AUGUST

August 2

 NASA plans to launch the spacecraft Messenger that will take a 6 ½-year journey to Mercury, the first visit to the tiny planet next to the Sun in 30 years since Mariner 10 flew past in 1974 and 1975. Unlike Mariner 10, Messenger will go into orbit around Mercury and thus be able to study the first world for an extended period. Even though Mercury is 50 million miles from Earth at closest approach, Messenger will travel five billion miles to get there. Estimated arrival time: March 2011.

August 2

In 216 BC, Hannible defeated 8 Roman legions and their allies at Cannae. This is histories greatest double envelopment, Hannible's greatest victory and Rome's greatest defeat. But 15 years later Scipio Africanus taking a page from Hannible's war book defeated Hannible 90 miles from Carthage itself at Zama Regilia.

Rome leveled Carthage, enslaved or slaughtered it people and spread salt on it's fields.

The lesson, only the last battle of a war counts.

August 6

59 years ago today the Enola Gay delivered Little Boy to Hiroshima -- 15 kilotons 1000 foot airburst.

The leaves of this Fatsia japonica threw a shadow on an electric pole near the Meiji Bridge.
Photo: the U.S. Army.

August 13

Opening cerimonies of the XXVIII Olympiad in Athens, Greece. These games will continue for 17 days closing on August 29.

JULY

July 10-11

Mango Festival

9:30 to 4:30

Enjoy the king of tropical fruit at the International Mango Festival

Fairchild Tropical Garden

10901 Old Cutlter Rd. Coral Gables

305-667-1651 www.fairchildgarden.org

July 24th - 27th

 Second Philippines Bromeliad Conference
Cagayan de Oro City, northern Mindanao.

Conference venue: Grand Caprice Hotel at the Limketkai Center.
Supported by the Dept. of Agriculture and the Northern Mindanao Ornamental Horticulture Foundation, including the Greater Northern Mindanao Bromeliad Society.
Guest speakers, exhibits and displays, bromeliad sales, rare plant auction, collection tours in a tropical Summer.

Contact: Ruben Diaz Snr., Beebai's Garden,
Purok 10, Baloy, Cagayan de Oro City 9000, Philippines.
Email: rubencdiazsr@yahoo.com
Phone: 0011-63-8822-733079.

For a Website report of the first Bromeliad Conference there and links to the region's exotic attractions, visit:

http://agri10.norminet.org.ph/News%20&%20Events/August/1st%20bromeliad.htm

July 1

Cassini Space Probe’s crossing of Saturn's Ring Plane during the spacecraft's critical Saturn Orbit Insertion sequence.

Keep your fingers crossed.

July 1

141 years ago the Battle of Gettysburg began

203 years ago Commodore Dale entered the Mediterranean to strike Barbary Pirates

 

JUNE

June 25th - 27th 2004

 24th Annual Sarasota Bromeliad Society Show and Sale Selby Botanical Gardens 811 S. Palm Ave, Sarasota, FL 34236 Sale only on June 25th Sale and Show June 26th and 27th Rare Plant auction and banquet 6:00 pm June 26th
Show chairman Rob Branch 941-358-4953

June 11th 2004

 Cassini Space Probe reaches Saturn’s most distant moon Phoebe.
In 1981 Voyager passed by Phoebe and took pictures from 2.2 million kilometers. Cassini will pass 2000 kilometers from Phoebe and will scan it with cameras (CCD), spectrometers and radar. Phoebe orbits Saturn in a retrograde orbit (backwards) and is suspected of being either from the Kuiper Belt or of the Centaur Group. If so then Phoebe may be a primordial object created at the very beginning of the Solar System and kept pristine by the cold of space and its own dark surface.
Discovered more than 100 years ago by American astronomer William Pickering, Phoebe is a source of extensive interest by scientists.
As it gears up for its four-year grand tour of the Saturn region, the Cassini Mission will gather as much sensitive data and high-resolution images as possible from its monumental flyby of this tiny moon.
The event hopes to answer questions-and perhaps generate new ones, about Phoebe and its possible role in determining how the solar system was formed.

 

MAY

26th Annual Bromeliad Show
Bromeliad Society of South Florida

May 1st & 2nd
Fairchild Tropical Garden
10901 Old Cutler Rd., Coral Gables, FL

Thursday April 29 Plants are Due for Judging in show
Friday April 30 Plants are Judged
Saturday May 1 9:30 to 4:30 The Show
Saturday May 1 1:00 pm - RARE PLANT AUCTION
Sunday May 2 9:30 to 4:30 The Show
Central Florida Bromeliad Society Annual Mother’s Day Show and Sale May 8th and 9th - Florida Mall, Orlando
79th Anniversity of John Scopes' arrested in Tennesee for teaching that man "decended from a lower order of animals." May 25th

Coconut Creek (Butterfly Capital of the World)

City to Give Away Free Trees

This live webcam is updated continuously and shows an environmental conservation area at Government Center. The webcam operates from sunrise to sunset. You may see ducks, moorhens, both white and great blue herons, and occasionally an ibis or two. To update the image, reload your browser window

 In recognition of Arbor Day, the City will be giving away free trees at 10 a.m., Saturday April 24th at City Hall, 4800 W. Copans Road. All residents must show current proof of residency and there will be one tree given per household.

Available trees will include coconut palms, gumbo limbo (a native shade tree) and flowering trees (yet to be determined). These will stand 5'-7' tall on the day of the event in 7 gallon pots. There will also be a limited number of non-citrus wild lime trees available. These will be 2' tall in a 3 gallon pot.

In addition to the trees, the City will also give away free three one-gallon pots of butterfly-attracting plants per household. These plants serve as nectar and host plants for native species of butterflies and are ideal for planting starter butterfly gardens.

Residents are advised to bring a cardboard box or other item for use in transporting the butterfly-attracting plants. For more information on the giveaway, please call (954) 973-6722.

For information about Arbor Day and the benefits of trees, visit the National Arbor Day Foundation at www.arborday.org

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