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OTHER SUPPORT ACTIVITIES

My sister Ninotchka Herrera had contact with some aid/relief groups in Iligan City, particularly the Help Northern Mindanao movement, spearheaded by the Rural Missionaries of the Philippines - Northern Mindanao sub-Region (http://www.rmp-nmr.org/index.php) so she quickly organized our own relief efforts and declared our own house as a drop off point on Monday, December 19, 2011. The very next day, she and Walter Mainit were were able to contact the 1006th ...

(here's the entire article, split in two parts)

LOOKING BACK
As of this writing, it's now a week after the tragic events that unfolded after Tropical Storm Washi, known locally as "Sendong". It's interesting to note that this weather disturbance was never declared as typhoon but just a tropical storm or TS (more on this later). "Sendong" made landfall on the shores of Surigao province and brought a colossal amount of rainfall (over 180mm in some areas) over ...

This is a short project to salvage a junked wide-angle lens from an old camcorder, an old Coffeemate (nondairy coffee creamer!) container, some electrical tape. Works for my Canon S3IS prosumer camera!

I seem to have a knack for turning junk into something useful (inherited this trait from my dad). I recently found this abandoned wide-angle (almost fisheye) lens that was originally for an old camcorder. I wondered if I could use it for my Canon S3IS prosumer cam. My prosumer didn't ...

This is the most expensive photograph in the world...



http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedi...a/Rhein_II.jpg

It's called "Rhein II", and is a simple (in fact quite drab) photograph of the mighty German river Rhine.

It looks quite clean considering there are no people or buildings in the photo, but the artist "cheated" ...

I originally planned to share this brief observation/analysis among fellow amateur astronomers, specifically those who from time to time, let the general public have glimpse into a telescope's eyepiece and view celestial objects in the night sky. But I realized that this tidbit of information could be useful for the general public as well, so here it goes.

Oftentimes when I'm involved in a public astronomy event, which includes telescope viewing, the fact that you're standing beside ...

October 4(5), 2011 is the 54th Anniversary of the launch of the world's first satellite, Sputnik 1.

This is an account of how I simulated a re-enactment of the Sputnik 1 flight into earth orbit, on October 4(5), 1957. You can click on each picture below to view a larger image.

Before starting the simulation, I had to make sure time was synched between the simulator and the real world, here you can see UTC, Moscow, Baikonur, and local (Marawi) time...

...

When I was a kid my father always used to say, "Always clean your tools and return them to their proper storage areas after using them. This way, you can always depend on them to function properly, because they are clean and well maintained." He still reminds me of this every now and then.


Pictured above are the two tightening bolts that secure the bench vise to the ...