Learn an interesting fact to share with friends and increase your Geek Cred!
In 1923, Edward E. Barnard, discoverer of Jupiter’s fifth moon, died at age 65. Jupiter’s moon, Amalthea, was the last satellite to be found without a photographic aid. He also discovered a nearby star that now bears his name, Bernard’s Star (shown here). Learn more […]
Geek Fact for February 6th Read More »
In 1971, Apollo 14 Commander Alan B. Shepard Jr. became the fifth human to walk on the Moon. He and astronaut Edgar D. Mitchell explored the lunar surface. An innovation that allowed an increase in the range of lunar surface exploration and the amount of
Geek Fact for February 5th Read More »
In 2010, Yahoo! sold HotJobs to Monster.com for a reported $225 million. Part of the deal included a provision that installs Monster as the exclusive provider of job ads on Yahoo’s home page for three years in the U.S. and Canada. Read more at http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-10447082-265.html/a>
Geek Fact for February 4th Read More »
In 1966, Soviet Luna 9 accomplished the first soft landing on the Moon. Luna 9 was the first spacecraft to achieve a lunar soft landing and to transmit photographic data from the Moon’s surface to Earth, preceding the U.S. Surveyor 1 soft lander by about
Geek Fact for February 3rd Read More »
In 1996, Ray McIntire, the inventor of STYROFOAM®, died at age 77. During World War II, when rubber was in short supply, McIntire’s work focused on developing a rubber-like substance that could be used as a flexible insulator. The result was extruded polystyrene foam, or
Geek Fact for February 2nd Read More »
In 2003, the Space Shuttle Columbia was destroyed over Texas when returning to Earth, killing all seven crew members. The crew consisted of Shuttle Commander Rick D. Husband; Shuttle Pilot William C. McCool; Payload Commander Michael P. Anderson ; Mission Specialists David M. Brown, Kalpana Chawla
Geek Fact for February 1st Read More »
In 1961, Ham was the first primate in space. Ham’s name was an acronym for H olloman A ero M ed. His sub-orbital flight aboard the Redstone Mercury rocket was very similar to the flight that Alan Shepard would take later that year. Read more
Geek Fact for January 31st Read More »
In 2007, Microsoft released Windows Vista. For the most part, early Vista reviews were mostly favorable. However, consumers were slow to adopt Windows Vista due to some heavy-duty hardware requirements and effort involved in upgrading from XP to Windows. The corporate world did not rush
Geek Fact for January 30th Read More »
In 1810, Earnest Kummer, a German mathematician, was born. Earnest Kummer made major contributions to function theory. In addition, his work on number theory led to a major breakthrough on Fermat’s Last Theorem. Learn more at http://fermatslasttheorem.blogspot.com/2006/01/ernst-eduard-kummer.html
Geek Fact for January 29th Read More »
In 1986, the Space Shuttle Challenger exploded 73 seconds after liftoff, killing all seven crew members. The crew of Space Shuttle Challenger consisted of Mission Commander Francis R. Scobee; Pilot Michael J. Smith; Payload Specialists Gregory B. Jarvis and Christa McAuliffe; Mission Specialists Judith A.
Geek Fact for January 28th Read More »
In 1967, the Apollo 1 fire killed astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee. In one of the worst tragedies in the history of spaceflight, the crew members were killed in a fire in the Apollo Command Module during a preflight test at Cape
Geek Fact for January 27th Read More »
In 1998, Intel launched the 333 MHz Pentium II chip. It was codenamed Deschutes. It didn’t offer much of a performance boost over its predecessor, a 300 MHZ chip. However, using a new fabrication process allowed for a smaller die size and less power consumption.
Geek Fact for January 26th Read More »
In 1627, chemist Robert Boyle was born in Ireland. He is best known for Boyle’s Law aka the Ideal Gas Law. We all remember it from our high school chemistry class. The law states for a gas of constant temperature, changes in pressure are inversely
Geek Fact for January 25th Read More »
In 1984, following up the ‘1984’ commercial that aired two days earlier, Apple Computer unveiled its Macintosh personal computer. Apple was so adamant that you use the mouse that the original Macintosh keyboard had no arrow keys. Learn more at http://lowendmac.com/history/1984dk.shtml In 1986, Voyager
Geek Fact for January 24th Read More »
