ACLU, which many Trump administration foes gladly donated to after the election, would proudly join as a plaintiff.

Free speech isn't free metaphorically and literally.

Taxpayers may bemoan that police were used for something as abhorrent as a Klan rally and that road closures were imposed.But this is precisely why we have and fund peacekeeping forces: to protect, and to restrain protesters of all stripes from mob rule.

We are not at all saying that peaceful champions of social justice are on the same moral tangent as white supremacists.

But the First Amendment is the best remedy for the First Amendment and that's the way it should be.

More here:

Opinion/Editorial: First Amendment matters, must be applied equally - The Daily Progress

Russia, China vow to kill off VPNs, Tor browser – The Register

Posted on by

Russia and China are banning the use of virtual private networks, as their governments assert ever greater control over what citizens can see online.

In Russia, the State Duma the lower house of the Federal Assembly of Russia (legislature) unanimously adopted the first reading of new legislation that would ban the use of VPNs as well as online anonymizers like the Tor browser if they don't block access to a government-run list of websites.

That list of websites will include any sites that provide software that can circumvent censorship. And, most insidiously, the law will require search engines to remove references to blocked websites so citizens don't know what it is they are not allowed to see.

The legislation was approved in record time after the director of the FSB intelligence agency, Alexander Bortnikov, gave an hour-long talk to Duma deputies in a closed meeting, in which he said how important it was that the law was passed and passed quickly. Attendees were told not to report that the meeting even took place, apparently.

In a note explaining the law, Duma deputies argue that the law is necessary because the existing censorship apparatus in place is "not effective enough."

A second law that also passed its first reading this month will require mobile phone operators to:

Any companies that fail to comply with the rules can be fined up to one million rubles ($16,500).

Meanwhile, China has started enforcing its rules, approved in January, that do pretty much the same thing.

The Chinese government requires all VPN services to apply for a license, and as part of the license requirements, they are expected to block access to websites and services the Chinese government doesn't approve of.

Now the government has "requested" that the country's three mobile operators block the use of VPN apps on their networks, and have set a hard deadline of February 1 next year. Chinese users in their millions use VPNs as a way of bypassing widespread online censorship that blocks services such as Facebook and Twitter as well as many Western news websites.

The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said back in January that the VPN and cloud computing market was undergoing "disorderly development," and as such there was an "urgent need for regulation norms."

That followed a largely ineffective effort to kill off VPNs back in 2015. But this time the government seems more determined to enforce censorship.

Earlier this month two VPN services Green VPN and Haibei VPN said they were shutting down their services in mainland China, having received a "notice from regulatory departments."

The government also recently passed new rules that will censor information that does not reflect "core socialist values" in effect banning discussion on topics such as drugs and homosexuality. Previously, Chinese internet users had grown used to a censored version of the internet built largely around protecting the ruling party by limiting political debate.

It's unclear whether the same rules will apply to the political elite, however. The architect of China's Great Firewall himself used one publicly in a presentation last year when he found himself blocked by his own creation.

See more here:

Russia, China vow to kill off VPNs, Tor browser - The Register

ACLU’s Gillmor on privacy: ‘We pay for what we value’ (Q&A) – The Parallax (blog)

Posted on by

SAN FRANCISCOCan something as mundane as modern Web hosting be used to increase consumer privacy? Daniel Kahn Gillmor, a senior staff technologist at the ACLUs Project on Speech, Privacy, and Technology, thinks so. He also believes that the future of consumer privacy depends on technology providers taking bolder steps to protect their users.

At a recent conference held here by the content delivery network company Fastly, Gillmor spent 20 minutes explaining a set of technology proposals that a modern Web host like Fastly can undertake to defend privacywithout burying itself in costly changes.

The adversaries who are doing network monitoring tend to focus on metadata, not on content, he told the crowd of engineers about the essential tracking data created when we write emails, watch cat videos online, or text emojis. The importance of metadata to surveillance was underscored by former National Security Agency Director Michael Hayden in 2014, when he declared, We kill people based on metadata.

Gillmor explained how a content delivery network, or CDN, could combine new Internet traffic analysis countermeasures and Domain Name System obfuscation to help prevent spies from snooping on consumers Internet activities. Gillmors talk was more of a pitch about what a CDN can do than what Fastly is actually doing.

Daniel Kahn Gillmor. Photo courtesy ACLU.

After Gillmors presentation, he and I spoke at length about three of todays biggest challenges to consumer privacy: rising costs, responsibilities of private companies to their users, and struggles to make email more safe and private.

What follows is an edited transcript of our conversation.

Q: There seems to be a growing digital divide over privacy technology. Whats your perspective?

My biggest fear is that were going to accept, as a society, that privacy is a luxury. You see that already, in many situations. Someone who can afford a home has more privacy than someone who cant afford a home. This is not just a digital-divide thing; its a general situation where people buy privacy for themselves. Its unjust.

Some services people buy are intended to help keep you off others radar. (And some of them actually are invasive.) And a lot of people dont even actively consider privacy when making purchasing decisions. So theres not enough of a market, in some sense, for privacy-preserving technologies.

Which ostensibly privacy-preserving technologies are people are buying that might actually be compromising them? Virtual private networks?

If you cant afford a VPN, most of your connections are going out in the clear, which means that your network provider has an opportunity to surveil you and build profiles about you.

But if everyone gets a VPN, all network traffic would get concentrated at a few VPN companies instead of at the various Internet service providers. And you could monitor everybodys traffic just by monitoring the VPNs, instead of all the different on-ramps.

And if you had a big budget and wanted to do a lot of monitoring, you could even set up your own VPN and sell access. Brand and market it, and then maybe Im paying you to harvest my data.

Another consideration: What privacy controls do we have on existing VPN services we might buy? They should be subject to the same constraints that we would like to put on the ISPs, because they are in the position to see all of the different stuff that we do online. Thats a different perspective than a network service that you may or may not decide to use.

Tor is the exception to this rule because its free and designed to reduce tracking, right?

Theres a bunch of mythology around Tor. But if you want to play around with it, its really not that hard. You go to TorProject.org, download the browser, and use it to browse the Web.

Its a little bit slower than what people usually expect from a Web browser. But Tor developers have really thought carefully, not just about how to route network traffic, but also about what browsers do and how they pass traffic. Tor really does provide a significant amount of user privacy.

We have a responsibility as engineers to try to fix the systems people actually use.

In dealing with cookies, for example, it uses double-keyed cookies. The typical browser makes a request, the origin sends back the page, and the page refers to several subresources such as images or video. It sends them with cookies [a small piece of computer data that can track behavior on the Web], which might come from a third party such as an ad server.

So if I visit a site, make a request from a third-party server, then visit another site that uses the same third-party server, that third party can identify me as the same person because of the identical cookies I send.

The Tor browser ensures that the cookies you send different sites dont match. I think it would be better to just not send cookies at all, but the Web has evolved such that there are things like authentication schemes that dont work, if you dont send any cookies to a third party. This is something Tor does through its browser. Its independent from its network traffic obfuscation.

If youre interested in getting the most developed set of privacy preservation tools that have been thought about, researched, and well implemented, Tor is the place to get it. As part of the Tor uplift to integrate features from the Tor browser back into Firefox, Mozilla has added double-keyed cookies into Firefox as an opt-in. This is a good example of how collaboration between noncompany technology providers can add functionality for a wide swath of users.

For instant messaging, people should be using Signal. And if theyre not using Signal, they should use WhatsApp.

What about for email?

Im involved with an effort to try to do a similar thing for email called Autocrypt. We have had email encryption technology available to us for 20 years. But encrypting email is painful.

So painful that the creator of email encryption tells people to stop using email to send sensitive data.

Phil Zimmerman doesnt use it anymore. He says people should stop using it, but the fact is, that wont happen. And he knows that.

We have a responsibility as engineers to try to fix the systems people actually use. Its one thing for us to say, Quit it. And its another thing to say, OK, we get it. You need email because email works in all these different ways.

I think we have a responsibility to try to clean up some of our messes, instead of saying, Well, that was a mistake. All of you idiots who are still doing what we told you was so cool two years ago need to stop doing it.

We need to actually support it. This is a problem that I call the curse of the deployed base. I take it seriously.

I expect to get a lot of shit, frankly, from some other members of the encrypted-email community.

The Autocrypt project is run by a group of email developers who are building a consensus around automated methods to give people some level of encrypted email without getting in their way.

Some of us deeply, intimately know the thousand paper cuts that come with trying to get encrypted email setup. We asked, Whats the right way to get around that for the majority of people? And the answer weve come up with isnt quite as good as traditional encrypted email, from a security perspective. But it isnt bad.

When someone asks me how to use email encryption, Id like to one day be able to tell him to use an Autocrypt-capable mail client, then turn on the Autocrypt feature.

From a solutions perspective, we dont necessarily handle everything correctly. But no one does traditional encrypted email properly. And encrypted email is a two-way street. If you want people to be able to do it, the people with whom you correspond need to also be doing it.

I expect to get a lot of shit, frankly, from some other members of the encrypted-email community. Five years ago, I would have said Autocrypt sounds dangerous because its not as strong as we expect. That is, I might have been inclined to give people shit about aproject like Autocrypt. However, I think that imperfect e-mail encryption with a focus on usability will be better protection than what we currently have, which is actually clear text for everyone, because no one can be bothered to use difficult e-mail encryption.

How important is it for consumers to understand whos targeting them?

This is the other thing that I feel like we dont have enough of a developed conversation around. Im a well-off white guy, working for a powerful nonprofit in the United States. Were not as powerful as wed like to be, and we obviously dont win as many of the fights that we would like to win. But I dont feel that Im personally, necessarily, a target.

Other people I talk to might be more targeted. I am responsible for pieces of infrastructure as a Debian [Linux] developer that other people rely on. They might be targeted. I could be targeted because theyre being targeted.

When we talk about threats, we take an individualistic approach when, in fact, we have a set of interdependencies. You and I exchange emails, and all of a sudden, someone who wants access to your emails can go attack my email.

We havent yet seen a sufficient shift to companies treating user data as a responsibility, instead of just as a future pot of money.

It used to be that I would set up a server, and you would connect to it to view my site. There were network intermediaries, but no CDN. Now there are both, and the CDNs privacy is my privacy is your privacy. All of these things are intermixed.

You have to think about the interdependencies that you have, as well as the threat model of the people who depend on you. Theres responsible data stewardshipI dont think that people think about that actively.

My hope is that every organization that holds someone elses data will see that data as a liability to be cared for, as well as an asset. Most people today see other peoples data as an asset because it will be useful at some point. Companies build venture capital on the basis of their user base, and on the assumption that you can monetize the user base somehow. Most of the time, that means sharing data.

We havent yet seen a sufficient shift to companies treating user data as a responsibility, instead of just as a future pot of money. How do we ensure that organizations in this middleman position take that responsibility seriously? We can try to hold them publicly accountable. We can say, Look, we understand you have access to this data, and we want you to be transparent about whom you leak it to. Or give it to.

Ive been happy to see large companies make a standard operating procedure of documenting all the times theyve had data requested by government agencies, but I dont think its adequate. It doesnt cover who theyve actually sent data to in commercial relationships.

A big challenge to the effort to protect consumers from hacking and spying is the effort to encrypt metadata. Where does it stand today?

Its complicated by a lot of factors.

First, what looks like content to some layers of the communications stack might look like metadata to other layers. For example, in an email, there is a header that says To, and a header that says From. From one perspective, the entire email is content. From another, the To and the From are metadata. Some things are obviously content, and some things are obviously metadata, but theres a vast gray area in the middle.

When youre talking about metadata versus content, it helps to be able to understand that the network operates on all these different levels. And the idea of encrypting metadata doesnt necessarily fit the full bill.

In terms of the size and timing of packets, for example, say you sent K bytes to me. You cannot encrypt the number. But you can obfuscate it.

Take profile pictures. If youre serving up a cache of relatively static data like avatars, you can serve every avatar at the same size.

Can you essentially hide other forms of metadata that cant be encrypted?

You can obfuscate an Internet Protocol address.

When I send you traffic over IP, the metadata at the IP layer is the source and destination address. If you encrypted the destination address, the traffic wouldnt reach the destination. So somebody has to see some of the metadata somewhere. And practically, realistically, I have no hope of encrypting, or protecting, the sending address. But maybe I dont need to present the source address.

Whether youre padding existing traffic to hide the size of the information transferred, or making changes to how domain name servers operate, what are the associated costs? Additional traffic isnt free, right?

Its hard to measure some of the costs. But youd measure padding to defend against traffic analysis in terms of throughput.

Imagine that your DNS was already encrypted. We know how to do it; we have the specification for it. Are we talking about an extra 5 percent of traffic? Or are we talking about an extra 200 percent or 2,000 percent of traffic? And if were talking about DNS, whats the proportion of that traffic relative to the proportion of all of the other traffic?

DNS traffic is peanuts compared to one streamed episode of House of Cards.

Some traffic analysis savant will come along and say, We found a way to attack your padding scheme, which is great. Thats how the science advances. But it might cost your adversary two to three times more to decipher, because of the padding.

If we step back from that, lets ask about other costs. Have you looked at the statistics for network traffic with an ad blocker versus no ad blocker?

Your browser pulls significantly less traffic, if it doesnt pull ads. And yet, as a society, we seem to have decided that the default should be to pull a bunch of ads. Weve decided that the traffic cost of advertising, which is more likely to be privacy-invasive, is worth paying.

So yes, metadata padding will cost something. Im not going to pretend that it doesnt, but we pay for what we value.

And if we dont value privacy, and thus dont pay for it, there will be a series of consequences. As a society, well be less likely to dissent. Well be more likely to stagnate. And, if we feel boxed in by surveillance, well be less likely to have a functioning democracy.

See more here:

ACLU's Gillmor on privacy: 'We pay for what we value' (Q&A) - The Parallax (blog)

REcoin is a new Ethereum-based cryptocurrency

Posted on by

Ethereum cryptocurrency code is used, which means the following options:

The technology of blockchain proved itself as perhaps the safest way of keeping records of transactions performed within a certain society, each member of which owns a copy of the database distributed among members of the given society.

Blockchain - a chain built from the formed blocks with records of all transactions. A copy of the Blockchain chain or its part is simultaneously stored on multiple computers and synchronized according to the formal rules for constructing the chain of blocks. The information in the blocks is not encrypted and is available in clear form, but is protected from cryptographic changes through hash chains. Thus, the Blockchain database is distributed (decentralized) and cryptographically protected (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blockchain).

The possibility of mining, which gives the use of the methodology of protection against false data and fraud PoW, is by far the most widespread and reliable crypto currency in the environment.

A proof of work is a piece of data which is difficult (costly, time-consuming) to produce but easy for others to verify and which satisfies certain requirements. Producing a proof of work can be a random process with low probability so that a lot of trial and error is required on average before a valid proof of work is generated (https://en.bitcoin.it/wiki/Proof_of_work).

The minimum unit is 10^-4, 0,0001 RCN.

The conclusion of the block will occur every 20.5s (Similar to the Ethereum software environment, https://bitinfocharts.com/ru/ethereum/ ). The block volume limit is 12 KBytes.

The rest is here:

REcoin is a new Ethereum-based cryptocurrency

Kik looks to cryptocurrency instead of an IPO commentary – CNBC.com – CNBC

Posted on by

Unless you've been under a rock, you've likely read a lot about ICOs (initial coin offerings) in the last few weeks. These are offerings by companies starting their own variant of blockchain-based digital currencies.

This year has not only seen the explosion in the price of bitcoin itself but also the second and third most popular cryptocurrencies Ethereum and Ripple.

More interesting, there's been a rise of many additional cryptocurrencies such as Steem, Dash, AntShares and Dogecoin. In fact, if you measure bitcoin's market capitalization as a percentage of the market capitalization for all cryptocurrencies, it's currently at 45.5 percent, down from 94 percent a year ago.

The value of all cryptocurrencies now is $88 billion, which is actually down from $114 billion a few days ago.

New ICOs have raised $500 million so far this year. One community that is showing great interest in becoming part of the trend of launching a new cryptocurrency is start-ups.

Last week, Thai fintech start-up Omise raised $25 million in an ICO to develop a decentralized payment platform. The company had already raised $20 million in traditional VC funding.

Rahul Sood's esports betting company Unikrn is launching its own cryptocurrency called UnikoinGold as the way to place esports bets on its platform. Unikrn has raised $10 million from Mark Cuban, Shari Redstone's Advancit Capital, Elisabeth Murdoch's Freelands Ventures and others.

However, social messaging company Kik has bigger plans for its upcoming ICO. In a recent talk given by Kik founder and CEO Ted Livingston, he explained that Kik saw its ICO of a currency called Kin as a potential alternative exit for them.

Like the Omise and Unikrn examples, Kik has also raised traditional venture capital money more than $120 million, including $50 million from Tencent most recently valuing the company at $1 billion. Kik's ICO will help bring it more money. Kik will sell 10 percent of its Kin currency (half to institutional investors and half to retail investors). Kik will keep 30 percent of Kin and 60 percent of Kin will be overseen by a nonprofit Kin Foundation aimed at making Kin a popular cryptocurrency. That foundation will give away 20 percent of its stock of Kin every year to developers and others who help build out the economy for Kin.

Kin will be used as the currency on the Kik social network for things like emojis, stickers, hosting and participating in group chats, building apps like bots, etc. However, the stated goal is for Kin to also be used as currency outside of the Kik app.

Even if stays confined within the Kik community, Kik has 15 million monthly active users. It's currently ranked in the 60s in terms of popularity on the App Store. That community alone will make the currency among the more popular cryptocurrencies.

But here is what's interesting, Livingston said that, if all goes well, this ICO could be Kik's liquidity event. Up until now, Kik has been thinking it had to translate its popular youthful community chat service into ad dollars in order to make a successful business similar to what Facebook has done. The problem is that Facebook and Google continue to suck up more and more of the ad dollars that are getting spent in the space.

Livingston said in the talk that the penny dropped for him when he saw Snap's S-1 IPO filing in February. Here was a young Facebook competitor seemingly doing everything right and yet still failing in its growth of its ad-based revenue. If Snap was failing, Livingston thought, what hope did Kik have of building a better ad mouse trap?

Yet, he thought, if Kik could develop a cryptocurrency that became a self-sustaining economy and Kik owned a big chunk of that supply limited currency the value of that stake in Kin could end up being more valuable than the potential exit valuation for Kik as an ad-based business in an IPO or through an acquisition. Luckily, one of Kik's earliest investors was Fred Wilson of Union Square Ventures, also a big investor in the cryptocurrency space. He agreed with Ted.

Can you name the fourth most popular cryptocurrency? It's Litecoin and has a market cap of $2.5 billion. If Kin got that kind of valuation and with an established community of 15 million monthly active users, it could be a currency worth more Kik's 30 percent stake in Kin would be worth $750 million, almost equal to the valuation of Kik's last round. If Kin became as valuable as Ripple the third most popular cryptocurrency today Kik's stake would be worth $2.5 billion.

Livingston pointed out that, in this kind of scenario, an exit via M&A or an IPO would be unnecessary for Kik. Its existing backers could simply convert their shares into Kin and liquidate them. Kik could stop trying to win advertiser dollars, if it wanted. It could simply focus on developing the community's use of Kin and helping Kin proliferate outside of the Kik ecosystem.

In this scenario, according to Livingston, "we just step back and watch it continue."

Will it work out this way? Possibly for some lucky start-ups but certainly not for all. The world likely doesn't need 1,000 different cryptocurrencies. The current gold rush mentality with ICOs will probably only get bigger in the months and years to come but will probably also meet the inevitable bust of the dot-com era.

But some cryptocurrencies will endure especially ones with strong use cases and/or communities supporting them. It's intriguing to imagine if some ad-dependent companies like Kik will opt to stop competing with Facebook and Google on a battlefield they can never succeed at and go for an alternative cryptocurrency path to value creation.

Kik is truly breaking new ground with its ICO. It will be intriguing to see if it causes other unicorns to follow its lead.

Commentary by Eric Jackson, sign up for Eric's monthly Tech & Media Email. You can follow Eric on Twitter @ericjackson .

For more insight from CNBC contributors, follow @CNBCopinion on Twitter.

Disclosure: CNBC parent NBCUniversal is an investor in Snap

Original post:

Kik looks to cryptocurrency instead of an IPO commentary - CNBC.com - CNBC

How Exactly Do You Get Rich of the Hot New Cryptocurrency? – Gizmodo

Posted on by

With the meteoric rise in popularity of Ethereum, cryptocurrencies and blockchains are back in the news again. Graphics card prices have soared with the promise that those who have the computers and know-how to do some serious mining can take home huge sums in a Bitcoin-like gold rush to snatch up as much virtual currency as possible. But how easy is it to make your fortune in cryptocurrency? And is it worth your while getting started?

For the uninitiated, mining for currencies like Bitcoin and Ether means devoting a huge amount of computer processing power to doing accounting sums for the platforms behind them, helping to verify the accuracy of the public blockchain ledgers.

Youre essentially getting rewarded for keeping the books for these platforms, which weve explained in more detail here, and the rise of cryptocurrencies like Bitcoin and others has led to a flood of amateur enthusiasts jumping into the mining businessthe idea of having your computer whirring away making you free money sounds almost too good to be true.

And in reality, it almost isyou can get rich from cryptocurrencies, but you need to put in plenty of work, and have luck on your side. Youre more likely to get a windfall due to market pressures than the quality of your mining rig, which is why its only worth a shot for the most committed and the most adventurous.

Mining for cryptocoin requires some free software tools and a dedicated rig. Turn the clock back several years and you could get away with a powerful home PC and make a few bucks. These days you can waste a weekend and a months wages on building a machine with four graphics cards purring away in a row and still not make a profit.

GPUs are now established as the mining processors of choice in most situationsgraphics cards are even built for and marketed towards miners nowbasically because theyre better at doing lots of laborious, repetitive tasks, whereas CPUs are better suited to switching between many tasks quickly.

The trouble is, the serious players have got whole farms of these computers, and unless youve got a warehouse and some life savings to spare, youre going to be lagging a long way behind. Youre up against huge foreign operations running off cheap electricity and hardware bought wholesale.

Even if you do get yourself a rig set up and find a currency with a bit of a profit margin, youre still putting yourself at the whims of the cryptocurrency marketsmining can start or stop becoming profitably depending on a currencys current value.

There are several profit calculators on the web that will tell you how much computing power and electricity you need to make a certain amount of cash, so you can see exactly how much (or more likely, how little) you could make. Take Bitcoin, for example, which is now just about impossible to mine profitably for average users at homeyoud need thousands of GPUs running before youd get close to getting more back in Bitcoin than youd be paying for electricity.

You can fork out thousands of dollars on specialized kit, if you want to, but even then youre only going to be raking in a handful of dollars a day with Bitcoin. That of course can go up or down as the currency value fluctuates, and whats profitable one day might not be the next if your chosen cryptocurrency dips in value, or gets some bad media coveragethats where the slice of luck we mentioned earlier comes in.

Other options, like Feathercoin and Ether, have a better profit potential than Bitcoin right now, with the caveats weve already mentioned: If youre serious about your mining then you need to keep a very close eye on the market trends, because the situation can change on a weekly or even daily basis. A single Litecoin, another cryptocurrency, has swung from costing you between $10 and $55 this year alone.

For instance, a huge $64m Ether heist carried out last year was severe enough to cause a fork in the Ethereum platform it runs on top of, and a halving in price of Ether itselfif youve got a powerful, expensive, cryptocurrency mining operation going on in your basement then thats a serious hit on your profits through factors completely out of your control. Sure, a swing the other way can make you relatively rich, but its a risk, and the upward trend wont necessarily continue.

Many modern-day miners join a mining pool, combining resources with other users and getting a share of the profits, but the same risks remain. Fork out a few thousand on a mining rig, take the time to study the market trends, go through the process of setting up the programs, join up with a mining pool, and yes you canif the prices stay buoyant and youve picked your cryptocurrency wiselymake a few thousand dollars a year. Whether or not its worth the risk and investment is up to you.

And if your investment isnt already precarious enough, remember the scene is constantly changing: In the near future Ethereum is set to switch from its existing Proof of Work (PoW) system for extending the blockchain to a new Proof of State (PoS) system which is easier to scale and less energy intensive.

Without going too far into the technical details, it essentially makes the mining process more like earning interest on money youve already got: Racks of graphics cards wont be able to generate wealth as they did in the past, which is bad news for miners looking for a profit even if its good news for your electricity bill. Instead, earning money will rely on staking (investing) rather than mining.

In other words, if youre already halfway through building your Ethereum mining machine you might want to pick a new cryptocurrency... at least until the ground rules change on that one too. (Remember what we said about the constant state of flux?) And thats really the only way to squeeze any profit out of cryptocurrency mining operationskeep moving as fast as the market does, and switch up the currencies you target as conditions change.

As soon as one cryptocurrency becomes profitable to mine, as weve seen with Bitcoin and Ethereum, everyone wants a piece of the action and making money gradually gets harder. Its then time to get in early on another currency. In short, if you want to get rich (or at least make a profit), you need to pick and keep picking the right cryptocurrencies, have a serious amount of graphics processing power in hand, hope that your chosen currencies stay secure and keep increasing in value, and put in a lot of time and effort.

Its not impossible, but we can think of easier ways to make a buck. If youre determined to jump in and get involved in cryptocurrency mining, if only for the educational and geek appeal rather than to make any money, your best bet is to immerse yourself in one of the many mining forums out there, which will give you the inside track on the latest news and market trends.

See more here:

How Exactly Do You Get Rich of the Hot New Cryptocurrency? - Gizmodo

Cryptocurrencies Are Getting Crushed – Bloomberg – Bloomberg

Posted on by

The cryptocurrency Cassandras are starting to look right.

The sector has lost about a third of its market value since peaking in early June, pushing it into what traditional equity market analysts label as a bear market. Bitcoin, the largest of the digital currencies, is down about 20 percent from its peak of $3,000, reached June 12. Smaller rivals such as ethereum and ripple are getting hit even harder.

When when we look for signs of excess in the market, I look at bitcoin and to me that looks pretty scary, Richard Turnill, global chief investment strategist at BlackRock Inc., said during a midyear outlook presentation in New York on Tuesday.

Whether the virtual currencies were caught up in an asset-price bubble was debated as the market capitalization of the sector soared this year, raising skepticism from pundits including tech billionaire Mark Cuban. Backers such as Ripple Chief Executive Officer Brad Garlinghouse, whose money-transfer company is tied to the third-largest cryptocurrency by market value, said he isnt convinced.

"I would be surprised if there was a major crash," Garlinghouse said in an interview at Bloombergs New York headquarters Monday. "Could we see digital assets continue to double or triple or quadruple from where we are today? That wouldnt surprise me at all."

Digital coins are currently worth around $80 billion, down from a market capitalization of $100 billion on Friday and $115 billion on June 14, according to data from Coinmarketcap.com.

This weeks slump coincides withinitial hearings in the trial of the former head of Mt. Gox, the bankrupt Japan-based bitcoin exchange that imploded in 2014 after losing hundreds of millions of dollars worth of bitcoin. Chief Executive OfficerMark Karpeles pleaded not guilty in Tokyo on Tuesday to charges of embezzlement and inflating corporate financial accounts.

The turbulence may be far from over, too, as rival bitcoin enthusiasts are set to adopt two competing software updates at the end of July. This has raised the possibility that bitcoin will split in two, an unprecedented event that would send shockwaves through the market.

Read more on the dispute between bitcoin developers

Volatility is nothing new for cryptocurrency buyers, who have faced losses in recent months as exchanges grapple with outages and poor performance, struggling to keep up with the volume surge that has swept the market amid speculation about the potential for widespread adoption of virtual assets and blockchain technology.

"It is easy to look at the appreciation that we have seen this year and conclude that we are witnessing a bubble, said Martin Garcia, vice president of sales and trading at Genesis Global Trading. While I understand that the prices we are seeing now a more than a little frothy, I think that we are in the very early stages of the development of an entirely new asset class."

Read more from our TOPLive Q&A with Martin Garcia

Continue reading here:

Cryptocurrencies Are Getting Crushed - Bloomberg - Bloomberg

BlackRock Strategy: Cryptocurrency Speculation Doesn’t Present Systematic Risk – PYMNTS.com

Posted on by

Share

Share

Share

Share

Email

BlackRock Global Chief Investment Strategist Richard Turnill argued Tuesday (July 11) that loose monetary policy has resulted in a huge run up in cryptocurrency, such as bitcoin, but it doesnt pose a risk to the financial system.

According to a report in Reuters, Turnill said bitcoin price movements could be influenced by easy monetary policies that were instituted by central banks following on the heels of the global financial crisis that started in 2007 and lasted until 2009. The gains in cryptocurrencies could also be a sign the market could be in a bubble.

I look at the charts, and to me that looks pretty scary, Turnill said at a media briefing in New York covered by the newswire. He and his BlackRock colleagues have been telling clients to remain invested in global stocks despite the risk and despite warnings from some strategists that prices are too high. As to the speculations, hes not concerned about the broader implications from the wild movements in the digital currencies.

Theres no evidence that if that price went to zero tomorrow that thered be any broader financial implication over time, but to me it is [an] example of where youre getting some big price movements in the market.

BlackRock isnt the only one to warn about a bubble in cryptocurrencies. Those same concerns have hurt Ethereums price this week. According to a news report, the digital currency has been having a tough go of it lately, falling more than 45 percent since hitting a record high of $400 in mid-June.

There is talk that the cryptocurrency market is reaching a bubble after Mark Cuban said bitcoin, the Ethereum competitor, was already in bubble mode. I think its in a bubble. I just dont know when or how much it corrects, Cuban recently tweeted, noted the report. When everyone is bragging about how easy they are making $=bubble.

Following those speculations, came a statement from Jeffrey Kleintop, Charles Schwabs chief global investment strategist, who, according to the report, also suggested bitcoins price was in a bubble and in one not seen before.

Share

Share

Share

Share

Email

Read the rest here:

BlackRock Strategy: Cryptocurrency Speculation Doesn't Present Systematic Risk - PYMNTS.com

Ex-Credit Suisse Trader Raises $66 Million for Bitcoin Push – Bloomberg

Posted on by

Former Credit Suisse Group AG trader Nikolay Storonsky is getting $66 million from investors including Index Ventures to help grow his two-year-old banking startup in the U.S. and Asia and enabling it to offer cryptocurrency trading.

His London-based Revolut Ltd. raised the money in a round that included Balderton Capital and Ribbit Capital, according to a statement on Wednesday. Storonsky, 32, will use the funds to expand in Asia and North America, and let customers hold cryptocurrency. He also plans to gather $5 million in crowdfunding from consumers on Seedrs later this month.

Source: Revolut

Revolut, which Russian-born Storonsky founded two years ago with former Deutsche Bank AG technology developerVlad Yatsenko, makes money from fees on ATM withdrawals and takes a cut from merchant charges on payments in shops. As early as next week, it plans to let customers hold, exchange, spend and transfer virtual currencies such as bitcoin, litecoin and ethereum for free, profiting from the price differences between buyers and sellers as opposed to charging commission.

Adding cryptocurrencies and the ability to buy and sell them is a big step forward for a financial organization, Storonsky, who used to trade equity derivatives, said in an interview. Big banks are looking at us and seeing what were doing, for future things they want to add to their product pipeline, but theyre very slow.

For more on digital startups challenging European lenders, click here

The cryptocurrency sector has lost about a third of its market value since peaking in early June, pushing it into what traditional equity market analysts label as a bear market. Bitcoin, the largest of the digital currencies, is down about 20 percent from its peak of $3,000, reached June 12. Smaller rivals such as ethereum are getting hit even harder.

Exclusive insights on technology around the world.

Get Fully Charged, from Bloomberg Technology.

Storonsky is among former bankers such as ex-JPMorgan Chase & Co. executive Blythe Masters and erstwhile Barclays Plc Chief Executive Officer Antony Jenkins who are taking advantage of new technology to win customers in an industry dominated by their old employers. Although most fintech firms have yet to achieve significant scale and profit, the startups as a whole are threatening to upend banks handicapped by creaky computer systems.

Revolut, which currently employs 140 people in London, Krakow and Moscow, plans to open offices in New York and Singapore and hire about 20 more staff, according to Storonsky.

The Asia and North American growth plan will come in parallel to expanding in Europe. These are big markets, theres huge demand for our products, he said. Weve got waiting lists and now is the time to enter.

More here:

Ex-Credit Suisse Trader Raises $66 Million for Bitcoin Push - Bloomberg

Japanese Cryptocurrency Exchange BTCBox Enters Hong Kong … – Bitcoin News (press release)

Posted on by

Veteran Japanese cryptocurrencyexchange Btcbox has announced that it will be establishing a subsidiary to target the Hong Kong bitcoin markets. The subsidiary, MBK Asia Limited, will operate in partnership with Japanese investment bank, MBK CO. Ltd.

Also Read:Rollout of 260,000+ Bitcoin-Accepting Stores in Japan Begins

Japanese bitcoin exchange Btcbox will be establishing a Hong Kong bitcoin exchange subsidiary in partnership with investment bank MBK Co. Ltd. The proposed subsidiary, MBK Asia Limited, this week announced that it has filed for registration as an incorporation within Hong Kong.

Btcbox has been operating since 2014, making itone of the oldest bitcoinexchanges in Japan. Since 2016 the company has increasingly geared its operations toward altcoin trading. Despite its longevity, Btcbox has struggled to capture a significant share of the Japanese cryptocurrency markets, posting the first profitable single month in the companys entire history this May.

Japanese investment bank MBK has already reaped benefits from its pending entry into Hong Kongs cryptocurrency markets. The recent liberalization of Japans regulatory stance toward bitcoin and dramatic rise in price seen by many cryptocurrencies have inspired sharp gains in the share price of Japanese businesses with exposure to virtual currencies with MBKs shares rising in price by approximately 17% since February.

MBK has traditionally engaged in the provision of equity investment, debt financing, fund management, and merger and acquisition advisory. The move to enter the cryptocurrency markets is a notable diversification for MBK, which was first founded in 1947 and has traditionally been associated with Japans post-war manufacturing and merchant banking sectors.

The establishment of Btcboxs subsidiary has been largely inspired by Japans permissive regulatory climate, with the company perceiving recent regulations as a likely catalyst for both recent and future growth. In April of this year, demand for virtual currencies has been increasing more than ever since the revised fund settlement law etc. came into effect in order to optimize the service on the virtual currency. Btcbox has also seen an increase in customer assets under management expected from an increase in new customers, as well as an increase in sales of bitcoin.

The Hong Kong-based subsidiary also announced future plans to negotiate partnerships to provide remittance and settlement services to the international finance markets.

Do you think that Btcbox will be successful in capturing a significant share of the Hong Kong bitcoin markets? Share your thoughts in the comments section below!

Images courtesy of Shutterstock, and BTCbox

Need to calculate your bitcoin holdings? Check ourtoolssection.

View post:

Japanese Cryptocurrency Exchange BTCBox Enters Hong Kong ... - Bitcoin News (press release)

China’s Central Bank Testing Prototype Cryptocurrency – Crowdfund Insider

Posted on by

Over a month ago, speculation abounded on whether China was developing its very own cryptocurrency to essentially digitize RMB. Now we know quite certainly that the Central Bank of China has developed and is currently testing a cryptocoin.

Although there have been no official statements from China, according to several reports online, the Peoples Bank of China has been slowly testing its cryptocurrency through mock transactions between commercial banks within the country. The plan would be to eventually launch the digital currency alongside Chinas primary currency RMB (aka yuan). Some of the key benefits of having a fiat cryptocurrency for China include: making it easier forpeople in more rural areas that dont have access to traditional banks toreceive financialservices which would in turn lower transaction costs; greater oversight over other digital currencies like Bitcoin and Ether; as well as the reduction of corruption, fraud, and counterfeiting.Yao Qian, the Deputy Director of the Science and Technology Department at Chinas central bank recently authored an extensive report detailing many of the ways China could benefit from digital currencies.

One of the fears highlighted by some experts is the fact that by having a central digital currency, commercial banks could be undermined and lose customers. Chinas goal, though, is to integrate the digital currency into the existing banking system by allowing commercial banks to operate cryptocoinwallets for the central coin. The mock transactions between commercial banks would be a good place to test the planned integration.

Cryptocurrencies have been making headlines recently; mostly on account of the extreme volatilityinvolving the price of coins like Bitcoin and Ether as well as the many Initial Coin Offerings (ICOs) that have raised ridiculousamounts of money within a few hours and even minutes. With much of the news focused on only one aspect of the cryptocoin market, its easy to lose sight of the technologys many other uses. The central idea behind cryptocurrencies is decentralization; allowing people anywhere in the world to transact instantly with zero transaction costs.

The fact that a country as large as China is developing and prototyping a cryptocoin, even though it will likely be controlled and restricted by the central government, speaks volumes to the technologyspotential. China is not the only one getting involved, however. Last month, Singapore made headlines as well when it announced it had successfully digitized its currency. Canada, England, and Russia are also experimenting with cryptocurrencies. Hopefully, more countries will follow suit.

. Bookmark the

.

Read more here:

China's Central Bank Testing Prototype Cryptocurrency - Crowdfund Insider

Bitcoin falls to near one-month low amid bubble concern, scaling … – CNBC

Posted on by

These miners are unhappy with SegWit and have suggested an alternative code change known as Bitcoin Unlimited. This would increase the block size significantly, but would also make their version of the bitcoin protocol incompatible with the original version.

As a result, a "hard fork" would take place, splitting the bitcoin blockchain in two, and even resulting in two separate coins. Investors would theoretically then hold some of the original bitcoin tokens, as well as the new Bitcoin Unlimited.

Each proposal requires large support from the participants in the bitcoin's ecosystem, but there is strong disagreement.

BTCC is a massive bitcoin exchange in China which signaled support for the SegWit proposal. Its CEO Bobby Lee told CNBC that he is "confident" a solution will be found, but the uncertainty could be a reason why the bitcoin price has paused for breath.

"Not everyone is on the same page, there are people worried, some may be selling bitcoin," Lee told CNBC by phone on Wednesday.

See the original post:

Bitcoin falls to near one-month low amid bubble concern, scaling ... - CNBC

BlackRock’s Top Economist Thinks Bitcoin and Ethereum Look Like a Bubble – Fortune

Posted on by

BlackRock , the $5 trillion asset manager, has not traditionally paid much attention to cryptocurrency platforms such as Bitcoin and Ethereum. Now that the prices of those blockchain-based currencies have risen exponentially in recent months, however, even BlackRock's top economists are watching closelyand with some concern.

Asked by Fortune to address cryptocurrency at a press briefing Tuesday, Richard Turnill, BlackRock's global chief investment strategist, waded into what he called "dangerous territory."

"I look at blockchain, I look at the charts , and to me that looks pretty scary, and reminiscent of what weve seen before," he said, referring to the characteristics of previous market bubbles, such as the dot-com boom of the late 1990s.

It's that kind of nervousness that has helped deflate some of the recent crypto enthusiasm, which this year alone propelled the Bitcoin price up more than 200% to an all-time high of $3,000 in June, and Ethereum up more than 5,100% to a peak above $400. Just days after setting those records, though, Bitcoin and Ethereum crashed as much as 25% in a single day, and have so far been unable to recover.

The Ethereum price is currently under $190, down more than 50% from its high less than a month ago. Bitcoin now trades at about $2,280, 24% below its peak. (But even with the selloff, the cryptocurrencies have still delivered spectacular returns in 2017 to date: the Bitcoin price has more than doubled since the start of the year, while Ethereum is worth more than 23 times its value at the end of 2016.)

BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, is far from the first to express alarm over the rapid appreciation in the value of cryptocurrencies, which are estimated to exceed a combined $100 billiongreater than the stock market value of Goldman Sachs ( gs ) . In early June, Mark Cuban tweeted about cryptocurrency, "I think it's in a bubble," prompting the price of Bitcoin to swoon 5% . Two weeks ago, billionaire investor Michael Novogratz, who has 10% of his wealth invested in Bitcoin and Ethereum, said he'd been selling many of his coins , suspecting that the digital currencies had already peaked for the year. Cryptocurrency, Novogratz further predicted, "is going to be the single greatest bubble of our lifetime."

Last week, Goldman Sachs itself weighed in, warning that Bitcoin could fall another 19% from its current levels, to as low as $1,857.

Still, if cryptocurrency really is in a bubble, it poses less of a danger to the rest of the market if it pops than other bubblesfrom housing to tech stockshave historically when they burst. After all, unlike stocks and bonds, which are intricately entwined with big banks and the world financial system, Bitcoin and Ethereum exist in almost a parallel universe to conventional assets, with only tenuous links to traditional Wall Street.

"If the price went to zero tomorrow," Turnill noted, there likely would be no "broader financial impact at all" on any other assets. "But its an example of where youre getting big price movements in the market," he said.

Indeed, that's why BlackRock is keeping tabs on cryptocurrency in the first place: Not as a prospective investment at this time, but as a potential indicator of sentiment and investor behavior in other asset classeswhether gold, standard paper currency, bonds, or technology stocks.

Bitcoin "can be a signal of the macro environment," Jeffrey Rosenberg, BlackRocks chief fixed income strategist, added at the briefing. "So we do take a look at it."

Originally posted here:

BlackRock's Top Economist Thinks Bitcoin and Ethereum Look Like a Bubble - Fortune

Photos: Life inside of China’s massive and remote bitcoin mines – Quartz

Posted on by

Taking advantage of the cheap and plentiful hydroelectric power that an army of computers require, bitcoin mining is spreading in remote parts of Chinas Sichuan province. In dark and isolated warehouses, bitcoin mining machines hum along solving equations to produce the highly valued cryptocurrency.

In 2016, Chinese photographer Liu Xingzhe spent time in Chinas bitcoin mines and with the miners themselves, who monitor the vast hallways of machines producing cryptocurrency for various clients. According to Liu, miners typically live in company dormitories for days at a timenot unlike the mining towns of yoreonly occasionally traveling dozens of miles to the nearest town.

Although increased government oversight has caused Chinese bitcoin trading to falter, the country remains an important player in bitcoin mining, thanks to cheap labor and computing power (paywall). Chinese clients who pay for bitcoins to be mined on their behalf can monitor progress remotely, using apps on their mobile phones.

Go here to read the rest:

Photos: Life inside of China's massive and remote bitcoin mines - Quartz

West Torrens Birkalla vs Adelaide Comets Predictions, Tips …

Posted on by

West Torrens Birkalla

Achievement

Adelaide Comets

1.6

Goals scored per match

1.3

Goals conceded per match

1.33

Goals conceded - HOME

Goals conceded - AWAY

1.5

80%

Chance to score goal next match

Chance to concede goal next match

72.73%

20%

Failure to score matches

Clean sheet matches

27.27%

50%

Matches over 2.5 goals

Matches over 3.5 goals

27.27%

40 %

Both teams score - YES

63.64 %

60 %

Both teams score - NO

36.36 %

50 %

Matches with ODD score

72.73 %

50 %

Matches with EVEN score

27.27 %

2.74

Average win odd - 1X2

2.33

2.07

Average win odd - BTTS

1.91

2.1

Average win odd - O/U 2.5

1.61

50%

Matches WON being favorite

75%

50%

Matches LOST being favorite

25%

50%

Matches WON being underdog

0%

50%

Matches LOST being underdog

100%

Read more here:

West Torrens Birkalla vs Adelaide Comets Predictions, Tips ...

Free comets Essays and Papers – 123helpme

Posted on by

Title Length Color Rating The Study of Comets and Asteroids - ... Astronomers categorize comets into two groups. Short and long period comets due to the time they take to orbit the sun. Short period comets take less than two hundred years while long period comets take two hundred or more years. Astronomers doubt that short-period comets come from the Kuiper belt which is basically a band of objects close to Plutos orbit. They believe that the gravitational pull of the planets can cause an object to be dislodged into the Solar system and turn into comets.... [tags: gas, energy, sun, astronomers] 763 words (2.2 pages) Better Essays [preview] The Age Of Comets - The article summarized below is from THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC (issue Dec.97) by William R. Newcott. It tells about how comets are important and their effect on earth and its people.Comets are leftover scrubs of material that did not make it to planethood in the events creating our solar system. They orbit in a perpetual Deepfreeze until some subtle gravitational nudge upsets the delicate balance. The Great Falls begins. First a snowball drifts towards the sun and steadily accelerates. As solar radiation heats the comets the ice within sublimates, escaping as gas from vents from the surface.... [tags: essays research papers] 387 words (1.1 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Comets - Comets Have you ever looked up in the sky and seen a little ball creeping by. If so, did you wonder what it was. That little ball is called a comet. Comets are small, fragile, and irregularly shaped. Most are composed of frozen gas. However, some are composed of frozen gas and non-volatile grains. They usually follow very strict paths around the sun. Comets become most visible when they cross the sun. This also applies to people who view comets with telescopes. When a comet gets near the sun it becomes very visible because the sun's radiation starts to sublime its volatile gases, which, in turn, blow away small bits of the little solid material the comet has.... [tags: Astronomy Essays Space Outer] 1881 words (5.4 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Comets - COMETS Comets have been witnessed ever since man has been speculating about objects in the nighttime sky and appear in records from the beginning of recorded civilization (Schweighauser 20). Comets are made up of four distinct features. The first is the nucleus. The nucleus is made up of frozen gases, mostly water vapor with lesser amounts of carbon dioxide and carbon monoxide, and imbedded in the frozen gases are interplanetary dust and tiny fragments of stony and metallic meteoric material.... [tags: essays research papers] 452 words (1.3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Comets - Comets What is Cometography. Cometography is a four-volume project I have been working on since the mid-1970s. Jump-started by comet Kohoutek of 1973-1974, I began researching comets and immediately found myself becoming more and more intrigued by them. It was fascinating to read about comets that unexpectedly split, brightened, or faded. There were also interesting stories concerning the discovery circumstances of some comets, as well as tales about how comets affected cultures. As I continued reading I found that, back in 1967, the International Astronomical Union suggested that an up-to-date descriptive catalog of comets or "cometography" was needed.... [tags: Essays Papers] 884 words (2.5 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Comets - Naked Eye Appearance: Seeing a comet with the naked eye is a somewhat rare occurrance. On the average we get a naked-eye comet once every five or six years and this includes comets that become barely visible to the naked eye. Classic comets with long tails only appear about once every 10-12 years. The motion is very difficult to detect and comparing its place with naked-eye stars over several days is the only way to see it move. In general, comets are best observed with telescopes or binoculars.... [tags: essays research papers] 1052 words (3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Comets - The first written records of comets date back to nearly 3,000 years ago from China and Europe. The accounts of these comets were believed to be the causes of terrible events that occurred afterwards. In more recent times, however, astronomers have found out what they really are. A comet is basically a mixture of ices, from both water and frozen gases, and dust. They have also been given the names dirty snowballs or icy mud balls. The typical comet is less than 10 kilometers across. They spend most of their time frozen solid in the outer parts of our solar system.... [tags: essays research papers fc] :: 2 Works Cited 2350 words (6.7 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] The Iceman Cometh by Eugene O'Neill - Eugene ONeill was the leading playwright in America in the first half of the 20th century. In his entire artistic career, He completed nearly 50 plays, which deal with a wide variety of subjects, concerning issues in religion, society, family and humanity. As a pioneer of modern American theatre, he made a great contribution to American drama, American culture and American ideas. The critical studies of Eugene ONeill have long since focused in his expressionistic techniques, his tragic tensions, his tragic consciousness, and his philosophy.... [tags: playwriter, artistic career] :: 9 Works Cited 1355 words (3.9 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Denial in The Iceman Cometh - Denial in The Iceman Cometh Denial is the refusal to admit the truth. It is the refusal to accept or acknowledge the reality or validity of a thing or idea. Many characters in The Iceman Cometh suffer from denial and false hope. O'Neill places these characters in the appropriate setting in which they are able to fantasize about their dreams. Amidst the drunken and misguided characters, O'Neill presents a few that the reader builds hope and sympathy for. Each character uses a pipe dream in order to be able to become blind to their downfalls and to reality.... [tags: Papers] 1527 words (4.4 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Napoleon Bonaparte- Pride Cometh Before a Fall - 1769 was a distinct year in France. With the French Revolution just 20 years away, France was beginning to experience social and political unrest. This also marked the beginning of Europes industrial revolution and the Battle of Ponte Novu was fought on May 8th. This battle was important because it was the end of the Corsican War, which resulting in France occupying the island. The 1770s saw a period of greater social unrest and political turmoil. The American Revolution began in 1776 and thoughts of liberty and justice were also making their way across the Atlantic to France.... [tags: Biography ] :: 6 Works Cited 1706 words (4.9 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Importance of the Cosmos - The Cosmos dictate the life and death of every organism within its grasps. The universe gave birth to us and will eventually lead to the end of all human existence. What lies in the vast emptiness of space carries a great amount of crucial knowledge that all humans should be aware of. The cosmos should be an important subject in the life of any human who cherishes their life. Our universe should be of great importance to all people. A single event created everything we see today; time, space, and all matter including humans.... [tags: Universe, space, time] :: 4 Works Cited 1402 words (4 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Content Analysis: An Examination of Web-based Orientation Materials - ... 47). That is, processing information is an extensive undertaking and is best practiced when both content and visual information are provided to the learner. There is not prior evidence that organizations are employing this type of training. The current research in information overload, cognitive theory of multimedia learning, and visual communication leads me to the following research questions: (RQ1) How are organizations using visuals to communicate messages, (RQ2) What type of information is included in orientation materials, and (RQ3) How do visuals enhance the content provide to the learn.... [tags: orientation process, new comers] :: 12 Works Cited 1409 words (4 pages) Term Papers [preview] the earths wind - Extras Meteors A brilliant meteor, called a fireball, may weigh many kilograms, but even a meteor weighing less than a gram can produce a beautiful trail. Some of these visitors from space are large enough to survive (at least partially) their trip through the atmosphere and impact the ground as meteorites. Fireballs are sometimes followed by trails of light that persist for up to 30 minutes; some, called bolides, explode with a loud thunderous sound. Meteoroids The term meteor comes from the Greek meteoron, meaning phenomenon in the sky.... [tags: essays research papers] 484 words (1.4 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Haley's Comet is Only Comet Visible from Earth with Naked Eye - ... The comets tail extended nearly 60 degrees across the sky. This sighting was written by astronomers in Japan, China, Germany, and the Middle East. Halley was seen in England in 1066, and it was thought to be a bad omen, for later that same year, Harold II of England died. William the Conquerer interpreted Halley as the cause for his success in battle, as the comet is depicted on the Bayeux Tapestry as a flaming star in Williams honor. Additionally, in 1301, the Italian painter Giotto di Bondone made a skillfully precise painting of Halleys Comet in a family chapel based on its passing that year.... [tags: orbit, astronomy, solar system] 899 words (2.6 pages) Better Essays [preview] Explaining Dinosaurs' Extintion - ... A new study implies that the crater was most likely struck out by a smaller object than previously thought. The evidence of the space rocks impact comes from a worldwide layer of sediments containing high levels of the element iridium, dubbed the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, which could not have occurred on Earth naturally (Lewis, 2013). This theory suggests that the space rock created less debris than previously believed, suggesting the space rock was a smaller object. This means that in order for the smaller rock to have generated the giant crater, it had to have been going extremely fast.... [tags: asteroid, major climatic changes, volcano] 1391 words (4 pages) Research Papers [preview] And then God Created Jupiter - The sun is the center of the solar system, the great star in the sky, created by God to show His beauty and His power. Everything revolves around the sun, everything from the planets to peoples everyday lives. Some of the greatest planets God created are Earth and Jupiter; they are both key planets in the solar system but are both quite different. Jupiter is the planet of disproportions and storms that would rip Earth in pieces. On Jupiter there are hurricanes bigger than planet Earth itself, moons that could be called planets if they were not in Jupiters orbit, and a size so big it can swallow comets whole with only ripples in the planets clouds.... [tags: religious astronomy] :: 5 Works Cited 1247 words (3.6 pages) Strong Essays [preview] EPOXI to Comet Hartley 2 - EPOXI combines two-science investigation in a new mission that re-uses the Deep Impact spacecraft already in orbit around the Sun (National 1). EPOCH stands for extra solar planet observation and characterization and DIXI stands for the deep impact extended investigation of comets. Through combining EPOCH and DIXI that is how NASA got EPOXI. EPOXI embraces NASAs mission to explore the origin and history of our solar system by understanding the composition and diversity of cometary nuclei and the properties of other planetary systems (National 1).... [tags: NASA Essays] :: 5 Works Cited 992 words (2.8 pages) Better Essays [preview] Poety Analysis: Adrienne Rich Poetry - Much of Adrienne Richs poetry is applauded for its rhythm and form, which helps emphasize the meaning of each poem. The freely placed lines and unique structure do not break up the poem, instead they bring power and significance to the unique features of her individual poems, stressing the meaning of the poem to the reader. Concretely, her poems have much imagery, and, also, most of the time, lack comment or conclusion to the emotions and purpose of her work. The structure, form, and rhythm of Richs poetry work together flawlessly to help portray the meaning of the poem, separate from just the images themselves.... [tags: rhytm, form, power] :: 6 Works Cited 2095 words (6 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Solar Nebula Cause Planet Formation - ... In the solar nebula, tiny grains stuck together and created bigger grains that grew into clumps, possibly held together by electrical forces similar to those that make lint stick to your clothes. Subsequent collisions, if not too violent, allowed these smaller particles to grow into objects ranging in size from millimeters to kilometers. These larger objects are called planetesimals. As planetesimals moved within the disk and collide with one another, planets formed. Because astronomers have no direct way to observe how the Solar System formed, they rely heavily on computer simulations to study that remote time.... [tags: disk, condensation, rotate, planet] 532 words (1.5 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Ulysses Mission - The Ulysses spacecraft was first and only spacecraft designed and lunched to study the Sun from outside the lower solar latitudes. All other space craft that studied the Sun stayed along the same elliptical plane that the Earth is on. The spacecraft was part of a joint venture between NASA and the ESA. Originally planed as a two spacecraft mission called the International Solar Polar Mission, it was scaled down to one probe due to NASA cutbacks in funding. This resulted in the ESA designing the spacecraft and NASA lunching it from Space Shuttle Discovery in 1990.... [tags: Space Exploration ] :: 5 Works Cited 527 words (1.5 pages) Good Essays [preview] essay - HalleysComet Comets have amazed, interested, and driven scientists to study them often. Comets like the Hale-Bopp have been seen by millions of people. Since the discovery of comets, scientists, astrologers, or and even your next door neighbor have been interested in discovering or studying comets. Like Halleys Comet which has had a real impact on the history of comets. Halleys comet put on bright shows for the planet Earth ever since 204 BC, maybe even 1059 BC. Its most famous appearance was in 1066 AD, right before the battle of Hastings.... [tags: essays research papers] 378 words (1.1 pages) Strong Essays [preview] You Can Escape a Black Hole: Surprising Informative Essay - You can escape a Black Hole: Surprising Informative Essay Have you ever taken the time to reflect and glaze upon the night sky, conjecturing and dreaming of what lies beyond our planet. Our universe also known as the Milky Way Galaxy is very miscellaneous and unique. With many marvelous wonders, the Milky Way Galaxy holds about mysterious belongings that are very challenging for human minds to understand due to the many complications that arise when we try to examine and explore the principles of space.... [tags: Astronomy ] :: 4 Works Cited 973 words (2.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Stand and Deliver in the Film Blackboard Jungle - ... The movie represented an important change in films, by presenting relevant cultural issues occurring in society. The film similarly had a significant effect in music by using Rock n Roll music in the soundtrack, making Bill Haley and the Comets Rock Around the Clock an instant hit song. The movie received Academy Award nominations for Best Adapted Screenplay; Best Cinematography; Best Art Direction; and Film Editing. Turner Classic Movies (TCM) acknowledged the soundtrack among the most influential of all time explaining it by stating: MGM brought Hollywood into the Rock 'n' Roll era with Blackboard Jungle.... [tags: teacher, school, students, learn, violence] 616 words (1.8 pages) Research Papers [preview] It is Crucial to Keep Funding NASA - ... This is not true, as NASA has multiple ways of stopping these collisions, including nuclear explosions, spacecraft impacts, and the use of a micro-thrusting spacecraft (Greicius). These impact prevention techniques and detection programs all come out of NASA, and it is crucial for NASA to stay funded to prevent disasters from striking and killing all life on Earth. Furthermore, NASA is discovering other planets that we could eventually inhabit once the population is too large for Earth or conditions are no longer suitable for life.... [tags: space exploration, future knowledge and technology] :: 10 Works Cited 1070 words (3.1 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Concept of Nebulae for Astronomy - ... This helped in undermining Kants Island Theory as it led Herschel to believe these nebulas were not just filled with stars but true nebulosity as well. This led Herschel to observe another phenomena that each nebula had its own central star within it. This also helped in disregarding Kants theory that all nebulas were filled with starry material and helped in bringing about a new theory, which entailed that these clouds, were mostly filled with gases and dust particles with a star in the middle that Herschel related to the birth/death of a star.... [tags: theory, invention, modern, factors] 2135 words (6.1 pages) Research Papers [preview] Leonhard Euler's Life and Accomplishments - Leonhard Euler was born in Basel, Switzerland as the first born child of Paul Euler and Marguerite Brucker on April 15, 1707. Eulers formal education started in Basel where he was sent to live with his maternal grandmother on his fathers orders. Euler's father wanted his son to follow him in working for the church and sent him to the University of Basel to prepare him in becoming a pastor. He entered the University in 1720 to gain general knowledge before moving on to more advanced studies. Eulers pastime was used for studying theology, Greek, and Hebrew in order to become a pastor like his father.... [tags: bernoulli, mathematician, euler-bernoulli] 607 words (1.7 pages) Good Essays [preview] Interplanetary Dust and Orbital Debris - ... Chrondrites contains Mg, Al, Si, S, Ca, Cr, Mn, Fe and Ni. IDP motion dynamics The dynamics of interplanetary dust particles are determined by a variety of forces that Can change the parameters of a dust grains orbital motion. Very small IDP has perturbation by other forces. The P-R effect (pointing-Robertson effect) causes a deceleration in particles. Radiation pressure (its radial component) works against gravity. Defining the forces acting on the particle is The force of gravity acting upon a grain with density at a heliocentric distance r is Force of gravity=GM/r^2 *(4*)/3 *s^3 1/r^2 The gravity dominates all forces in the orbit.... [tags: astronomy, celestial bodies] 1045 words (3 pages) Research Papers [preview] The Star of Bethlehem - ... The wise men followed the star to Bethlehem from Jerusalem. This creates point eight: The star traveled ahead of them. The last point is one of intrigue. The wise men followed the star until it stopped over Bethlehem. Point nine: The star had to be able to stop. Can stars stop. When did the star occur. What was the star. Knowing these will help find the star. In the 1602 an astronomer named Kepler discovered the math to determine the exact positions of the stars in the sky on a specific date.... [tags: wise, men, questions, characteristics] 676 words (1.9 pages) Better Essays [preview] H.G. Wells Research Paper - ... He believed time travel could be achievable. Why should man not hope that ultimately he may be able to stop or accelerate his drift along the time dimension (Wells, The Time Machine). H.G. Wells was very confident in the ability to time travel. It was one if his top desires to be able to time travel. Why would he discuss time travel so much in his novels, and interviews if he did not believe time travel could be achieved. There are really four dimensions, three of which we call planes at space, and the fourth, time(Wells, The Time Machine).... [tags: science fiction, alien invasion, new diseases] 1220 words (3.5 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Origin of Life - The origin of Life There are many theories where life came from, but none of them is proven to be the right one. The obvious theory that life originated on earth is not accepted by everyone. One reason of disbelief in this theory that life originated on earth is a lack of time. It was an early belief that life originated through a slow and long process (many scientists do not share this belief though), probably too short and too long for the time life had on our planet. Life must have been formed within a period of approximately 200 million years.... [tags: ] 1608 words (4.6 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Shoemaker - Levy 9 - Shoemaker - Levy 9 Over 200 million Megatons of dynamite collide with Jupiter. In July 1994 Shoemaker - Levy 9 collided with Jupiter. What is Shoemaker - Levy 9, and how was it discovered. What is Jupiter, and why did Shoemaker - Levy 9 collide with it. Can an event like this happen to Earth. I will answer these questions in this report. But let me start by telling you what Shoemaker - Levy 9 is. Shoemaker - Levy 9 is a comet, a small irregular mass made up of rocks and frozen gasses. Comets follow large orbits from around the Sun to the outer corners of our solar system.... [tags: essays research papers] 1236 words (3.5 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Gulliver's Travels - Satire - Gulliver's Travels - Satire Gulliver's Travels was written during an era of change known as the Reformation Period. The way this book is written suggests some of the political themes from that time period, including the well-known satire. These themes are displayed throughout Gulliver's Travels, and even sometimes reflect upon today's society. Many things in the book Gulliver's Travels prove that it was set in the Restoration Period. Some of the ways you can tell this are: the clothing, the speech, the governments, and of course, the lack of technology.... [tags: Gulliver's Travels Essays] 703 words (2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Law of Universal Gravitation by Isaac Newton - Before the Early Modern Period, the system of the universe often eluded people of earth. Early scientists and philosophers like Aristarchus of Samos, and Ptolemy formed hypotheses that touched the surface the universes complex functions, but did not full reveal the mysteries the heavens hold. However, when mathematician and physicist, Sir Isaac Newton proposed his law of universal gravitation, numerous doors to the understanding of the world began to open. Newtons law is represented as F = (G m1m2) / r^2, where F is the attractive force, G is the gravitational constant, m1 is the first mass, m2 the second mass, and r is the distance between the center of the masses.... [tags: modern period, universe, eath] :: 4 Works Cited 553 words (1.6 pages) Good Essays [preview] Solar System - Solar System Humans live on a small planet in a tiny part of a vast universe. This part of the universe is called the solar system, and is dominated by a single brilliant star-the sun. The solar system is the earths neighbourhood and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and Pluto are the Earths neighbours. They all have the same stars in the sky and orbit the same sun. Scientists believe the solar system began about 5 billion years ago, perhaps when a nearby star exploded and caused a large cloud of dust and gas to collapse in on itself.... [tags: Science Astrology Planets Essays] 1581 words (4.5 pages) Strong Essays [preview] light pollution - Light pollution happened slowly at first which was several decades ago it was a process that was hardly noticeable. A light here, a light there, burning way into the dark nighttime realm, helping us see in the darkness when people all their our beds fast asleep. The process still continues today, with little thought ever given to what we are stealing away. Our intentions are good but our methods need adjustment, and they needs to be done immediately. In fact, our methods should have been changed years ago, but nearly everyone has resisted, perhaps due to a profound lack of awareness.... [tags: essays research papers] 3090 words (8.8 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] asteroid defense - The U.S. federal government is summoning the world's top scientists to an urgent conference this summer to plan defenses against an attack that could wipe out an American city or disrupt the whole country's infrastructure. No, it's not global terrorism. The scientists will map ways to combat an asteroid attack, a cosmic sucker punch like the collision that killed the dinosaurs 65 million years ago and flattened a Siberian forest in 1908. While the world's attention is focused on the real threat of terrorism, the theoretical asteroid menace has been garnering a surprising amount of behind-the-scenes attention.... [tags: essays research papers] 403 words (1.2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Dimensional Argument Against the Snowball Earth Hypothesis - A most recent inquiry into climatic change during the ice age and it's possibility of reoccurring is the Snowball Earth Hypothesis advanced by Paul Hoffman of Harvard University. Snowball Earth Suggest that before the Ice age, continents ice free at the poles enhanced the reabsorption of carbon dioxide through erosion of silicate minerals, reducing the greenhouse effect making the earth colder until it reached a runaway point. This effect is Hoffman calls albedo, when the atmosphere becomes so cold it can never warm up again.... [tags: essays research papers] :: 4 Works Cited 1117 words (3.2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Origin and Structure of our Universe - I suppose that the Universe we can observe and cognize consists of self-developing hierarchically co-subordinate and genetically relative systems of cosmic bodies. Each of the systems is distinguished by the qualitative state of substance composing its bodies but main evolution mechanisms are common to all the systems. What is common to all the systems. The central most massive body of every system is a parental body for its younger members. The central massive body of every system at intervals conceives in its interiors new cosmic bodies to put them into initial (circum-parental) orbits.... [tags: Physics Universe Space Science Essays] 3944 words (11.3 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Films About Baseball: A League of Their Own and The Jackie Robinson Story - ... Dugan was brilliant slugger for the Cubs that lost his career by drinking too much and hurting his knee while drunk. Depressed and constantly drunk, he only goes through the bare minimum motions only so he can get paid and buy more alcohol. Without any management to the team Dottie steps up and becomes the teams de facto leader. At first the new AAGPBL attracts very little attention and the owners begin to have second thoughts and consider calling the whole thing off. The leagues general manager, Ira Lowenstein (David Strathaim) urges them to make a show of it and try to do something to impress a Life magazine photographer at one of the games.... [tags: women, league, players] 1284 words (3.7 pages) Better Essays [preview] Renaissance Artist Engineers: The Start of the Scientific Revolution - I do not doubt that in the course of time this new science will be improved by further observations, and still more by true and conclusive proofs. But this need not diminish the glory of the first observer. My regard for the inventor of the harp is not mad less by knowing that his instrument was very crudely constructed and still more crudely played. Rather, I admire him more than I do the hundreds of craftsmen who in ensuing centuries have brought this art to the highest perfection To apply oneself to great inventions, starting from the smallest beginnings is no task for ordinary minds; to divine that wonderful art lie hid behind trivial and childish things is a conception for superhuma... [tags: inventions, Galileo Galilei] :: 7 Works Cited 2039 words (5.8 pages) Term Papers [preview] Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence is an Ongoing Process - Search for extraterrestrial intelligence is an ongoing process. Understanding life is the first step. When looking for life in our solar system and universe, the first place to begin the search for life is to look at life on Earth. Earth has six properties found in all organisms and eight possible theories to how life begin. Over 3 billion years ago till the present; life has gone from a single organism to what it is now. Natural selection enabled life to adapt and enhance the odds of survival. The next step is to look for planets that are within the habitual zone that could possibly sustain extraterrestrial life.... [tags: extraterrestrial life, solar system, clay theory] :: 7 Works Cited 1126 words (3.2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Science Revolution: Separating Modern Science With Theological Speculations - During the 17th century, European philosophy and religion was challenged with the introduction of the scientific revolution. Through the three factors that incorporate science: a body of knowledge, a system of inquiry, and thinkers to support their findings (494); old and new worldviews were being questioned. While some thinkers of the era were not intentionally trying to separate religion and science, their ideas created controversy, which in some areas slowed down the growth of scientific experimentation and knowledge.... [tags: scientific experimentation, planets, sun] :: 1 Works Cited 878 words (2.5 pages) Better Essays [preview] The Discovery of The X-Ray: Wilhelm Konrad Rontgen - ... X-rays can be used to treat cancer patients by destroying the cancer cells. Airports use X-rays all the time to ensure that safety and security remain at a high level of emphasis, so they can easily find weapons, drugs and objects that are illegal and threaten to disturb the peace. X-rays are also used to search and determine problems in applications like materials, food, and electronics, medical or biological means. Tires, seeds, and many other items rely on the assistance of X-rays to find defects.... [tags: ultra violet light, cancer cells] 1221 words (3.5 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Space Exploration: A Waste of Tax Revenues - U.S. Federal government support of space exploration is NOT the most effective way to engage in scientific discovery Space exploration can be dated back to the age of European Renaissance, a historic age when arts and cultural transformation began. It was the same era when there gradual but widespread transition in educational reforms. Since then the flourishing art and science of stars and planets transformed in to the minute details of comets and meteors. The study, which started as the fundamental physical laws, governing the motions of planets around the sun, gave a great insight of not just our planet earth but also of millions of galaxies, which exist, in the world beyond us.... [tags: Space Exploration Essays] :: 16 Works Cited 2137 words (6.1 pages) Term Papers [preview] Why is Authenticity Important In Rock Music? - Throughout the decades the face of rock music has changed drastically because of a series of small events that have occurred for example, the song that saw the birth of early rock music The Comets hit Rocket 66 a 50's classic that endeared audiences with its atypical crunchy guitar tone, this was brought about by Ike Turner who dropped his guitar amplifier outside of the recording studio causing the amplifier to break and distort the sound this small accident caused Rock and Rock if we fast forward around 20 years and you have a young man called Tony Iommi working in a steel factory in Birmingham when he loses concentration severing the tips of two fingers causing him to de-tune his guitar... [tags: Music Analysis ] :: 3 Works Cited 912 words (2.6 pages) Better Essays [preview] The Work and Contributions of Christoph Scheiner - Christoph Scheiner was born in, Wald, Swabia, on July 25, 1573. He grew into his youth around the same time as the religious Society of Jesus (Jesuits) became popularized. The Jesuits were an offshoot off traditional Catholicism, whereby the values enacted by Jesuits directly reflected the principals held by the Catholic Church. Some claim the formation of the Jesuits was a retaliatory Counter Reformation of its own, and was enacted in an effort to combat the Protestant Reformation, which had swept across Europe during the first half of the same century (OMalley, 43).... [tags: Astronomers] :: 6 Works Cited 2249 words (6.4 pages) Term Papers [preview] The Habitability of Planets in the Universe - Are we alone in the universe. Is anything or anybody out there. These are age old questions, asked from people of all ages and races. But the first questions we need to ask are if it is even possible. Are there any other planets out there that are habitable. What does a planet need to be habitable. Without a habitable planet life cannot sustain in the universe, the search for life in the universe has been long and hard with no results proving life to exist outside of earth. The most predominant searchers of those at the SETI Institute or Search for Extra-Terrestrial Intelligence Institute, a privately funded organization, that uses various methods to search for electromagnetic transmissions,... [tags: Astronomy ] :: 5 Works Cited 2190 words (6.3 pages) Term Papers [preview] America Should Spend More on Space Exploration - Space exploration should be funded at even greater levels than at present. It has provided scientific, technological, and economic benefits for all mankind. Furthermore it will continue to provide these benefits as long as we continue to explore. The American space program as well as the United States economy is facing many challenges at this time but we need to look at what the long term costs of not continuing a robust manned and unmanned space program will be. The solar system holds many mysteries and an untold amount of untapped resources that if not explored and utilized by the United States will be utilized by other Nations.... [tags: Argumentative Essays, Space Program] :: 8 Works Cited 2303 words (6.6 pages) Term Papers [preview] The Influence of Religion on Scientific Advancement - Religion is an intricate part of society. It has existed since the beginning of civilization and continues expanding today. This physical organization of personal beliefs has created wars and revolutions; nations and constitutions. In a subject as controversial as that of faith, it is often difficult to discern if it has benefitted humanity. One especially relevant issue today is religions influence on science. Throughout history, it is evident that religious movements have occasionally impeded scientific discovery; however, there is also evidence that scientific progression has been aided by religious ideology.... [tags: Religion] :: 11 Works Cited 1736 words (5 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Near-Earth Objects and Their Impact on Society - Ever since the beginning of human history, people explored. Man, woman and child alike had opportunities to see the beauty and magnificence of Earth. They have seen the vast outstretches of Earths land, from the lush green plains of America, to the brilliant golden sands of Africa, and the roaring deep blue oceans. Over time, humans settled, leaving their nomadic past behind. Yet, their thirst for exploration continued. Magellan, Columbus, and Lewis and Clark, for example, quenched this thirst by going on expeditions to find new pathways for land, riches, or both.... [tags: Space Exploration ] :: 7 Works Cited 2243 words (6.4 pages) Term Papers [preview] This Generation is Smarter than Past Generations - I strongly believe that people of my generation are smarter and more intelligent than our ancestors, while my grandparents disagree with this idea. I see that the present-day discovery of scientific facts and modern technology help shaping our idea of the world and lead us to the better understanding of the world, by giving us skill of swiftness, convenient access to information and fact of nature, and correcting the false myths. Also, brand-new style of teaching allows kids these days to be more creative and confident than those in the old days, as students are allowed to use ask their teacher when in doubt, and join an open discussion in class.... [tags: My Generation] :: 2 Works Cited 1077 words (3.1 pages) Good Essays [preview] The Classification and Main Types of Meteorites - The Classification and Main Types of Meteorites Many meteorites have been discovered over the years which, in many cases, can give an insight into the creation of the universe. All these meteorites can be grouped together by looking at the various characteristics they have in common, such as the structures of the different meteorites and the isotopic properties of the meteorites. When trying to classify meteorites, they are generally identified as one of the three main groups of meteorites: Iron, Stony and Stony-iron.... [tags: stoney, chondrites and achondrites] :: 9 Works Cited 1425 words (4.1 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Human Interest in Space and Its Secrets - ... These supernovas distort their surrounding solar systems and the visible light of the gamma-ray bursts bypass us as an observer. As the gamma-ray burst slows down from its central engine of origin, the gamma rays beams widen and encompass more area of the jet. If these jets of gamma-ray bursts were not pointed towards the Earth, the super nova would only be visible. As the traveling jets lessened, the light beams from the explosion would widen. These directional gamma-ray jet bursts of visible light expanding bathed the Earth and would appear to brighten as the intensity of the jet widened until the energy subsided.... [tags: exploring the limits of our galaxy] 1081 words (3.1 pages) Better Essays [preview] The All American Girls Professional Baseball League - ... No team would overpower another. Other teams were added in the following seasons. After the Racine Belles came the Kenosha Comets, South Bend Blue Sox, and Rockford Peaches. Next was the Minneapolis Millerettes, Milwaukee Chicks, and Fort Wayne Daisies. Soon after, the Grand Rapids Chicks, Muskegon Lassies, Kalamazoo Lassies, Peoria Redwings, and Chicago Colleens were started. In the late 1940s, the final teams were formed; the Springfield Sallies, Battle Creek Belles, and finally the Muskegon Belles(Galt, 12).... [tags: athletes, society, workplace, female] 1290 words (3.7 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Western World at War: The Crusades - ... However, Muslim forces reoccupied the city within a matter of years and the Jews quickly followed and met the Muslims with the same resistance as before. Over the next 180 years, the Holy Catholic Church would repeat this process eight more times with only a little success. The ninth and final crusade ended in 1272 and, to this day, the Holy Land of Jerusalem is still a war zone between Christians, Muslims and Jews. For thousands of years, Jerusalem has been considered the holiest city in the world by Jews, Christians, And Muslims.... [tags: religion, expansion, holy] :: 3 Works Cited 682 words (1.9 pages) Better Essays [preview] How Did Life on Earth Begin - Life as defined by Knoll, a profesor of Biology at Harvard, is a system in which proteins and nucleic acid interact in ways that allow the structure to grow and reproduce (2004). Or in other words, one can describe life as having these six features; i) have carbon as a driving force, essential for it to grow and being able to make copies for itself and also must have the ability to convert the inorganic sources like carbon dioxide into organic molecules, in the case of hetrotrophics. ii) metabolism, a catalysis-based reactions that occur in a body or system.... [tags: Origin of life on Earth] :: 26 Works Cited 1905 words (5.4 pages) Term Papers [preview] A Talking Dog: A Short Story - This is a story of Max, who went to sleep an ordinary boy and woke up with an unordinary ability. The ability to with his dog Comet. He first realized this when his dog came in that morning and started barking. Instead of hearing barks, he heard "come on and wake up you lazy bum it's time for school" At first he couldn't believe what had just happened. After wiping his eyes and making sure he wasn't dreaming, he said to his dog Comet "it's Saturday, I'm sleeping in." Comet responded with "In that case get up you lazy bum and play outside with me" Max thought this was the coolest thing ever.... [tags: Bark, Communication] 624 words (1.8 pages) Good Essays [preview] Planets From a Spaceship: A Story - ... There was a green house effect occurring here as well as the clouds of dust surrounding it was burning In astronomy mythology, Venus was the Roman goddess of love and beauty. In Greek, her name was Aphrodite. In astronomy mythology, Mercury was the Roman version of the Greek god Hermes. He was the messenger for the other gods, and for this reason Mercury is often depicted in pictures with winged sandals. In addition to delivering messages, he was also the protector of travelers and Mercury. If you moved to Mercury you would not weigh as much as you do on Earth.... [tags: Earth, Atmosphere] 1096 words (3.1 pages) Better Essays [preview] Popular Music and Community Identity - Identity is defined by the cultural differences of individual people, groups or communities of people that express economic and political views that we identify with (Barker qtd. in Shuker 142). The construction of identity is not to look at it as a production, incomplete but always constituted within, not outside, representation (Hall qtd. in Weedon 5). Community identity, as one of the forms of identity with self-identity and national identity, is used in popular music to identify with a group of people that share invested interests to form a community (Shuker 142-143).... [tags: Culture] :: 6 Works Cited 1041 words (3 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Off To See The Wizard - The air was frigid and I couldn't move. Where am I. I couldn't see anything and it felt like my body was going to explode, something was strangling me to death. I attempted to reach my wand, but my hands were frozen in fear. This has never happened before. This place feels as if it's filled with the darkest magic. Is... this my final resting place. The unknown force continued to strangle me. My whole body was shaking. The strangling suddenly loosened, but my fear did not cease. A door opened and was slammed shut.... [tags: Creative Writing Essay] 1623 words (4.6 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] What Really Killed the Dinosaurs? - Dinosaur stress: Stress on the dinosaurs is a possible solution for their extinction. This theory was first thought up by Heinrch K. Erben when he found that the shell thickness of a certain type of dinosaur species decreased as time went on. It was thought that the warm climate and good habitats in the Cretaceous period could have caused over population of dinosaurs, thus an increase of stress on the dinosaurs would develop. Stress is known to cause hormonal imbalances in modern day birds and lizards, so this could have happened to female dinosaurs.... [tags: Animal Research ] :: 3 Works Cited 862 words (2.5 pages) Better Essays [preview] The Extinction of Pleistocene Mammals - During the late Pleistocene, a mystery occurred in which large mammals went extinct in North America while they survived in other parts of the world. Scientists studying the late Pleistocene extinction provided a plethora of explanations, including overkill by humans, extraterrestrial events, and climate changes (Faith and Surovell, 2009). However, there was no unified explanation that they all agreed upon. Taking note of this, J. Tyler Faith and Todd A. Surovell conducted tests to discover whether the extinction was a single event or a long-term process.... [tags: Paleontology] :: 9 Works Cited 1339 words (3.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Famous Pioneers of the Enlightenment - The breakthroughs that came out of the Scientific Revolution had a profound impact on the Enlightenment period. The Enlightenment movement would not have been possible if it werent for the brave men who dared to go against established ways of thinking. These men took risks and put themselves at the mercy of public scrutiny. They not only asked questions about the workings of our world but also devised new scientific methods that uncovered new truths about our very existence. Instead of relying on religious dogma and mystical practices, common during the 16th and 17th century to help answer questions, they developed their own hypothesis.... [tags: Scientific Revolution, Religion, Theorists] 1137 words (3.2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Demotion of Pluto: Dwarf Planet - From the time Clyde W. Tombaugh first discovered Pluto in 1930, it was viewed as an oddball planet leading up to its reclassification in 2006. For decades, Pluto was once used as a benchmark for the outer reach and size of our solar system. In recent years, new discoveries of celestial bodies within the vicinity of Plutos orbit have challenged its planetary status. The debate over Plutos classification was discussed throughout several media and news articles, leading to serious controversy amongst astronomers and the decision as to whether or not Pluto should be categorized as one of the planets in our solar system.... [tags: celestial body, Eris and Sedna, dwarf planet ] :: 1 Works Cited 1120 words (3.2 pages) Strong Essays [preview] How Can We Avoid Asteroids? - ... On the whole, this method is efficient because it produces immediate results, neutralizing the threat relatively quickly. Moreover, the chances of the launch going wrong is highly minimal. For example, an asteroid 1000 feet wide can be neutralized far outside Earth's gravitational field with a warning time of just 30 days, according to Wie. Computer simulations suggest that the percentage of the destroyed asteroids mass that would actually hit Earth is less than 0.1%. Most likely the asteroid mitigation would cause a heavy meteor shower to transpire, or events of the like of the 2013 Chelyabinsk meteor- although, that would be a small price to pay compared to the original asteroid, whic... [tags: astronomy, gravity, physics] :: 14 Works Cited 1347 words (3.8 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] The Cloning of a Mammoth - The Pleistocene epoch spanned from 1.8 million years ago to 10,000 years ago [1]. Many genera and even species such as conifers, mosses, flowering plants, insects, mollusks, birds, and mammals from that era still survive today [1]. Others, such as the long-horned bison, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, and the mammoth did not survive [1]. The woolly mammoth was commonly found during the last ice age [2]. These animals were similar in size to todays elephants but were adapted for living in the extremely cold conditions typical of an ice age [2].... [tags: mammoths, ice age, extinct, climate] 2247 words (6.4 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Creation: Biblical and Other Theories - Living Stardust To complete Gods masterpiece, the Biblical account states that God created vegetation and living creatures according to their kinds: birds, fish, livestock, creatures that move on the ground, wild animals, and man. Biblical authors were not seasoned biologists or geneticists and obviously did not possess an understanding of microbial organisms, amino acids, proteins, elements, atoms, molecules, cells, chromosomes, genes, DNA, and RNA. They explained the beginnings of life in terms that made sense to them at the time.... [tags: Physics, Evolution] 1899 words (5.4 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Why Should Humans Explore Space? - ... The idea of the project is that because the telescope is high in the sky, the infrared blocking water vapor on the ground will not affect the telescope and the telescope will have a much clearer view of the infrared universe (than if a telescope was on the ground). SOFIA objectives are to study the composition of planetary atmospheres, investigate structure and composition of comets, learn about the interstellar medium, and to learn about the formation of stars. The project began in 1996 with an estimated cost of 185 million dollars and was to be completed in 2001.... [tags: NASA, carl sagan] 1412 words (4 pages) Better Essays [preview] Biography of Johann Elert Bode - ... He allowed Bode to use the schools library to better his scientific education. Bode was offered a job as a calculator and a professor at the Berlin Academy of Science. While he was here, he and Johann Heinrich Lambert created and published the Berliner Astronomisches Jahrbuch. Bode married Johanna Christiane Lange and had four children with her. The year after she died, he married her elder sister, Sophie Dorothea Lange and they had one son, then she died. A year later, he remarried to his third wife, Charlotte Wilhelmine Lehmann and they had three children.... [tags: astronomy, bodes law] 555 words (1.6 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Immanuel Velikovsky - Correspondence Before the Day Breaks, When I first ran across any of Velikovsky's ideas it was in this online book Before the Day Breaks. In this book Velikovsky writes about his correspondence and conversations with Albert Einstein. I read some of this book before ever reading anything else of Velikovsky, or having any idea of what was proposed in his book Worlds in Collision. Before the Day Breaks is a very well written book, where Velikovsky's main argument is that gravity and inertia are not the only forces acting on the solar system.... [tags: biographies bio] 1211 words (3.5 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Cover Bands - Is the cover a good thing or a bad thing. Are there any cover songs that you have heard and have grown to like more than the original. Perhaps there are songs that you have heard and have later come to the realization that it is indeed a cover song. This is the case for me. However, my feelings on cover songs vary depending on the particular instance. I think the cover is a good thing now days. There are many new songs that I have heard and have later realized that it is a cover song. I probably would have never heard the original song if it wasnt covered.... [tags: essays research papers] 631 words (1.8 pages) Strong Essays [preview] Jazz, Society, and Technology - Jazz, Society, and Technology History is often written as if there is a defining moment where everything changes. However, it is most often the case that a series of events and stressors are the culprits of such change, as is the case of the decline of jazzs popularity. Some point to The Beatles landing in JFK airport and others say Elviss television appearance. In reality, there were many evolvements both, technological and cultural, that lead to what some may call the great decline in music history.... [tags: Music History, American Culture] :: 10 Works Cited 1769 words (5.1 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Creative Writing: Sky Blue - ... (Just like he completely ruined her life, basically.) Massie falls upon the comforting cement, staring at the starless night sky, the meteors and the comets moving at astronomical speeds, magic that could only come from perfection; tonight, though, they have all been blown out. There is this empty ache, the silence, the never-ending silence, that threatens to destroy every thought, every hope left in this desolate city. She is lying still, extending her hand upwards as if she can still reach past the stars, pulling them all back down to her heavy heart; she believes that the normal nights have past long back on normal nights, he would have come.... [tags: oak trees, funeral, girl, boy] 1794 words (5.1 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Contributions to Science of Sir Isaac Newton - Sir Isaac Newton was born on December 25, 1642 in Woolsthorpe, near Grantham in Lincolnshire, England. Newton is clearly the most influential scientist who ever lived. His accomplishments in mathematics, optics, and physics laid the foundations for modern science and revolutionized the world. Newton studied at Cambridge and was professor there from 1669 to 1701, succeeding his teacher Isaac Barrow as Lucasian professor of mathematics. His most important discoveries were made during the two-year period from 1664 to 1666, when the university was closed and he retired to his hometown of Woolsthorpe.... [tags: Contributions of Isaac Newton] 493 words (1.4 pages) Strong Essays [preview] The Gravitational Slingshot - The Gravitational Slingshot The gravitational slingshot is a way that scientists have truly harnessed the gravitational pull of a planet by using it to launch satellites and other useful projectiles towards their desired locations. This method was developed through the use of Newton's Laws of Gravity and Kepler's Laws of Planetary Motion. When these ideas of gravity and the shape of a planet's orbit were brought together piece by piece, this new theory changed how a projectile traveling through space could simply cross an orbital pattern, which would in turn change the path of the moving object.... [tags: Scientific Research ] :: 4 Works Cited 1563 words (4.5 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Solar System Formation - Our sun is the central pivot point to which or entire planet and solar system is built around. With out it all life on our planet would cease to exist. Within this paper we will explore how our Sun and solar system formed and came to resemble what we see today. The Big Bang, the alpha of existence for the building blocks of stars, happened approximately fourteen billion years ago. The elements produced by the big bang consisted of hydrogen and helium with trace amounts of lithium. Hydrogen and helium are the essential structure which build stars.... [tags: Astronomy ] :: 2 Works Cited 1864 words (5.3 pages) Term Papers [preview] The Solar System - Our solar system was born when, in a spiral arm of the Milky Way galaxy, a giant rotating cloud of dust and gasses began to collapse. Gravity compressed the dust and gasses and the cloud got increasingly hotter and began to spin faster. During the following one hundred million years, the gasses compressed until the center was so hot that nuclear fusion occurred giving off tremendous energy, combining charged atoms of hydrogen to form helium. This process gave birth to a star, our Sun (Our Solar System, n.d.).... [tags: Astronomy] :: 7 Works Cited 1866 words (5.3 pages) Term Papers [preview] A Mammoth Dilemma - The Pleistocene epoch spanned from 1.8 million years ago to 10,000 years ago [1]. Many genera and even species such as conifers, mosses, flowering plants, insects, mollusks, birds, and mammals from that era still survive today [1]. Others, such as the long-horned bison, saber-toothed cats, giant ground sloths, and the mammoth did not survive [1]. The woolly mammoth was a commonly found mammal during the last ice age [2]. These animals were similar in size to elephants but were adapted for living in the extremely cold conditions typical of an ice age [2].... [tags: mammal, cloning, genome, technology, extinction] :: 13 Works Cited 2249 words (6.4 pages) Term Papers [preview] The Big Bang - The universe is a magnificent place. There are thought to be more than 100 billion galaxies, each, with 100 billion stars (Hawking 48). There are vast clouds of gas, light years across, each taking on its own dazzling shape and color. In our solar system alone, there are planets asteroids, comets and moons. For millennia, humans have attributed the workings and beauty of the cosmos to the divine. Slowly, we learned that laws governed the motion of these celestial bodies, laws which would come to be known as the laws of physics.... [tags: Universe, Galxies, Stars, Origins, Theory] :: 7 Works Cited 1449 words (4.1 pages) Powerful Essays [preview] Our Solar System - Within Our Solar System there is a Sun, and the eight planets that orbit the Sun. The eight planets are categorized into two groups known as Terrestrial planets, and Jovian planets. There are four terrestrial planets in our Solar System: Mercury, Venus Earth and Mars. These Terrestrial planets are located the closest to the Sun. The word terrestrial is derived from the Latin word terra, meaning ground or Earth like. All Terrestrial planets share a common rocky and solid surface. The other four planets: Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune are Jovian planets.... [tags: terrestrial & Jovian planets] :: 32 Works Cited 1381 words (3.9 pages) Strong Essays [preview]

Here is the original post:

Free comets Essays and Papers - 123helpme

Prep softball: Comets stun top-ranked Benton, punch state ticket – Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier

Posted on by

BENTON To win a state tournament, Charles City softball Coach Brian Bohlen assumed his team would, at some point, have to go through the top-ranked team in Class 4A.

Though they still have work to do, the Comets did just that in the Region 4 championship game Tuesday night.

Sami Heyer struck out nine and Charles City manufactured just enough offense to squeak out a 2-1 win over 4A No. 1 Benton Community on the Bobcats home field.

Its unbelievable, Heyer said afterward. It hasnt really sunk in yet, but its exciting.

Heyer got all her run support in the top of the third inning, thanks in part to some sluggish Bobcat fielding.

With Payton Reams on second, Tayler Schmidt hit a sharp grounder to third base. Wanting to keep Reams at second, Benton third baseman Angela Gorkow hesitated, allowing Schmidt to reach first safely, while also giving Reams a chance to reach third on the throw.

Reams then broke the scoreless tie, coming home to score

on a wild pitch. Having already taken second, Schmidt tried to take third on the play, then got to come all the way home as Bobcat catcher Jaicee Lyons threw the ball into left, giving the Comets a 2-0 lead.

The Bobcats cut into the lead in the fourth, when Gorkow scored on an errant throw home by Heyer. Lyons then attempted to score the tying run from second, but Comet catcher Kelby Katcher beat her home with the throw and Heyer tagged her out.

The error was one of the few mistakes Heyer made on the evening, and Bohlen praised her poise in the pitching circle.

She hit spots all night, he said. Even when she worked behind, she trusted herself and I trusted her to hit spots.

She was also able to work out of critical jams. Benton put the tying run on third in both the fourth and sixth innings, but Heyer never allowed it to come home.

This year (Ive) been real good at trying to forget (about the runner at third), Heyer said. I know theyre there but I try not to think about it. I just focus on the batter and whatever happens, happens.

What happens next for Charles City is a return trip to the state tournament, something Bohlen believed to be an obtainable goal throughout the year.

Going into the season, I said our goal is to win conference and win state, he said. I thought we honestly had the team to do it. I dont know if they believed it at the time.

But we werent intimidated (tonight). The girls went into this game very confident and it showed.

When talking to his players, its apparent the doubts Bohlen spoke of are clearly a thing of the past.

We just beat the No. 1 seed, said Ciana Sonberg, who had three of the Comets five hits. So I think were going to give every team a run for their money.

Charles City 002 000 0 2 5 1

Benton Comm. 000 100 0 1 4 2

Heyer and Katcher. Stenberg and Lyons. WPHeyer. LPStenberg. 2BJaicee Lyons (B). Martensen (B).

See original here:

Prep softball: Comets stun top-ranked Benton, punch state ticket - Waterloo Cedar Falls Courier

Utica Comets’ schedule features long road stretch, North Division teams – Utica Observer Dispatch

Posted on by

Ben Birnell

The Utica Comets will have a good opportunity to find out how well they play on the road to begin their fifth season.

The AHL schedule which was released Tuesday afternoon has Utica opening a season with a pair of games on back-to-back days at rival Toronto. The teams meet Saturday, Oct. 7 and Sunday, Oct. 8 with both games set for 4 p.m., according to the AHL. It is the third time the Comets open the season against the Marlies.

The contests are part of a stretch in which the Comets play a franchise-most seven consecutive road games to begin the 2017-18 season, due to work being done at the Utica Memorial Auditorium. During the stretch, Utica will play at the Rochester Americans and new Eastern Conference opponent Charlotte twice and rival Syracuse once.

The Comets home opener, which was announced Monday, is set for Wednesday, Nov. 1 against Rochester. That contest starts a five-game homestand for the Comets and is part of a stretch when the the team plays nine out of 12 games at home. Charlotte makes its first and only visit to Utica during the homestand with games Wednesday, Nov. 8 and Friday, Nov. 10.

The Comets conclude the season at the Aud on Sunday, April 15 against division foe Binghamton, which is New Jerseys affiliate this season after a move from Albany.

There was no announcement on when the Comets promotional schedule will be released or when single-game tickets go on sale.

Here are five other things to know about the Comets schedule, which was part of an earlier release by the AHL this summer:

Heavy dose of North Division teams

For the second time in as many seasons, the Comets will meet North Division rival Syracuse a total of 12 times in the regular season. Syracuse, which new Comets coach Trent Cull helped make a run to the Calder Cup Finals last season, visits Utica for the first time Wednesday, Dec. 6.

Utica plays division foe Rochester 10 times (five home, five away) and eight each against Binghamton, Laval (Montreals affiliate in Quebec, which relocated from St. Johns) and Toronto (four home, four away). Utica plays Belleville (Ottawas new affiliate, which moved from Binghamton) six times (three home, three away).

Working for the weekend

A majority of the AHLs games are played on the weekend. This season, a total of 27 of the Comets 38 home games are part of that direction.

Of those games, 20 are on a Friday and six are on Saturday. All home games are set for 7 p.m. starts. The exception is the teams regular-season finale, which is set for 3 pm.

Utica plays 11 times on Wednesdays to round out its 38 home contests.

Quirks in the schedule

There are three times when the Comets are set to play road games early on a week day.

Two of the instances are on Mondays against North Division teams. The Comets play Rochester at 1:05 p.m. March 15 (Martin Luther King Jr. Day) and Belleville at 3 p.m. on March 19.

The Comets earliest game of the season is set for 11 a.m. Thursday, April 5 when they play Toronto.

Busy stretches

There are four times during the season when the Comets play three-games-in-three days. Three of these instances are in March, with another in April.

There are seven instances when the Comets play three games in four days. Familiar faces?

One Atlantic Division team Utica plays four times during the season is Springfield, which could feature Alex Grenier and Curtis Valk, who each had big seasons for the Comets in 2016-17. Springfield is set to visit Utica on Saturday, Feb. 24 and Friday, March 9.

Rome native Tom Sestito, who re-signed with the Pittsburgh organization this month, could return to Utica when the Penguins' affiliate (Wilkes-Barre/Scranton) visits Friday, March 23.

Follow @OD_Birnell on Twitter or call at 315-792-5032.

Heres the Comets full schedule (all times Eastern; games subject to change):

October

Saturday, Oct. 7: at Toronto, 4

Saturday, Oct. 8: at Toronto, 4

Friday, Oct. 13: at Rochester, 7:05

Saturday, Oct. 14: at Syracuse, 7

Saturday, Oct. 21: at Rochester, 7 p.m.

Saturday, Oct. 28 at Charlotte, 6

Saturday, Oct. 29 at Charlotte, 1

November

Wednesday, Nov. 1: vs. Rochester, 7

Friday, Nov. 3: vs. Binghamton, 7

Saturday, Nov. 4: vs. Rochester, 7

Wednesday, Nov. 8: vs. Charlotte, 7

Friday, Nov. 10: vs. Charlotte, 7

Wednesday, Nov. 15: at Laval, 7:30

Friday, Nov. 17: vs. Belleville, 7

Saturday, Nov. 18: vs. Hartford, 7

Wednesday, Nov. 22: vs. Toronto, 7

Friday, Nov. 24: at Laval, 7:30

Saturday, Nov. 25: at Laval, 3

Wednesday, Nov. 29: vs. Rochester, 7

December

Friday, Dec. 1: vs. Bridgeport, 7

Saturday, Dec. 2: at Bridgeport, 7

Wednesday, Dec. 6: vs. Syracuse, 7

Saturday, Dec. 9: at Providence, 7:05

Sunday, Dec. 10: at Providence, 3:05

Wednesday, Dec. 13: at Rochester, 7:05

Friday, Dec. 15: vs. Binghamton, 7

Saturday, Dec. 16: vs. Rochester, 7

Wednesday, Dec. 20: vs. Toronto, 7

Friday, Dec. 22: vs. Toronto, 7

Saturday, Dec. 23: at Syracuse, 7

Wednesday, Dec. 27: vs. Providence, 7

Friday, Dec. 29: vs. Providence, 7

Saturday, Dec. 30: at Syracuse, 7

January

Friday, Jan. 5: vs. Laval, 7

Sunday, Jan. 7: vs. Hartford, 5

Wednesday, Jan. 10: at Laval, 7:30

Monday, Jan. 15: at Rochester, 1:05

Wednesday, Jan. 17: vs. Rochester, 7

Friday, Jan. 19: at Hartford, 7:15

Saturday, Jan. 20: vs. Syracuse, 7

Wednesday, Jan. 24: vs. Hartford, 7

Friday, Jan. 26: at Binghamton, 7:05

Saturday, Jan. 27: at Lehigh Valley, 7:05

February

Friday, Feb. 2: vs. Syracuse, 7

Saturday, Feb. 3: at Syracuse, 7

Friday, Feb. 9: vs. Laval, 7

Saturday, Feb. 10: vs. Belleville, 7

Wednesday, Feb. 14: vs. Syracuse, 7

Friday, Feb. 16: vs. Binghamton, 7

Saturday, Feb. 17: at Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, 7:05

Monday, Feb. 19: at Belleville, 3

Wednesday, Feb. 21: vs. Lehigh Valley, 7

Friday, Feb. 23: vs. Laval, 7

Saturday, Feb. 24: vs. Springfield, 7

March

Friday, March 2: vs. Belleville, 7

Saturday, March 3: at Hershey, 7

Sunday, March 4: at Binghamton, 5:05

Friday, March 9: vs. Springfield, 7

Saturday, March 10 at Springfield, 7:05

Friday, March 16: vs. Laval, 7

Saturday, March 17: at Belleville, 7

Sunday, March 18: at Toronto, 4

Friday, March 23: vs. Wilkes-Barre/Scranton, 7

Saturday, March 24: at Syracuse, 7

Sunday, March 25: at Binghamton, 5:05

Wednesday, March 28: at Rochester, 7:05

Friday, March 30: vs. Hershey, 7

Saturday, March 31: at Springfield, 7:05

The rest is here:

Utica Comets' schedule features long road stretch, North Division teams - Utica Observer Dispatch

Chester Martin Remembers Dr. Hujer, Eclipses And Comets – The Chattanoogan

Posted on by

Wednesday, July 12, 2017 - by Chester Martin

Dr. Karel Hujer was Associate Professor of Physics and Astronomy at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga for many years. He had been invited to come to Chattanooga from his position at Iowa State University by University of Chattanooga President Dr. David A. Lockmiller. Dr. Hujer had earlier been employed by the University of Chicago, and had worked at their famous Yerkes Observatory at Williams Bay, Wisconsin, which houses the largest refracting telescope ever built. Lockmiller offered Hujer the Directorship of our Clarence T. Jones Observatory, along with an Associate Professorship at the University - an offer Hujer accepted without hesitation.

Suddenly - and literally out of the blue - "flying saucers" burst onto the scene in 1947, about the time Hujer arrived in Chattanooga. These new phenomena became the "hot" topic du jour, causing quite an international stir, suddenly replacing Jules Verne's - and a handful of other writers of 19th Century Science Fiction. As a walking encyclopedia of scientific information, Hujer shunned such spurious fiction. His enthusiasm was directed toward what was "pure science", and he shared that enthusiasm with his students, including the public in general.

Eclipses of the sun and moon were his great delight, after the stars themselves. He would frequently open the observatory for such special celestial events, and this attracted a wide audience of spectators. Students got extra credit for attending. While "It Came From Outer Space" and other "Aliens" genre movies were starting up in full force (about 1950), Dr. Hujer stuck to the pure science involving eclipses, comets, and "transits".

Dr. Hujer had made special studies of all these celestial phenomena - had gone to Egypt to study Ancient Egyptian astronomy, and the same for both Peru and Mexico. He loved to show slides and describe such favorite places as Stonehenge, where he could virtually transport you back to the time of the Druids. These Druids, although primitive people by modern standards, had learned over the centuries how to calculate both solar and lunar eclipses, and we know that Stonehenge was principally an astronomical observatory, predicting sunrise on the Summer Solstice.

Eclipses were very important to Dr. Hujer, as to every astronomer I have ever known. In his younger years he travelled around the world more than once, always in quest of some scientific interest. One year, back in either the 1920's or 1930's, he had ventured off to the island of Hokkaido - that northernmost of Japanese territories. In that day it was far more primitive than now, and very difficult to get to. No big jets back then - only small boats that rolled and pitched in the rough Pacific waters. And all that effort for only two minutes of near-total darkness at midday! Consider that if that long-planned-for special day happened to turn out to be cloudy, all would be lost! It was fortunately a clear day for our Karel Hujer, and he spoke of the occasion frequently.

Solar eclipses are much rarer than the lunar sort. And they are restricted to a narrow band where total darkness occurs. Lunar eclipses, on the other hand, are much more general, and the "blood red" appearance of the moon's surface, which writers like to describe, is actually a dull, rusty brown color that your kids might best describe as "ikky"!

There are some good stories about lunar eclipses in the past - and one famous one tells how Christopher Columbus used his superior knowledge of one such eclipse to save his men from starvation. It happened in Jamaica in 1504 - and you can Google it for yourself.

A coincidence of the upcoming August 21st 2017 solar eclipse will be that I have a friend in Eugene, Oregon who will see it on the Pacific coast before it comes to our area, and then I have friends in Camden, South Carolina who will see it soon afterwards. Camden is not precisely a coastal city, but in this case let's claim it as being on the Atlantic (and make this a more interesting story, where both coasts are included!) Actually, Chattanoogans will not see it in its totality as we are a just a few miles south of that zone. Spring City, Tennessee, some 50 miles north, DOES lie directly in the eclipse's path, and every room that is rentable in that area has already been grabbed up for a year or more, by people from around the globe! And that is the power that eclipses continue to have over the human race in general - not just astronomers.

Let me mention this one small phenomenon connected with sun eclipses: Once when my daughter was in grade school, there was a partial eclipse of the sun visible here in Chattanooga. I was very anxious to see it and set up some recommended way to view it without using the naked eye. I was standing under one of my Japanese maple trees and aiming the device I was using toward the cloudless sky. As the surroundings got darker and darker I happened to look down and noticed that the sun was dappling down through the small leaves of the maple...and every tiny space between the leaves acted just like a camera obscura! For there on the brick of my front walk were thousands of perfect little images of the eclipse! I happened to have my (now long obsolete) film camera handy and got some shots of the eclipse by looking DOWN! DO try this at home!

Besides eclipses, Dr. Hujer would always tell us when there was a newly discovered comet in the sky. Amateur astronomers world-wide are constantly on the lookout for these, as they customarily get to name the new discovery for themselves! (Hale-Bopp was such a comet from about 20 years ago). Most famous comet of all, is HALLEY'S COMET, of course - and Dr. Hujer always liked to point out that the name was pronounced just like the "Cali" in California...or like in the "galley" of a ship - NEVER like "daily" or "Bailey". Everyone has heard of Halley's Comet, for sure, and it has quite a history, being first noted by Chinese scholars 200 years or more BCE! Halley's Comet appears all through history, once showing up just in time for the medieval astrologers and soothsayers to read meaning into it. In 1066, for example, it appeared just before the Battle of Hastings in England as a bad omen to King Harold, the last Anglo Saxon ruler of Britain. It was a good omen, however, to the victor, "William the Conqueror", from whose reign we date modern England. It appears regularly about every 76 years, doing so only a few years ago (1993). A recommended place to view it was from Chickamauga Battlefield. My family and I - plus a neighborhood kid or two - drove down to see it. We were underwhelmed, though, as it was just a fuzzy object, not terribly bright at all, and low on the southeastern horizon. No dramatically long tail, as we had read about in its past apparitions; but we saw it - as did a medium-sized crowd of other viewers.

So there you have a bit about both eclipses and comets. But back at the beginning I mentioned "transits". What, you ask is a "transit? It is nothing more than a very minuscule eclipse created by either Mercury or Venus when it crosses the face of the sun. Dr. Hujer offered us extra credit to visit his observatory to view a transit of Mercury about 1954. I believe we projected the image from the telescope onto a piece of cardboard to watch the tiny black dot (Mercury) pass between earth and sun. Only Mercury and Venus can do this, as they are the only two planets INSIDE the earth's orbit.

Before I go, I want to school you again in the correct pronunciation of that famous comet's name: Dr. Hujer would think it remiss if I did not remind you: it rhymes with "Alley", "Valley", "Tally", etc. Let's all just try to please the old Professor and say, "HALLEY'S Comet"! (And he might give us ALL extra credit if we do it!)

---

Chester Martin is a native Chattanoogan who is a talented painter as well as local historian. He and his wife, Pat, live in Brainerd. Mr. Martin can be reached atcymppm@comcast.net.

Original post:

Chester Martin Remembers Dr. Hujer, Eclipses And Comets - The Chattanoogan