Alright, I should write a blog, but my sister's in town and I'm falling behind. Expect blog posts to be spotty.
Instead of a trivia bit, I'll ask a trivia question. Tomorrow, I'll tell you the answer.
What were the six wives of Henry VIII of England?
And why do his marriages play into the settlement of North America?
Have fun.
(Actually, this might be a lot more fun than the way I did previous trivia breaks)
Since I'm not really here, I thought I'd take a day of trivia and, in the interest of the Apollo 11 anniversary, I thought I'd give you space trivia.
Since it's my favorite planet, I thought I'd start with Venus, one interesting little gem. Often described as Earth's twin she's slightly smaller and slightly closer to the sun with an atmosphere and continents hidden beneath her dense clouds. She has similar composition and density to the Earth, at 95% of Earth's diameter and 80% of her mass.
But she won't be ready for people to inhabit her any time soon - if ever. The clouds visible aren't water vapor but sulfur dioxide and sulfuric acid. Doesn't that sound fun. The pressure is 90 atmospheres, 90X higher than it is at sea level here. And it's hot. Not like Houston's hot, but hot enough, literally, to melt lead: 740K . Venus, though scientists think it once had water, and oxygen and all that good stuff - perhaps even life once - is now one of the least hospitable places in the solar systems. If there ever was life there, I doubt we'll ever know it.
There are active volcanos on Venus, large, flat volcanoes of the hotspot variety (as opposed to techtonic plates) that spew vast amount of lava. But I think one of the coolest things about Venus is the fact that it not only spins backwards (on of only two planets that do) but spins veeeeeeeery slooooooowly. In fact, the Venusian year is 224.7 years, but the Venusian day is 243 days long.
Space is fun.
Once in a while I like to take a break from questions and give you a little bit of trivia that might not be generally known. Mostly, it's likely to be the result of stumbling across the bit of trivia myself, often by random strolling through Wikipedia. Today's is no exception and I was snagged by it because it reminded me of one of my favorite question-askers, Aron (who, I think I remember, is going to be starting at Columbia University soon- if I misremembered the university, please forgive me, Aron. I have a mental weakness with names).
So, what did I learn today? Apparently, Columbia University was built on grounds that used to encompass an insane asylum for the rich and famous: Bloomingdale Insane Asylum. The photo there is the only building remaining from the original facility: Buell Hall.
I have to admit, it doesn't seem a stretch to go from insane asylum to bastion of higher education, but I'm a little off kilter myself.
Bloomingdale Insane Asylum had nothing to do with the Bloomingdale of department store fame. That portion of Manhattan used to be called Bloomingdale and that stretch of Broadway was called Bloomingdale Lane. Nor did it start out as an asylum for the elite. Originally built by the New York Hospital, it was one of the first asylums in the nation when it opened in 1821 - back when asylums were a wee bit more brutal than similar institutes today (as, indeed, were hospitals, though perhaps not to the same degree).
When the New York City Lunatic Asylum opened on Blackwell's Island (where Nelly Bly managed her expose on conditions), the indigent insane were sent there, leaving Bloomingdale Asylum for the more well-to-do mental patients. Eventually, of course, urban development made these large tracts of land very attractive to potential institutions and much of the land was purchased for the Columbia College.
So, now, wasn't that fun?
