1. According to an online magazine obsessed with really big machines, the world’s largest machine is the Hadron Collider. I used Bing to search ‘world’s largest machine’.I had to continue searching to locate the following details. I searched for ‘Hadron Collider weight’ on Yahoo!. Apparently the HC weighs in at more than 38,000 tonnes and cost more than £3.5bn to build, including all infrastructure and early running expenses.
http://www.bukisa.com/articles/40463_worlds-largest-machines-ever-built#ixzz0wFpjj9fP
2. I used Bing to search 'contact Ozzy Osbourne'. A possibly unreliable website (Top Synergy – Famous and Celebrity Relationships) provides contact details for Ozzy's manager... who also happens to be his wife, Sharon Osbourne. Apparently all one has to do is pick up the phone!
http://famous-relationships.topsynergy.com/Ozzy_Osbourne/Contact.asp
3. This one was a real doozy. I used Bing to search for ‘global communication history’. About.com features several timelines of inventions and inventors, which agreed that the telegraph was invented 1831, followed by Morse code 1835. Following the links to learn more about each technology, I found that Morse Code more closely fit the description of ‘first global technology’.
http://inventors.about.com/library/inventors/bl_history_of_communication.htm
4. After using Yahoo! to search ‘cheapest flights Gold Coast to Melbourne’, I found that Tiger Airways tends to offer the best deals on late flights Monday to Sunday (around $59 off peak).
http://travel.webjet.com.au/webjettsa/home.aspx?flight_search_action=http%3A%2F%2Ftravel.webjet.com.au%2Fwebjettsa%2Fhome.aspx&TripType=OneWay&CityFrom=OOL&CityTo=Melbourne&DateOut=dd%2Fmm%2Fyyyy&DateBack=dd%2Fmm%2Fyyyy&NumAdult=1&NumChild=0&NumInfant=0&TravelClass=ECONOMY&EntryPoint=Flight&RequestFrom=Outside&x=26&y=7
Then I got a rare brainwave... I received a member email from Jetstar airways recently that advertised early- and mid- 2011 flights for just $49.
http://www.jetstar.com/au/en/cheap-flights/sales.aspx?utm_source=jetmail&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=48_hour_sale_20100811
But wait, there’s more. Today, my younger sister brought home a magazine from the Flight Centre that claims to beat any genuine airfare quote… or they’ll fly you there for free. Jackpot!
I used Yahoo! to navigate to the Flight Centre website and clicked the link to the Lowest Airfare Guarantee information page for terms and conditions.
http://www3.flightcentre.com.au/lowest-airfare-guarantee/?WT.seg_1=fc00001097
5. Miku Hatsune is the first product in the Vocaloid2 Character Vocal Series created by Crypton Future Media. It is considered as the most popular and well known Vocaloid. The character name means ‘the first sound from the future’. Japanese voice actress Saki Fujita’s voice was sampled to create a programmable vocal blueprint for Miku.
http://vocaloid.wikia.com/wiki/Miku_Hatsune
The release date for the Vocaloid2 Character Vocal series, August 31, 2007, is often cited by fans as Miku’s birthday.
http://www.animevice.com/miku-hatsune/18-20703/
6. Several live webcams located in Antarctica can be accessed via the Australian Antarctic Division website. I found this one by using Bing to search ‘live webcam Antarctica’.
http://www.aad.gov.au/default.asp?casid=27
Like what you see? You can stay in one several research bases located on the ‘land of extremes’ – Kiwi company Adventure Travel offers commercial expeditions from 8 to 20 days to Antarctica New Zealand.
http://www.antarcticanz.govt.nz/travelling-to-antarctica/private-visits
A travel journal by a past adventurer mentions that although much of the ‘staying’ was done on board the commercial vessel (Akademik Sergei Vavilov), a brief stay at the Ukraine Verdansky base was particularly hospitable. I assume the cost was included in the expedition package (12 days from USD $4,990pp triple-share or $5,990 twin-share).
http://www.adventuretravel.co.nz/travel-journal/antarctica-by-denise-feb-2010
7. I started by searching for ‘Australian music charts 1980’ using Bing. Search results included the ARIA Charts: Australia website. Clicking through to About the Charts, I found that ARIA charts only date back as far as 1983. Another search for ‘Australian music chart history’ revealed the following gem of a website.
http://www.scu.edu.au/schools/edu/ICT/student_pages/sem1_2003/dlowe/hist2.html
It turns out that the Kent Music Report preceded ARIA, which briefly funded KMR in exchange for permission to publish the chart data under the ARIA banner…
A quick Yahoo! search for ‘Kent Music Report 1980’ led me to Top40-Charts.info, which states that for four weeks from August 4, 1980, ‘Funkytown’ by Lipps Inc reigned supreme as number one single.
http://top40-charts.info/?title=List_of_number-one_singles_in_Australia_during_the_1980s#1980_.28Kent_Music_Report.29
8. Did you know that we have an Australian Research Council Nanotechnology Network?? It’s true. I found USA’s National Nanotechnology Initiative website via my Yahoo! ‘define nanotechnology’ search, and then searched ‘nanotechnology Australia’ for kicks. Apparently Australian nanotechnologists are happy with the NNI’s definition, which is cited on the ARCNN website.
I would describe nanotechnology as the study and manipulation of particles on the nanoscale (1 to 100 nanometers or billionths of metres), or working with matter on a very, VERY small scale and across range of science disciplines. It seems that particles of matter exhibit unique properties at this scale, which, if harnessed, may allow us to do wonderful things like sniff-out skin cancer cells with nanotech-enabled sensors, or remove arsenic from water supplies at a low cost.
http://www.nano.gov/html/facts/whatIsNano.html
http://www.ausnano.net/
9. My Bing search for ‘Google street-view camera’ turned up plenty of generic results, as well as an article from About.com. The article claims that “…Immersive Media cameras were used to capture the data for Google Maps street view. IMC sells both the cameras and licensed images.”
http://google.about.com/od/experimentalgoogletools/ig/SIGGRAPH-2007/Immersive-Media-Camera.htm
A quick Bing search for ‘IMC Google street view’ returned this article by Glenn Letham from GISuser about the IMC Dodeca camera, which has the capacity to capture 360° imagery streams Latham calls ‘spherical movies’.
http://www.gisuser.com/index2.php?option=com_content&do_pdf=1&id=11997
10. Buzzing around the more reputable Klingon organisation websites for a Klingon translator tool, I gleaned the following: the limited vocabulary and unique grammatical structure of Klingon mean that MTs (or machine translations) are not capable of providing accurate translations.
See http://www.mrklingon.org/ for more.
Having said that, I just searched Yahoo! for ‘Klingon dictionary’… would you believe Apple is offering a Klingon language suite iPhone application? Of course you believe it. Now I just need to get myself an iPhone….
http://www.simonandschuster.com/w/klingonApps/content.html
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