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Word of the Every So Often
cambered: (adj.) having an arch in the middle, such as one finds in a road or a ship’s deck so the water runs off. My head is cambered, but only when I wear a hat.
Everyday History
On September 4, 1888, George Eastman was awarded the patent for the Kodak #1, the first preloaded camera. It had the simple instructions: “You press the button, we do the rest.” And suddenly everybody could take pictures.
The first camera, on the other hand, was developed around 1822 when French inventor Joseph Nicéphore Niepcé made his first heliograph. Not to be confused with the heliograph that sends Morris code messages using flashes of light, Niepcé’s heliograph used bitumen of Judea, which is a light sensitive asphalt dissolved in lavender oil, that he put on a pewter plate. The plate went into a camera obscura, which is a box with a shutter on it. Open the shutter, the light comes in, and the image is left on the pewter plate. What could be more simple? The first picture Niepcé made was of his courtyard, which is considered to be the oldest known photograph. Working with Louis Daguerre, Niepcé went on to help develop the Daguerreotype, which became the first commercially successful camera. And, if you’re wondering... or not... the first digital photo was produced in 1957 by a guy named Russell Kirsch.
By the way, there is nobody named “Kodak.” Eastman made the name up because he wanted something unique, and he was fond of the letter “K.” You know, nobody asks what your favourite letter is.
Cartoon of the Week
Grid Your Lions
Stuff
Cosmic Rats: The debate continues
by Earl Eldridge
Ever since Dr. Ivan Tupidsay announced the existence of Cosmic Rats in 1992, debate has raged throughout the scientific community over the reality of this alleged phenomenon.
After an exhaustive 17 year survey of the Cosmos, Dr. Tupidsay was able to conclude, much to the shock of astronomers and astrophysicists worldwide, that there is no Cosmic Cheese (Astronomy Today, April 1992). As his argument follows, it would take Cosmic Mice far too long to devour a hunk of Cosmic Cheese. The Cosmic Cheese, though, has clearly been eaten, which explains why none can be found. Therefore, there must be Cosmic Rats, since no other creature would possess such an affinity for Cosmic Cheese. Cosmic Rats, estimated at being perhaps several light years long, are obviously very adept at hiding.
Professor Giuseppe Asabuncha, of the Bologna Institute of Technology in Bologna, Italy, has recently announced that Dr. Tupidsay’s research was, at best, horribly flawed. “His survey was by no means exhaustive. He only mapped small sections of the Universe…and then extrapolated the rest. Even those sections he investigated were not representative of the Universe as a whole,” said Professor Asabuncha. (Cosmos Quarterly, January 1995)
Still not satisfied, Professor Asabuncha has begun an independently funded search for Cosmic Cheese, which he is confident will once and for all prove the fallacy of Dr. Tupidsay’s Cosmic Rat Theory.
Proponents of the Cosmic Rat Theory are quick to point out, however, that even if Cosmic Cheese is discovered it will only strengthen Dr. Tupidsay’s original conclusion. “It is only logical,” Dr. Tupidsay wrote in the Cosmic Mind (Holy Grail Press, 1995), “that since there are Cosmic Rats there must, therefore, be a cosmic food source.”
Recently, Messerschmidt and Baum of Southern Cal have proposed a Cosmic Cat Theory to explain why they have been unable to find any Cosmic Rats. (Cosmos Quarterly, February 1995)
“Absolutely ridiculous!” was the response of Dr. Tupidsay. “It is most obviously an attempt to find a simple explanation for a complex cosmic phenomenon by manufacturing the solution out of pure fiction.” (Cosmic Mind)
Mr. Eldridge is an associate professor of Astronomy at the University of Milan. Other articles by Mr. Eldridge have appeared in Cosmos Quarterly, Astronomy Today, and more recently Astrophysicists Digest. He is currently finishing his doctoral thesis Stars, Planets, and Stuff Like That.
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