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Magna Carta

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 21:30:07 GMT

clipped by: JohnWaterman
clipper's remarks: view original, translate and more

Magna Carta is one of the most celebrated documents in history. Examine the British Library's copy close-up, translate it into English, hear what our curator says about it, and explore a timeline.

LAUNCH THE MAGNA CARTA VIEWER

Our Magna Carta viewer (optimised for screen resolutions of 1024x768) uses the Shockwave plugin, which can be downloaded free from the Adobe website. There is also a simple version that does not require Shockwave.

WATCH VIRTUAL CURATOR VIDEOS

British Library Head of Medieval and Earlier Manuscripts Claire Breay answers 'frequently asked questions' in a series of short videos.

READ A TRANSLATION

You can also translate from Latin 'as you go' while using the Magna Carta viewer magnifier.

THE BASICS

How and why Magna Carta was written, and how it came to the British Library.

Themes

The background to Magna Carta in 13th-century England.

People

Find out how different people were affected by Magna Carta.

OTHER TREASURES IN FULL

Poor Americans

Sat, 14 Jun 2008 09:41:16 GMT

clipped by: abailart

Clip Source: www.nytimes.com

A man who described himself as a conscientious worker who has always pinched his pennies wrote the following to Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont:

“This winter, after keeping the heat just high enough to keep my pipes from bursting (the bedrooms are not heated and never got above 30 degrees) I began selling off my woodworking tools, snowblower, (pennies on the dollar) and furniture that had been handed down in my family from the early 1800s, just to keep the heat on.

“Today I am sad, broken, and very discouraged. I am thankful that the winter cold is behind us for a while, but now gas prices are rising yet again. I just can’t keep up.”

A 55-year-old man who said his economic condition was “very scary,” wrote: “I don’t live from paycheck to paycheck. I live day to day.”

working Americans have been taking a real beating, said Senator Sanders.

millions of Americans have lost health insurance coverage, lost pensions, and become deeply mired in debt.

Tags: poverty

Would an antimatter apple fall up?

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 19:40:18 GMT

clipped by: Mohir

Clip Source: space.newscientist.com

New experiments are being proposed to test a big unknown in physics: how antimatter reacts to gravity.

Physicists have studied antimatter, the mirror version of ordinary matter, for decades. They know, for example, that antiparticles have the same mass as ordinary particles, but opposite charge. But no one knows what effect gravity will have on such particles.

Now several groups want to measure exactly how the Earth will pull on antimatter. The tests would create a horizontal beam of the stuff and measure how much gravity deflects it.

The complicated ballistic test may show no difference between the way matter and antimatter fall. But some experimentalists are holding out hope that they may see something completely unexpected, which could point the way to new gravity-like forces, or perhaps even antigravity.

Tags: physocs, antimatter, gravity

Professor Designs Plasma-propelled Flying Saucer

Fri, 13 Jun 2008 12:43:42 GMT

clipped by: Silkweaver
clipper's remarks: The force created by passing an electrical current through this plasma pushes around the surrounding air, and that swirling air creates lift and momentum and provides stability against wind gusts. In order to maximize the area of contact between air and vehicle, Roy’s design is partially hollow and continuously curved, like an electromagnetic flying bundt pan.

One of the most revolutionary aspects of Roy’s use of magnetohydrodynamics is that the vehicle will have no moving parts. The lack of traditional mechanical aircraft parts, such as propellers or jet engines, should provide tremendous reliability, Roy said. Such a design also will allow the WEAV to hover and take off vertically.

Clip Source: www.sciencedaily.com

Flying saucers may soon be more fact than mere science fiction.

University of Florida mechanical and aerospace engineering associate professor Subrata Roy has submitted a patent application for a circular, spinning aircraft design reminiscent of the spaceships seen in countless Hollywood films. Roy, however, calls his design a “wingless electromagnetic air vehicle,” or WEAV.

The proposed prototype is small – the aircraft will measure less than six inches across – and will be efficient enough to be powered by on-board batteries.

The vehicle will be powered by a phenomenon called magnetohydrodynamics, or the force created when a current or a magnetic field is passed through a conducting fluid. In the case of Roy’s aircraft, the conducting fluid will be created by electrodes that cover each of the vehicle’s surfaces and ionize the surrounding air into plasma.

“This is a very novel concept, and if it’s successful, it will be revolutionary,” Roy said.

Tags: aerodynamics, physics