One of a handful of the largest cattle ranches in America is right here (Parker Ranch) on this little island. The rain falls and the grass grows.

This fellow was found crawling across our porch this morning in the light just after dawn. It had rained heavily through the night. To give you actual perspective, he is about 3 1/2 inches in length. The snail does not get the respect he deserves and is called a slug when he is without his shell.

But once again, all one needs to do is look a little closer.

1. As the snail grows, so does its calcium bicarbonate shell. A snail will close off a section of its shell and add a new chamber as it grows, each chamber being larger than the previous one by a constant factor. As a result, the shells forms a logarithmic spiral, contributing to what is called the "golden ratio".
The proportion of the snail shell is an example of the "Golden Ratio" in nature.

Other names frequently used for or closely related to the golden ratio are golden section (Latin: sectio aurea), golden mean, golden number, and the Greek letter phi (φ). Other terms encountered include extreme and mean ratio, medial section, divine proportion (Italian: divine proportione), divine section (Latin: sectio divina), golden proportion, golden cut, and mean of Phidias.

The golden ratio has awed intellectuals of diverse interests for 2,400 years:

Some of the greatest mathematical minds of all ages, to present-day scientific figures such as Oxford physicist Roger Penrose, have spent endless hours over this simple ratio and its properties. The awe of the Golden Ratio is not confined just to mathematicians. Biologists, artists, musicians, historians, architects, psychologists, and even mystics have pondered and debated the basis of its ubiquity and appeal. In fact, it is probably fair to say that the Golden Ratio has inspired thinkers of all disciplines like no other number in the history of mathematics. From Phidias (490–430 BC) who made the Parthenon statues that embody the golden ratio, to Roger Penrose (b.1931) who found a symmetry that uses the golden ratio in the field of aperiodic tilings, which led to new discoveries about quasicrystals. The list of distinguished people who have used the phenomenal character of the shell of a snail to inspire new expressions in their particular fields are too numerous to list here.

Leonardo Da Vinci himself maintained that the human body has proportions that approximate the golden ratio. Some suggest that his Mona Lisa, for example, employs the golden ratio in its geometric equivalents.

In 1859, the Pyramidologist John Taylor (1781-1864) asserted that in the Great Pyramid of Giza built around 2600 BC, the golden ratio is represented by the ratio of the length of the face (the slope height), inclined at an angle to the ground, to half the length of the side of the square base, equivalent to the secant of the angle. The above two lengths were about 186.4 and 115.2 meters respectively. The ratio of these lengths is the golden ratio, accurate to more digits than either of the original measurements.

Credit cards are generally 3 3/8 by 2 1/8 inches in size, in the ratio 1.588, which is less than 2% from the golden ratio.

So, What is this that the snail carries on his back anyway??

Gemini North and South get coverage of the entire sky and are maintained by a consortium of 7 countries including the US, UK, and Canada. You are looking at Gemini North, with Gemini South located in the Andes of Chile. They are currently among the largest and most advanced optical/infrared telescopes available to astronomers. Both employ a range of advanced technologies to deliver the highest quality images, including laser guide stars, adaptive optics and multi-object spectroscopy.

Gemini North is one of many telescopes at the summit of Mauna Kea, the highest point in Hawaii - nearly 14,000 ft. The sloping terrain behind the summit and most of the summit itself sits undisturbed by man, having been sculpted by several ice ages. Nothing visibly grows within sight of this spot.

And time lapsed star trails with one of the telescopes in the foreground. This photo was not taken by Gecko.


Mauna Kea Weather Forcast Center
Views North and South of Gemini

I got a peek at this little fellow ten feet above my head on our living room cathedral wall.

Not much to look at but, ...

The toes of the gecko have created a great deal of buzz among space scientists, as they adhere to a wide variety of surfaces, without the use of liquids or surface tension.



Recent studies of the setae (stiff hair) on gecko footpads demonstrates that the attractive forces that hold geckos to surfaces are van der Waals (di-polar) interactions between the finely divided setae and the surfaces themselves. That these kinds of interactions involve no liquids (or no gases) is important; in theory, a boot made of synthetic setae would adhere as easily to the surface of the International Space Station as it would to a living room wall.

That is theory of course. We cannot as yet do what the Gecko can do. (Hear the Gecko chuckling?)

I have read at length concerning the van der Waals dipolar interactions. I still can't understand how those pads can adhere to anything without surface tension.

The best place to live is near ___________?
	Grain Elevators
	The Gulf Coast
	The Golden Gate Bridge
	The Deep Woods of the Northwest
	Oil Country
	Statue of Liberty
	Disneyland
	Colorado Ski Country
	The Liberty Bell
	Pearl Harbor
	Baja
	A Maple Sugar Shack
	The Dry Heat of the Southwest
	The Woman or Man I Love anywhere
	Salmon Runs of Alaska
	The Boundary Waters of Michigan
	The Windy City
	Vegas
Free polls from Pollhost.com

You are viewing one of three families of Telescopes found at the summit.

The drive to the top in my Honda Accord was a noodle brained adventure for both the vehicle and my noodle brain. Nobody with any intelligence would take their two wheel vehicle from sea level to the summit and back again. Call me Mr. Noodlebrain, thank you. IronMan athletes stopping for an hour at 9,000 ft have regularly come down with altitude sickness. Putting it bluntly, I have been told that altitude sickness is the condition where your body is trying with great effort to manufacture an aneurysm in your brain.

Well because I am such a skilled driver and because I was real lucky, I did not suffer any problems.

The summit of the dormant volcano Mauna Kea is in fact the top of the tallest mountain on the planet when considering the base of the mountain is 19,678 ft (all below sea level. Add to that the nearly 14,000 ft altitude above sea level and you have a total height of 33,474 feet.

The summit shows evidence of four periods of glaciation over the last 200,000 years, the last ending about 11,000 years ago, when the most recent ice age finished.

The elevation and location of Mauna Kea have made it an important location for atmospheric and astronomical observations. Mauna Kea a prime target for state-of-the-art astronomy for the following reasons:

1. The summit is above approximately 40% of Earth's atmosphere and 90% of the water vapor, allowing for exceptionally clear images.

2. The peak is well above the inversion layer, allowing up to 300 clear nights per year.

3. 20°N latitude, much of both the northern and southern skies are visible.

4. Being a shield volcano has meant that road transportation to the summit is reachable.

There is more than a "$2,000,000,000 investment in science and technology in the form of the Mauna Kea Observatory. It is currently one of the most important land based astronomical sites in the world. Mauna Kea is the best site in terms of optical and infrared image quality.