GPS satellites Orbits

GPS satellites are at a Medium Earth Orbit, which is 22,240 miles  (42,300 km).  Stationary satellites are about twice as far out.  The moon is about 238,900 miles (384,000 km) from Earth on average.  

 

Orbits of the GPS-Satellites (distances are to scale)

The Moon orbiting Earth with sizes and distances to scale.

Interesting sites I found:

http://www.nasm.si.edu/gps/work.html

http://www.aviationexplorer.com/Global_Positioning_System_GPS.html

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/astronomy/moon/  Printouts of Moon Phase chart,

from http://www.kowoma.de/en/gps/orbits.htm:
the height of the orbits is then about 20200 km. Orbits in this height are referred to as MEO – medium earth orbit.   In comparison, geostationary satellites like ASTRA or Meteosat – satellites orbit the earth at 42300 km, which is about twice the distance of GPS satellites.

from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geocentric_orbit:
Medium Earth Orbit (MEO) - Geocentric orbits ranging in altitude from 2,000 km to just below geosynchronous orbit at 35,786 km (22,240 miles). Also known as an intermediate circular orbit.


images from:
http://www.kowoma.de/en/gps/orbits.htm
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbit_of_the_Moon
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/94/GPS_satellite_orbit.gif
http://www.aviationexplorer.com/Global_Positioning_System_GPS.html

Enoch 24

Enoch sees a mountain of fire, and as he approaches he sees that it is really 7 mountains.  3 are strengthened by being places one on another in the south, and 3 are on each other in the East and 1 in the midst.  They are made of jewels.  Together the mountains resembled the seat of a throne.  Enoch learns from his guide, Michael, that God will reign the throne when he comes to visit the earth with goodness.

Enoch smells the trees that grow around the mountains and thinks their odor is very pleasant, even so pleasant that it seems better than any tree in the garden of Eden.  "Its fruit resembled the cluster of the palm."

The fruit cluster of a Palm

He asks Michael about it and is told it is the fruit prepared for the elect.  No one can touch the fruit until the time of great judgement.   Those who are not elect will receive a punishment.  The elect will have this fruit.  They will rejoice in the Holy One.  The smell of the fruit will enter into their bones and they will live a long life without sorrow, distress or trouble.

Enoch praised the Lord because he prepared this tree for the saints.


images from:
http://www.christmaslightsetc.com/images/productdetail/LED-Palm-Coconut-cluster.jpg

Tables

row 1, cell 1	row 1, cell 2
row 2, cell 1	row 2, cell 2

Spanish,,, ha = has or hath

In 1 Ne 3:2  it says

"He aquí , he soñado un sueño, en el que el Señor me ha mandado que tú y tus hermanos volváis a Jersualén."

1 Ne 3:2  

"Behold I have dreamed a dream, in the which the Lord hath commanded me that thou and thy brethren shall return to Jerusalem."

Spanish	English
He aquí	Behold
he soñado un sueño	I have dreamed a dream
en el que	in the which
el Señor	the Lord
me ha mandado	hath commanded me
que tú y tus hermanos	that thou and thy brethren
volváis	shall return
a Jersualén	to Jerusalem

Typing Spanish Accents

Windows Vista or Win 7

1. Start-->Control Panel-->Clock, Language, Region-->Change Keyboards
2. New Window: Click the Change Keyboards button
3. New Window: Click the Add button
4. Select United States-International keyboard
5. Click OK
6. From drop down menu (Default Input Language) select United States International

Using the U.S. - International Keyboard

If you followed the above directions carefully, your keyboard will now react slightly differently than it did before. First of all, notice that if you strike the single apostrophe (') key, nothing happens. To type the single apostrophe now, you must strike the single apostrophe key and then strike the space bar. When you strike the spacebar, the apostrophe will appear.
The next thing to note is that the quotes (") key behaves the same way as the apostrophe key. You must first strike the quotes key and then strike the space bar in order to create the (") symbol. These two minor inconveniences are more than made up for by the ease with which you can now type the special characters.
To type the special characters, two keystrokes are required. To type the á, you need only strike the apostrophe key and then the letter a. The other characters are just as easy:

• á = ' + a
• é = ' + e
• í = ' + i
• ó = ' + o
• ú = ' + u
• ñ = ~ + n
• ü = " + u

To type the special punctuation characters, you need to hold down on the Alt key while you strike the appropriate punctuation mark. On some keyboards, only one of the two Alt keys will work for this.

• ¡ = Alt (hold down) + !
• ¿ = Alt (hold down) + ?

Using Cryptic Codes

If, for some reason, you don't want to change your keyboard, you can always type in the troublesome cryptic codes. Using this arcane system, the following codes apply:

• á = Alt + 0225
• é = Alt + 0233
• í = Alt + 0237
• ó = Alt + 0243
• ú = Alt + 0250
• ñ = Alt + 0241
• ü = Alt + 0252

• ¡ = Alt + 0161
• ¿ Alt + 0191

When using this utterly out-dated system, there are two important things to remember. First, when you type in the numbers, some keyboards require that you use the "numeric keypad" located to the side, rather than the numbers along the top. Second, on some keyboards, only one of the two Alt keys will work for this.

All this is from this site  http://www.studyspanish.com/accents/typing.htm#winVista

I, Zeniff, having been taught in all the language of the Nephites,

Mosiah 9:1 I, Zeniff, having been taught in all the language of the Nephites, and having had a knowledge of the land of Nephi, or of the land of our fathers’ first inheritance, *and having been sent as a spy among the Lamanites that I might spy out their forces, that our army might come upon them and destroy them—but when I saw that which was good among them I was desirous that they should not be destroyed.

I think this scripture is interesting because he seems to be copying Nephi's method of starting his story.  Perhaps this became the cultural way to start a story, kind of like, Once upon a time....

"their doings shall be as a stumbling block"

Mosiah 7:29 For behold, the Lord hath said: I will not succor my people in the day of their transgression; but I will hedge up their ways that they prosper not; and their doings shall be as a stumbling block before them.

Very interesting.  Our actions can cause us to stumble.  When we do things that are not right, it creates problems for us.  Of course it does.

One way of looking at wickedness is to call it chaos and to call righteousness order or peace.  Chaos never leads to order or peace.  Imagine I have a container full of black marbles on the top and white marbles on the bottom.  It is organized and peaceful.   If I shake it the marbles will blend and be all mixed up, in chaos.  If I keep shaking this container for a thousand years, will the marbles ever go back to their sorted state?  No.  Never. The only way to sort the marbles again is to put some focused intelligence into sorting, take them by hand and sort them again.

So  if we are wicked, or causing chaos in our lives, it will cause our lives to be disorganized and we will stumble.    Our actions affect who we are.  Our actions do not define who we are, but they affect it.  Who we are is our being, our personality, our essence.  This is the part of us that will stumble.  The becoming, the being part of us will stumble because of our actions.  If our actions were who we were then the statement that  our doings shall be a stumbling block would not make sense.  It would make sense to say, that person is stumbling, you can see it by their actions.  But no, the part of us that stumbles is our soul.  Our actions are things that happen in time.  We exist continually, through time.

How to Make a Simple Beverage Can Stove

http://www.wikihow.com/Make-a-Simple-Beverage-Can-Stove


This is interesting.

Grabados = engraved

1 Ne 3:12 grabados sobre las planchas de bronce - engraved on the brass plates


grabados sounds like grabbing, but engraving is not grabbing but the opposite, a removing , well perhaps it is like that in that the metal is grabbed and pulled out in the places that the words are engraved.  I hope this will help me remember this word.  I am trying to learn Spanish, a little bit at a time.

Why can't graffiti be read? Why does it all look like the same handwriting?

I looked around the web and found out that there are standard forms of graffiti.  There is bubble art, that came from the Bronx and Wild Style that is the most common now.  Wild Style Letters overlap and are 3-D.   Many words are someone's tag, marking their territory.

Apparently there are 4 main parts to hip-hop culture;  graffiti, b-boying (Breakdancing), DJing, & MCing. 

I found another web page asking the same question.  One answer was, "there is a style that got big in the 80's called wild style graffiti that doesn't seem to want to die. there is a lot of history just like any art form.  But the short answer is that yes they do all copy each other."

Some people look at it as an art form and think it should be respected.

I learned than ancient roman graffiti that is preserved helps give clues to how latin sounded, and the literacy of the era.  There are graffiti preserved in Pompeii of political cartoons!  Pompeii was the city that was destroyed by a volcano covering the city in ash, and preserving it in death.

I cannot find anywhere that translates it for me.   I did find a glossary of words but it was just the hip hop culture.   Perhaps I don't want to know what it means anyway.

Later my sister in law Rebecca helped me search.  She read through this site.  It was very crude, so be warned, but it helped her find some great sites and really showed the character of the culture that promotes graffiti.

http://www.wikihow.com/Draw-Graffiti This site suggest that there are legal boards to put up graffiti on, but if you are inexperienced you will be called a "toy" and shunned.  In a sense they almost, without saying it, suggested you practice in the illegal walls until you get good enough. 

http://www.wikihow.com/Draw-Graffiti-Names Was interesting.  Well written.  They suggest that you feel free to modify the letters beyond the point of recognition.


Here is an alphabet of characters that will help in translation.

Images from:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/16/Graffiti_politique_de_Pompei.jpg/170px-Graffiti_politique_de_Pompei.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/d/d7/Thai_Breakdancers.jpg/200px-Thai_Breakdancers.jpg
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/5/5e/KRESS.jpg/220px-KRESS.jpg
http://i937.photobucket.com/albums/ad214/rowlandprid3/Tat%20ideas/learn_to_draw_graffiti_letters_96.jpg
http://www.impactlab.com/wp-content/uploads/2008/09/graffiti-taxonomy-438.jpg
http://i937.photobucket.com/albums/ad214/rowlandprid3/Tat%20ideas/learn_to_draw_graffiti_letters_96.jpg
http://farm3.static.flickr.com/2802/4019667744_2020d11c06.jpg
http://pad1.whstatic.com/images/thumb/4/42/Apology_485.jpg/180px-Apology_485.jpg
http://pad3.whstatic.com/images/thumb/0/0d/Graffiti_565.jpg/180px-Graffiti_565.jpg

2D Art on 3D buildings !!!

Fascinating art form!  Kind of graffiti, but it is removable.  See this article and this page where I got the photos.

How old are Carl Fredricksen and Charles Muntz in the movie UP?

This blog says:

There has been much speculation about the ages of Carl Fredricksen and Charles Muntz in Up. Many viewers of the film doubted that Charles Muntz could still be alive when Carl encounters him in the 2nd half of the film (after showing a grown up Muntz via newsreel footage when Carl is a child).  The following ages have been confirmed by director Pete Docter (via Lee Unkrich’s twitter).
At the beginning of the film, Carl is 9 years old and Charles Muntz is 23. So, when they meet later in the film, Carl is now 78 years old and Muntz is 92! It’s good to finally have that debate settled.

image from blog site listed above.

Enoch 23

Continuing Enoch's vision, he goes to the West and sees a blazing fire that never stops running along.  He asks his guide, the angel Raguel, and is told it is " that of all the luminaries of heaven."

What is Real in the Movie UP?

Paradise Falls is not a real location, however it is based on the tepuis (a huge plateau or table top mountain) in Venezuela.   Angel Falls, the tallest waterfall in the world (3,212 feet) looks similar to the ficticuous Paradise Falls.   Angel Falls was named for a man named Jimmy Angel, who went looking for the waterfall in an airplane.  He crashed and he and his crew had to hike for 11 days before they were rescued.  The tepui are protected inside of the Canaima National Park.

"When South America and Africa separated during the formation of the Atlantic Ocean some 180 million years ago, the entire region was uplifted for good and became what is known as the Guyana Highlands. However, under the stress of the uplift, the Pacaraima was broken up, and the forces of erosion began to take its toll on the exposed rock. Only the most-resistant columns of rock survived the onslaught of wind and water, leaving behind the distinctive sheer cliffs of sandstone rising from piles of eroded talus debris."   (from The real world behind “Up's” Paradise Falls)

 
 The Pixar team visited 3 of the most famous tepui and had a challenging hike up to the top of Mount Roraima, the tallest, and on the border of Brazil, Guyana, and Venezuela.  They went up a "ramp" but it was still a 7 hr hike.  They got to the top and had hot soup and tents awaiting them.  I think that would be nice to have at the end of a grueling hike!

Images from:

http://static.howstuffworks.com/gif/willow/geography-of-venezuela0.gif

http://farm1.static.flickr.com/104/284515009_d3c27d46cc_b.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2a/Mt_Roraima_in_Venezuela_001.JPG

http://www.carnaval.com/venezuela/guyana-highlands.jpg

http://z.about.com/d/gosouthamerica/1/0/8/l/parquesnacionales-mapam.JPG 

http://science4grownups.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/05/up-tepui-landing-paradise-falls.jpg

Enoch 22

Enoch sees four delightful places that were formed for the spirits of the dead to be collected until the day of judgment.   Enoch asks the angel Raphael, who is with him, "Whose spirit is that, the voice of which reaches to heaven, and accuses?"  Raphael says it is Abel and he will keep accusing until all of Cain's seed are off the earth.  Enoch sees that the dead are in 4 different places based on their righteousness or lack thereof.

How is it possible that the Jews, after having rejected the sure foundation, can ever build upon it?

Jacob 4:17 And now, my beloved, how is it possible that these, after having rejected the sure foundation, can ever build upon it, that it may become the head of their corner?

 Jacob 4:18 Behold, my beloved brethren, I will unfold this mystery unto you; if I do not, by any means, get shaken from my firmness in the Spirit, and stumble because of my over anxiety for you.

Jacob says he will explain this, as long as he does not stumble.  He then tells the allegory of the olive tree.  He explains,

Jacob 6:5 Wherefore, my beloved brethren, I beseech of you in words of soberness that ye would repent, and come with full purpose of heart, and cleave unto God as he cleaveth unto you. And while his arm of mercy is extended towards you in the light of the day, harden not your hearts.

He doesn't speak again about those who rejected the foundation stone, but he speaks to his bretheren and asks them to not harden their hearts and accept Christ.

Jacob 6:8 Behold, will ye reject these words? Will ye reject the words of the prophets; and will ye reject all the words which have been spoken concerning Christ, after so many have spoken concerning him; and deny the good word of Christ, and the power of God, and the gift of the Holy Ghost, and quench the Holy Spirit, and make a mock of the great plan of redemption, which hath been laid for you?

So I think he did get shaken from his firmness (he must have sensed he would.)  He did however show how everyone needs to not harden their hearts, and not reject Christ, but he neglected to relate it back to the Jews.  Perhaps he wanted to avoid pointing a finger directly at the Jews, and perhaps he was told by the Lord to explain that everyone, not just the Jews, need to accept the foundation stone.

Many Revelations

Jarom 1:4 And there are many among us who have many revelations, for they are not all stiffnecked. And as many as are not stiffnecked and have faith, have communion with the Holy Spirit, which maketh manifest unto the children of men, according to their faith.

I hope I am not too stiffnecked so I can have many revelations.

Master Basho from Japan was a famous poet.

We read Dragon of the Red Dawn Magic Tree House book by Mary Pope Osborne for school.  They travel to Japan to find a secret of happiness.  They discover that focusing on the simple things in nature can bring happiness from Master Basho.  They also help save the city Edo (ancient Tokyo) from a fire.

From: (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matsuo_Bash%C5%8D)

Matsuo Bashō (松尾 芭蕉)
A statue of Matsuo in Hiraizumi, Iwate
Born	Matsuo Kinsaku (松尾 金作) 1644 Near Ueno, Iga Province
Died	November 28, 1694
Pen name	Sōbō (宗房)
Occupation	Poet
Nationality	Japanese
Notable work(s)	Oku no Hosomichi (The Narrow Road to the Interior)

Freshwater Clams are in AZ canals!

We went geocaching along the Phoenix canal system and the little ones found many freshwater clams along the sidewalk.  Apparently the city cleans the canal every so often and dumps the rocks along the sides.  The clams get scooped up along with the rocks.  We picked up several and put them in a fish tank to see if they would open and perhaps be alive.  None of them were so it must have been too long since they cleaned the canal.

A living freshwater clam can work like a filter in your fish tank to keep the water clean.  Clams filter food (plankton and other microscopic sea creatures) and detritus from the water to get their nutrients.  The detritus causes them to form pearls.


    de·tri·tus  (d-trts)
    n. pl. detritus
    1. Loose fragments or grains that have been worn away from rock.
    2.  a. Disintegrated or eroded matter:
         b. Accumulated material; debris:          ( from: http://www.thefreedictionary.com/detritus)


A clam is a mussel.   They have a foot they dig into the sand to stay in place under the water.  They can dig 1 inch to several inches.  Mussels are classified by how far they dig into the ground and what kind of material they dig into.  The shell has 3 layers, the top one is called, mother-of-pearl because it is a coating of pearl material. 

Iridescence in Pearls (Photos: Public Domain)

Be Familiar With All

Jacob 2:17 says

"be familiar with all"

I know this is referencing to be shareful with your money, but perhaps you need to be know who people are to familiar with other's needs to be able to share, thus you must be familiar in order to give.

"and be familiar with all and free with your substance, that they may be rich like unto you."

So I am working on being familiar with all, (getting to know people and being friendly) and then as the Lord blesses me with substance, I try to be free with it.

What the Lord Has Promised Me and those around me in the Book of Mormon