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COFFEE COUNTER
for week of
August 12th 2012
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Today In History
On this day in 1990, fossil hunter Susan Hendrickson discovers three huge bones jutting out of a cliff near Faith, South Dakota. They turn out to be part of the largest-ever Tyrannosaurus rex skeleton ever discovered, a 65 million-year-old specimen dubbed Sue, after its discoverer.
Amazingly, Sue's skeleton was over 90 percent complete, and the bones were extremely well-preserved. Hendrickson's employer, the Black Hills Institute of Geological Research, paid $5,000 to the land owner, Maurice Williams, for the right to excavate the dinosaur skeleton, which was cleaned and transported to the company headquarters in Hill City. The institute's president, Peter Larson, announced plans to build a non-profit museum to display Sue along with other fossils of the Cretaceous period.
In 1992, a long legal battle began over Sue. The U.S. Attorney's Office claimed Sue's bones had been seized from federal land and were therefore government property. It was eventually found that Williams, a part-Native American and member of the Cheyenne River Sioux tribe, had traded his land to the tribe two decades earlier to avoid paying property taxes, and thus his sale of excavation rights to Black Hills had been invalid. In October 1997, Chicago's Field Museum purchased Sue at public auction at Sotheby's in New York City for $8.36 million, financed in part by the McDonald's and Disney corporations.
Sue's skeleton went on display at the Field Museum in May 2000. The tremendous T.rex skeleton--13 feet high at the hips and 42 feet long from head to toe--is displayed in one of the museum's main halls. Another exhibit gives viewers a close-up view of Sue's five foot-long, 2,000-pound skull with its 58 teeth, some as long as a human forearm.
Sue's extraordinarily well-preserved bones have allowed scientists to determine many things about the life of T.rex. They have determined that the carnivorous dinosaur had an incredible sense of smell, as the olfactory bulbs were each bigger than the cerebrum, the thinking part of the brain. In addition, Sue was the first T.rex skeleton to be discovered with a wishbone, a crucial discovery that provided support for scientists’ theory that birds are a type of living dinosaur. One thing that remains unknown is Sue's actual gender; to determine this, scientists would have to compare many more T.rex skeletons than the 22 that have been found so far.
more~Quote Of The Day
"Integrity is the essence of everything successful. "
R. Buckminster Fuller
Today's Trivia
IBM's First PCBy the early 1980s, the computer had shrunk from being a room-clogging behemoth to a relatively dainty machine that could fit on desks in homes and schools. So, IBM's introduction of its Personal Computer (PC) on August 12, 1981, didn't exactly signal a technical revolution. But that didnÝt stop Big Blue's PC from bursting onto the scene. Their new product sold 136,000 units in its first year and a half of release, propelling the company's stock on an upward climb that peaked later in the decade.
Jack Nicklaus Sets Title RecordOn August 12, 1973, American golfer Jack Nicklaus wins the Professional Golfers' Association (PGA) championship for his 14th major title, surpassing Bobby Jones' record of 13 major championships. Nicklaus shot a seven-under-par 277 at Canterbury Golf Club in Beachwood, Ohio, to win $45,000 and his third PGA National championship. The "Golden Bear" went on to win a total of 20 major tournaments, a record that still stands today.
From Our Forums
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CLIFF'S FOTOFUN #92,
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WELCOME TO OUR Close-Up/Macro Challenge #14
here at the 
"WORDS"
"WORDS" - "Words" - HELP US CONGRATULATE THE WINNERS!!
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Welcome to our Mini Challenge #56
here at the Photography Cafe
"SEATS" This is our latest
mini challenge here at the
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Welcome to our HDR Challenge #13
here at the Photography Cafe
"LUCKY FOR SOME"
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Welcome to our Cafe Book Nook
here at the Photography Cafe
Photo Locations, Tutorials on Digital Techniques, Photo Techniques and Equipment.
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See who is appearing on Centre Stage this week
Philipo
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PHOTO OF THE MONTH
JULY 2012 "A Kingfisher and Her Lunch"by Keith Cochrane
Click on the photo to go to Keith Cochrane's album and leave a comment.
We all love comments!
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The Judges of the Cafe Choice Award are pleased to announce the presentation of this highly rated award:
is awarded to memberMATTfor his image"Engagement Shot"
"The Judges have great pleasure in announcing a Photography Café Choice Award to our long standing member, Matt, for his image "Engagement Shot".
Having already achieved Photo of the Year for 2006, this photograph was readily recalled by the judges. It is an image they were very pleased to have the opportunity to consider for a Cafe Choice Award! An easy and unanimous decision ensued.
The visual impact of this image is superb. The powerful embrace, kiss and body language come together with the selective focusing and composition to produce a very emotive image which raises the image above the normal. In blunt terms it has that WOW factor that is hard to describe, but is instantly recognized by anyone who views it.
This is a fine example of well thought out composition which was perfectly executed and is a worthy winner. The judges applaud the winner.
Congratulations Matt!"* * * * * * *
Today's Chuckles
A New DictionaryWhile I was employed by a private corporation and assigned to the space-shuttle program, my job included ordering supples. One of the engineers asked me to get a new dictionary for him. The request form said, "State reason this item is needed," so I asked him why he wanted one.
I expected his answer would be "My old copy is lost" or "The cover is falling off." Instead he replied, "My edition defines spaceship as an 'imaginary aircraft.'" He got his new dictionary.
That Was FunI've been getting virus emails from inside the company. The "From:" information has obviously been spoofed. No big deal, pick one that just arrived, read the email headers, see whose machine it is, check the company directory, pull out the cell phone...
"Hi, did you just open an email that you shouldn't have?"
"Oh, um, uh, sorry, yes, I knew that one might be a virus... Um, what do I do?"
"Unplug your machine from the network, and take it to I.T."
"Thanks! Who is this?"
(inspiration strikes)
"I'm from the Internet. Be more careful next time."
Quick Quotes
"I always entertain great hopes. "
~Robert Frost
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"There are neither good nor bad subjects. From the point of view of pure Art, you could almost establish it as an axiom that the subject is irrelevant, style itself being an absolute manner of seeing things. "
~Gustave Flaubert
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"Intelligence without ambition is a bird without wings."
~Salvidor Dali
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More Chuckles
Seaside HotelA vacationer e-mailed a seaside hotel to ask its location.
"It's only a stone's throw away from the beach," he was told.
"But how will I recognize it?" asked the man.
Back came the reply: "It's the one with all the broken windows."
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