Famous Adopted, Adoptive & Birth People

Wow, I was surprised to see this list of famous people who were adopted. It's amazing what sites you may come across of, when you are not looking for them. So many famous names. Some people were adopted by family members due to the death of their parents (example: Lee Majors). Some weren't told they were adopted until they were teenagers (exmple: Priscilla Presley). Each person has a different story. Some stories are amazing. Some celebs weren't even "technically" orphans per se (example: Faith Hill). Some names on the Adopted Persons list are, Nancy Reagan, Leo Tolstoy, Steve Jobs and Bill Clinton.

This list is actually a three parters: Adopted Persons, Birth Parents (example: David Crosby, the surrogate Father of Melissa Etheridge's sons), and Adoptive Parents (example: Sammy Davis Jr.)

This is from the adoption.com site that provides all kind of adoption resources.

Adoption Celebrities
http://celebrities.adoption.com/

Instruct From The Instructables

I am not sure how well known this site it. Probably pretty well known, but those who have not visited it yet, and would like to learn how to build unusual stuff, check it out. You can submit your own too. Some examples, banana bikes, a butter pen (I don't know where people come up with those ideas!), pink eraser USB Flash Drive, and outdoor electric candle light. How about this one: "Making a pizza with a plasma cutter, a backhoe and mud?! Not to mention making a party top hat out of playing cards. I would like to build a car like KITT with a blue or green laser though. ;-) Not everything is about how to "build", there is a post that shows you how to solve a Rubik's cube and another teaches you how to perform a CPR.

Unfortunately, there are some posts that are inappropriate for work, and young children. I've seen them under the "Life" section. I don't know how many of those are there, but there are pretty good items under life, like growing organic food, how to cut your own hair, putting YouTube videos on to your phone, and how to improve your eyesight...

I could go on and on. Some are silly and fun. Some are educational and genuine. Fortunately, there are categories and keywords, so you can just browse through easily.

This site has 806 posts for you to learn all kind of stuff!

Instructables
http://www.instructables.com/

Fetch My Ray Gun, The Rocketship Is A-Waiting..

I've never had a ray gun, but I always liked the campy futuristic ones from serials such as as Flash Gordon and Forbidden Planet. Thought those were funny and innovative. I do vaguely remember we had a red squirt gun. The ones from the 50's and the 60's look really weird. Well, some do. I liked the ones from the 1940's the best.

Toy Rayguns
http://www.toyraygun.com/introindex.html

YouTube - Get Smart TV Opening Theme

My friend and I were discussing the Get Smart movie with Steve Carell. She made a comment about the opening theme of the original show. Anyway, we looked up on YouTube for the opening theme and realized that there were actually 5 of them. The indoors sequences remained the same more or lest, but the sceneries outside were different. Different cars too. They were all cool though, grin. By the way, the first theme was in black and white.



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=daowPKIj0CA

Here is an article about the shoe phone from the CIA's museum website. I think I'd stick to a cell phone ;-P

CIA Shoe Phone
https://www.cia.gov/about-cia/cia-museum/spy-fi-archives/item15.html

Gustav

I've been following the news about Gustav (right now it's category 3). I've never seen a hurricane. Only a minor Twister, here in north california years ago (seriously.It was minor but it managed to rip off a few roofs an knock down some trees). I only know what it's like having a 7.1 earthquake. About Gustav, all I know, is what read and see in the news. It's definitely beyond horrible. This event reminds me of this site that I saw four years ago. It has a very good information about hurricanes starting in 1900. It does not include every single hurricane, but it has plenty of good historical information. It lists 35 hurricanes. The last one on the list is Wilma (2005).

National Hurricane Center
http://www.nhc.noaa.gov/HAW2/english/history.shtml

Here is another site with excellent data. It is a good educational source for those who want to learn about hurricanes. Here you can learn what they are. How do they develop. What was the costliest, and which was the deadliest. The Category 5.. There are more to learn here:

AccuWeather
http://hurricane.accuweather.com/hurricane/facts.asp

There are obviously tons other similar sites.

Above are the tv images of Gustav on the August 31 (Sunday) news. It is from the AccuWeather site (capture shots). I wonder why the guy's name isn't on the screen.

Virtual Museum Of Surveying

You know, I see these people all these time. Looking through those telescopes (now I know it's called "theodolite") that are set up on those tall orange tripods. I have at times wondered what they are really doing. How do these things really work, and what they are called. I never thought there was much beyond that for surveying. Like history and such. So when I came upon this site by accident, I was surprised that there is more to it. And how old this profession is. It goes back to the 19th century.

Virtual Museum Of Surveying
http://www.surveyhistory.org/museum1.htm