A Prairie Dog Language?

Scientists have recently discovered that prairie dogs seem to have a language of their own. In their language they can tell other prairie dogs if there is a predator around, what kind of predator it is (coyote, hawk, etc), and even the color of the predator!

For 30 years, Professor Con Slobodchikoff and his colleagues have been recording the calls of the prairie dogs. They have found that prairie dogs have been confronted by so many different predators so often, that they have, over time, developed a way to accurately describe the predators. These “words” can be used to say, "tall, skinny coyote in distance, moving rapidly towards colony".

Professor Slobodchikoff and his team believe that prairie dogs can do this by slightly alternating the accents and of the call and the harmonics in the bark. This allows them to “say” a lot of information in a very short amount of time. Prof Slobodchikoff says, "Prairie dogs have the most complex natural language that has been decoded so far. They have words for different predators, they have descriptive words for describing the individual features of different predators, so it's a pretty complex language that has a lot of elements."

Five Characteristics of a Successful Leader

Being a successful leader means that you are always concerned about others well being before your own. I have laid out five main factors of what makes a leader successful:

1. Be encouraging. Don’t put down someone’s work and make yours better. Uplift them and give positive input.

2. Listen. Listen to what others say. Let them share their views and thoughts and don’t put them down.

3. Be accepting. Don’t fall for what others say about the new guy. Again, be encouraging. Respect their beliefs or views. Don’t distance yourself from them just because they’re different from you.

4. Keep a positive attitude. I mean, who wants to be around someone who is always talking about how something is so bad or has a negative air about themselves?

5. Always do the right thing. Don’t be pulled into doing something that you know that’s wrong. It might be fun at the time, but it will just end badly.

Meeting Scott McKain!

This summer I finally had the chance to meet Mr. Scott McKain! He’s a great speaker and business man and has been very supportive. You can read more about him on his web site.

Mr. McKain says that we need to focus on what really makes a difference. Anything you do gets better when you get better; and when you work as hard on yourself as you do your business. He wrote a book called, Collapse of Distinction about standing-out and not being mediocre. You create distinction by developing clarity, creativity, communication, and a customer-experience focus. You can’t be all things to all people. You can read a review of his book here.

3D Printer

Video Description: 3D printing is a form of additive manufacturing technology where a three dimensional object is created by laying down successive layers of material. 3D printers are generally faster, more affordable and easier to use than other additive manufacturing technologies. 3D printers offer product developers the ability to print parts and assemblies made of several materials with different mechanical and physical properties in a single build process. Advanced 3D printing technologies yield models that can serve as product prototypes.

Serving the Community

Serving your community doesn’t always have to be some huge project. It can be something small, like a change of attitude. Serving doesn’t just pertain to just your community, it can be your school and home too. Serving your community also means inspiring your community to do better.

Well, how do we do that? Like I said earlier, changes and improvements don’t need to be a huge ordeal. In fact sometimes, the small improvements are just as a good or even more significant than the changes that are huge. Of course, I am not saying that big events are not good; it’s just that the smallest improvements can be just as important. Leo Nikolaevich Tolstoy once said, “Everyone thinks of changing the world, but no one thinks of changing himself.”

Here are some things that you can do to improve the community that you are in. First, change your attitude or outlook on things. To do this, be positive. Take things you don't want to do and look at them in a way that's constructive and uplifting. Second, be aware of your behavior and how you come across. Don’t try to cause problems and make things difficult. This only causes tension in the community. That tension can crumble the community. Third, get to know other people that are outside of your close circle of friends. Getting to know more people connects more and different people and builds the community.

Just by doing something simple you can make a great impact on your community, school, or home.

More leadership and personal development articles like this at Leader: Me!

Flight Over Grand Canyon in Jet Suit

Last Saturday, Swiss adventurer Yves Rossy completed a flight over the Grand Canyon in his custom jet suit. Rossy was airborne for 8 minutes and was flying 200 feet over the canyon rim on the Hualapai Reservation after launching from a helicopter. His team said that Rossy flew at 190 mph before releasing his parachute and landing on the canyon floor. Rossy, also known as JetMan, has flown above the English Channel and the Swiss Alps in his custom jet suit as well.

The Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) discussed what class this new flying vehicle should be in. The FAA has never had to assess this type of vehicle before. Eventually, the FAA classed Rossy’s jet suit in the class of airplanes.

His jet suit averages 124 mph and has a 6.5-foot wing span and Rossy wears it on his back. The engine is fed fuel by a slight roll of his hand. Dick Knapinski, spokesman for the Experimental Aircraft Association, says that "this one is a bit unusual." He adds, "It's such a unique design and a unique pursuit that it doesn't fall in the usual categories."

A short video of Rossy’s flight over the Grand Canyon:

Can You See The Great Wall of China From Space?

This has been a very popular myth that you can see the Great Wall of China from space with the naked eye and that it’s the only man-made structure that you can see from space and even from the moon. The truth is that you can’t and especially not from the moon. However, there are many made-made structures that you can see from space like the Egyptian pyramids. The only way you could get a glimpse of the wall is if you had the help of radar or high powered camera. Though, even if you tried to take a picture with a powerful camera, it would still be very hard to make out the wall. Leroy Chiao, commander and NASA ISS science officer of the 10th Station crew, tried doing this with a 180mm lens and a digital camera last Nov. 24. The picture he took was the first confirmed picture of the wall. Chiao and NASA believe that they can make out some parts of the wall. In the picture, the yellow arrow points to an estimated location of 42.5N 117.4E where the wall is visible. The red arrows point to other visible sections of the wall. Still, the wall is not easily seen because of it small width from that height and because it blends in with its surroundings. Even though seeing or taking a photograph is still hard to see it in low Earth orbit, parts of the wall can be seen quite well using radar imagery (below).

So really, this claim is false. You cannot see the Great Wall of China from space with the naked eye without some sort of equipment and it’s not the only man-made structure you can see from space nor the moon.

Sources:

http://www.nasa.gov/vision/space/workinginspace/great_wall.html

http://www.snopes.com/science/greatwall.asp

http://www.universetoday.com/25364/can-you-see-the-great-wall-of-china-from-space/

http://www.factmonster.com/askeds/great-wall-visible-space.html

http://www.space.com/scienceastronomy/visible_from_space_031006.html