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Both excellent mechanics, brothers Orville and Wilbur Wright built and repaired bicycles before turning their attention to flying machines. They spent years designing and testing gliders and also built a powerful four-cylinder engine and an efficient propeller. In 1903, after several failed attempts, the brothers succeeded in making the first controlled, sustained flights in a power-driven airplane. How long did the first, history-making flight near Kitty Hawk, North Caroline, last? More...
Historic Trivia pick - CC
THE CAT WHO WAS A CLONE
CC - This cleverly named creature won fame for being both the most unique and un-unique of cats. Born in late 2001 in a blaze of publicity, CC (short for Copy Cat) was the world's first cloned feline.
The mostly gray calico was the crowning achievement of a research program originally established to clone dogs. In 1997, millionaire entrepreneur John Sperling bankrolled a roughly $4 million effort to develop a replacement for his beloved mutt, Missy. After years of work on what came to be known as the Missyplicity Project, scientists at Texas A&M University learned one kay fact about cloning canines: It's hard. Cats, however, are relatively easier.
Emphasis on relatively. The group endured eighty-seven failures before producing CC. In 2000, Sperling and others founded a company to offer the process to grieving pet owners who pined for duplicates of their dearly departed friends - and could pay somewhere in the middle five figures to get them.
The birth of CC seemed to validate the business model of the company that created her. Bereaved but well-heeled former cat owners could turn to an organisation whose name, Genetic Savings & Clone, sounded like something from an old Outer Limits episode. The company ramped up its program to something approaching mass production. Clients with an eye toward the future could PetBank some of their cat's premortem DNA for future use in the Nine Lives Extravaganza cloning program. Then, when the original pet passed away, scientists at the company's state-of-the-art Madison, Wisconsin, laboratory could use that genetic information to create an embryo to be carried by a surrogate cat mom.
Is it possible to put a price tag on such a miracle? Actually, yes. Cat owners can make a deposit in the PetBank for around $1,000, and get a copy of their kitty for roughly $32,000.
Unfortunately for the company's backers, not enough people wanted carbon copies of their deceased kitties. Genetic Savings & Clone went out of business in late 2006. Interestingly, even though the firm trafficked in clones, it couldn't guarantee that the cats it created would be exact copies of the originals. Nature, it seems, hates to repeat itsself. Though the company's clones carried the same genetic code as the original animals, environmental factors sometimes introduced slight - or not-so-slight - variations. For instance, while CC is an exact genetic duplicate of her DNA donor (a calico tabby named Rainbow), her fur is a different colour.
The Wright Brothers Make Their Famous Flight
- 2010 - Mohamed Bouazizi sets himself on fire
The Tunisian street vendor self-immolated as a protest against the economic conditions in Tunisia. He died 18 days after at the age of 26. His protest and death were a catalyst for the Tunisian revolution and similar revolutions and protests around the Arab world. - 2010 - The beginning of the Arab Spring
The multi-country protests and demands for change in the Arab world are thought to have begun with street vendor Mohamed Bouazizi's self-immolation in Tunisia. Bouazizi's attempt and death 18 days later was the catalyst for the Tunisian Revolution which forced then-president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali to step down from his post. - 1989 - First episode of The Simpsons aired
The popular American animated series directed by Matt Groening is set in the fictional town of Springfield and it follows the life of the Simpson family. - 1790 - Discovery of the Aztec calendar stone
Also known as the Stone of the Five Eras, the sculpture was excavated in Mexico City.
Historic Trivia pick - CCTHE CAT WHO WAS A CLONE
CC - This cleverly named creature won fame for being both the most unique and un-unique of cats. Born in late 2001 in a blaze of publicity, CC (short for Copy Cat) was the world's first cloned feline.
The mostly gray calico was the crowning achievement of a research program originally established to clone dogs. In 1997, millionaire entrepreneur John Sperling bankrolled a roughly $4 million effort to develop a replacement for his beloved mutt, Missy. After years of work on what came to be known as the Missyplicity Project, scientists at Texas A&M University learned one kay fact about cloning canines: It's hard. Cats, however, are relatively easier.
Emphasis on relatively. The group endured eighty-seven failures before producing CC. In 2000, Sperling and others founded a company to offer the process to grieving pet owners who pined for duplicates of their dearly departed friends - and could pay somewhere in the middle five figures to get them.
The birth of CC seemed to validate the business model of the company that created her. Bereaved but well-heeled former cat owners could turn to an organisation whose name, Genetic Savings & Clone, sounded like something from an old Outer Limits episode. The company ramped up its program to something approaching mass production. Clients with an eye toward the future could PetBank some of their cat's premortem DNA for future use in the Nine Lives Extravaganza cloning program. Then, when the original pet passed away, scientists at the company's state-of-the-art Madison, Wisconsin, laboratory could use that genetic information to create an embryo to be carried by a surrogate cat mom.
Is it possible to put a price tag on such a miracle? Actually, yes. Cat owners can make a deposit in the PetBank for around $1,000, and get a copy of their kitty for roughly $32,000.
Unfortunately for the company's backers, not enough people wanted carbon copies of their deceased kitties. Genetic Savings & Clone went out of business in late 2006. Interestingly, even though the firm trafficked in clones, it couldn't guarantee that the cats it created would be exact copies of the originals. Nature, it seems, hates to repeat itsself. Though the company's clones carried the same genetic code as the original animals, environmental factors sometimes introduced slight - or not-so-slight - variations. For instance, while CC is an exact genetic duplicate of her DNA donor (a calico tabby named Rainbow), her fur is a different colour.
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61-BLUES
