Know About It: 2010

12 Year Old Jordon Brown May Face Life in Prison in Wampum, Pennsylvania.
Jordan Anthony Brown, who was 11 at the time of the murder, is from Pennsylvania. He is the boy accused of killing his father’s pregnant fiancé, in February of 2009. He could become one of the youngest U.S. citizens to face life in prison.
Authorities found Kenzie Houk, 26, in her bed with a bullet though her head. She was eight months pregnant.
12 Year Old Jordon Brown May Face Life in Prison and he is one of the youngest suspects in the America to be charged with homicide. There are two counts of homicide, one covering the fetus. In May of 2009, he pleaded not guilty.

He is accused of shooting his father, Chris Brown’s pregnant fiancé with a 20 gauge shotgun. He received the shotgun last Easter.
What ever happened to kids getting chocolate eggs, peeps and stuffed bunnies for Easter?
In Pennsylvania, there is no lower limit for the age someone can be charged as an adult with criminal homicide. So, if he is convicted, Jordan, who has now turned 12, faces life in prison without the possibility of parole.
Right now, the situation of minors being charged as adults is being raised in the Supreme Court and the age where the practice of sentencing young people younger than 14 to life in prison without parole is being challenged.
For the full story of “12 Year Old Jordon Brown May Face Life in Prison,” go to AOL News.

Funny, Crazy and Cutesy animal videos...

The hell with an ATV I want a PTV

Robotics

Last chance to see until 2401!

Tonight's total lunar eclipse also holds special significance, since this is the first time since 1554 that it coincides with the winter solstice.

Lunar Eclipse Starts at 11:33 P.M. (MST): MyFoxPHOENIX.com

Tonight, our local satellite, the moon, will experience a full lunar eclipse. It begins at 1:33 a.m. Eastern, followed by the onset of totality at 2:41 a.m., and the good folks at NASA say the best moment for viewing is 3:17 a.m. The eclipse will be visible across all North America.

Now, a lunar eclipse doesn't look like a solar eclipse. Don't expect a sharply defined perfect circle to completely blot out the face of the moon. Instead, when the Earth cuts in front of the path between the sun and the Moon, the moon takes on variety of red tones. Here's how NASA explains the rouging:

A quick trip to the Moon provides the answer: Imagine yourself standing on a dusty lunar plain looking up at the sky. Overhead hangs Earth, nightside down, completely hiding the sun behind it. The eclipse is underway. You might expect Earth seen in this way to be utterly dark, but it's not. The rim of the planet is on fire! As you scan your eye around Earth's circumference, you're seeing every sunrise and every sunset in the world, all of them, all at once. This incredible light beams into the heart of Earth's shadow, filling it with a coppery glow and transforming the Moon into a great red orb.
If you take any great photos of the eclipse, though, we want to see them. This concludes your Atlantic Technology Channel PSA.

During a total lunar eclipse, the moon has been known to turn dazzling colors: blood red, deep copper orange, and sometimes dark grey or brown.

For those of you tough enough to get out of your warm beds and into the winter solstice weather to turn your attention skyward, Tuesday morning's early hours mark the first total eclipse of the moon in two years. During this time, the moon will pass behind the earth, slip into the earth's shadow, become engulfed by that shadow, and then reemerge.

And if you happen to be in North America, Ireland or Greenland, you're perfectly positioned to see the moon pass through the northern part of the earth's shadow - weather and cloud-cover allowing, that is.

Here's how it works: The earth's shadow is cone-shaped and divided into two portions: the dark, inner umbra is nested inside the pale, outer penumbra. As the moon moves into the center of the umbra, it aligns with the sun and earth. There, hidden behind the earth, the moon is blocked from the sun's rays.

But a thin ring of atmosphere around the edge of the earth gets lit up by sunlight and refracted back onto the moon's surface. That's what causes the copper orange or red colors seen during an eclipse, says Jim O'Leary, senior director of the Maryland Science Center.

"We're never really sure what it's going to look like," he says. "It's really a function of whatever is going on in the atmosphere." Dust from volcanic eruptions, for example, can thicken the air and darken the color of an eclipse by canceling some of the light that gets reflected back onto the moon.

The eclipse will last three hours and 28 minutes. For 72 of those minutes, the earth's shadow will completely cover the moon, according to NASA.

Plus NASA plans to stream live video of the event and have astronomers available to answer questions online.

The moon will begin to enter the umbra at 1:32 am EST, at which point a visible dark shadow will start creeping across the moon's face. The total eclipse begins at 2:40 am, when the moon's final edge slips into the umbra. It will stay in the shadow until 3:53 am, and should be completed by 5:02 am. Meteorologist and astronomy writer Joe Rao details the 12 stages of the total lunar eclipse in this Space.com article.

The prime time to see the eclipse is 3:17 am EST, O'Leary says. "That's when the moon will be in deepest part of the shadow."

Cymatics

Amazing Giant Crystals in a Cave in Mexico

Ancient Aliens - History Channel Special

The great Pyramid is located at the center of all the land mass on Earth...
Aliens had to have some sort of influence...

North Carolina - Interesting Facts and Info

Admitted to Union November 21, 1789
Capital Raleigh
Nickname Tar Heel State, Old North State
Motto Esse Quam Videri (To be, rather than to seem)
Total Area 53,821 square miles Rank 28th
Total Land Area 48,708 square miles Rank 17th
Total Water Area 5,103 square miles Rank 10th
Length 500 miles
Width 150 miles
Highest Point 6,684 feet (Mount Mitchell) Rank 16th
Lowest Point sea level (Atlantic Ocean) Rank 3rd
Population
Ten Largest Cities by Population
(U.S. Census, April, 2000)
1. Charlotte 540,828                         6. Fayetteville 121,015
2. Raleigh 276,093                           7. Cary 94,536
3. Greensboro 223,891                     8. High Point 85,839
4. Durham 187,035                          9. Wilmington 75,838
5. Winston-Salem 185,776              10. Asheville 68,889

Median Age 33.1
Average Lifetime (1979-1981) 72.96 Rank 42nd
Crimes Reported per 100,000 (1992-1993) 5,652.3 Rank 15th
Violent Crimes 679.3 Rank 21st
Property 4,973.0 Rank 14th
Per capita income (2000)
Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce
$26,882 Rank 31st
Disposable personal income per capita (2000)
Source: Bureau of Economic Analysis, U.S. Department of Commerce
$23,002 Rank 33rd
Median income of households(1993) $28,820 Rank 32nd

The University of North Carolina Chapel Hill is the oldest State University in the United States.

In 1903 the Wright Brothers made the first successful powered flight by man at Kill Devil Hill near Kitty Hawk. The Wright Memorial at Kitty Hawks now commemorates their achievement.

High Point is known as the Furniture Capital of the World.

Know as "Fish Town" in the early 1700's when Blackbeard frequented the coast, "Beaufort Town" was established as a seaport with the right to collect customs, in 1722.

The Outer Banks of NC hosts some of the most beautiful beaches in the country.

Whitewater Falls in Transylvania County is the highest waterfall in the eastern United States.

Cape Hatteras is the largest lighthouse ever to be moved due to erosion problems.

The University of North Carolina's mascot, the Tarheels, is a nickname for North Carolinians that supposedly came from the days when NC produced a lot of tar, and someone saw a set of footprints made by someone who had stepped in the tar.

Charles Karault was born and raised in Wilmington.

Havelock is home of Marine Base "Cherry Point." It is the largest air base in the Marine Corps.

North Carolina is the largest producer of sweet potatoes in the nation. Students at a Wilson County school petitioned the North Carolina General Assembly for the establishment of the sweet potato as the official state vegetable.

Harker's Island hosts the annual Core Sound Decoy Festival in December.

Morehead City is home to the North Carolina Seafood Festival, held the first weekend in October every year.

The World War II battleship 'North Carolina' is permanently berthed on the Cape Fear River at Wilmington. She was saved from the scrap heap in the 1960's by public subscription, including donations of dimes by schoolchildren.

The first English colony in America was located on Roanoke Island. Walter Raleigh founded it. The colony mysteriously vanished with no trace except for the word "Croatoan" scrawled on a nearby tree.

Mount Mitchell in the Blue Ridge Mountains is the highest peak east of the Mississippi. It towers 6,684 feet above sea level.

Krispy Kreme Doughnut was founded in Winston-Salem.

The Venus Fly-Trap is native to Hampstead.

The first miniature golf course was built in Fayetteville.

Babe Ruth hit his first home run in Fayetteville on March 7, 1914.

Winston-Salem was created when the two towns Winston and Salem combined.

The Biltmore Estate in Ashville is America's largest home, and includes a 255-room chateau, an award-winning winery and extensive gardens.

The first English child born in America was born in Roanoke in 1587. Her name was Virginia Dare.

The Lost Colony Outdoor Drama in Albemarle commemorates the birth of Virginia Dare. Scheduled to run just one year, it proved so successful that it has played for nearly sixty consecutive summers.

The first state owned art museum in the country is located in Raleigh.

Fontana Dam is the tallest dam in the Eastern United States, at 480 feet high.

Many people believe that North Carolina was the first state to declare independence from England with the Mecklenburg Declaration of 1775.

Grandfather Mountain, highest peak in the Blue Ridge, is the only private park in the world designated by the United Nations as an International Biosphere Reserve.

The Mile-High Swinging Bridge near Linville is 5,305 feet above sea level. The bridge actually hangs about 80 feet above the ground.

Pepsi was invented and first served in New Bern in 1898.

Beech Mountain is Eastern America's highest town at 5,506ft above sea level.

Andrew Jackson, seventh President of the United States, was born in the Waxsaws area on the border of North and South Carolina.

Arnold Palmer recognized as the player whose aggressive play and winning personality raised golf to national attention, honed his skills on the championship golf team of Wake Forest University.

James K. Polk, born in Mecklenburg County, North Carolina, was the eleventh President of the United States.

Hiram Rhoades Revels, born in Fayetteville in 1822, was the first African-American member of the United States Congress.

Andrew Johnson started his career as a tailor's apprentice in Raleigh, North Carolina and rose to lead in the reuniting of the nation as the seventeenth President of the United States.

North Carolina leads the nation in furniture, tobacco, brick, and textile production.

Saluda, North Carolina is located at the top of the Saluda Grade. The crest of the steepest standard gauge mainline railroad in the United States.

State Motto: Esse quam videri (To be rather than to seem)

The town of Wendell town was named for the American writer, Oliver Wendell Holmes.

The Swiss and German settlement of New Bern was named in honor of the founder's home, Bern, Switzerland. When Bern, Switzerland was founded, it was named by a group of hunters. They named the city for the first animal they came upon on their hunting expedition. It was a bear. "Bern" is the old Germanic word for Bear, and the bear became the symbol of the city. It has been adopted by New Bern, as well.

North Carolina was the first state in the nation to establish a state museum of art.

North Carolina was one of the first states in the U.S. to establish a state symphony. The North Carolina Symphony, founded in 1943, currently performs nearly 185 full-orchestra concerts each year.

North Carolina has the largest state-maintained highway system in the United States. The state's highway system currently has 77,400 miles of roads

The General Assembly of 1987 adopted milk as the official state beverage.

The oldest town in the state is Bath, incorporated in 1705.

Located in northeastern North Carolina on the Albemarle-Pamlico peninsula, Columbia is on the eastern shore of the Scuppernong River. The Indians called the area "the place of the sweet bay tree."

Babe Ruth hit his first professional home run in Fayetteville on March 7, 1914.

White Lake near Elizabethtown is very unique in that it has a white sandy bottom and is blessed with crystal clear waters. It has also been labeled as the "Nation's Safest Beach." It is truly a child's paradise in that there are no currents, no tides, no hazardous depressions or real dangers of any kind to swimmers.

North Carolina has 1,500 lakes of 10 acres or more in size and 37,000 miles of fresh water streams.

Info from

http://www.anythingnorthcarolina.com/facts.htm