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London's Transit System was once dominated by Trams and Trollies, but not the type you see in San Francisco.

San Francisco has many forms of public transportation, but none more famous or interesting than the cable car, which incidentally, are still very much in use and used by many commuters to get downtown to go to work.

On August 2, 1873, the first person to ride the San Francisco cable cars down Clay Street was Andrew Hallidie, its inventor. He got the idea for cable cars after witnessing an accident. A horse-drawn carriage was going up a steep hill when the team faltered and the carriage rolled backward downhill, dragging the horses behind it. Hallidie's invention changed the way people in San Francisco lived.

The cable cars created a vital link in the San Francisco transportation system and opened the door for building on steep hills, which until then was impossible. They were an immediate success and by the 1890s, eight transit companies operated 600 cars on 21 routes that covered a total of 52.8 miles. Cable cars remained the primary mode of transportation until the 1906 earthquake. Most of system was destroyed and a municipal railway replaced most lines afterward. Today, San Francisco’s cable cars are the only vehicles of their kind still in operation and they are designated National Landmarks.

There are 3 lines that still operate, going up and down some very steep hills. And people do ride on the sides, as in this picture below, and there are surprisingly few injuries considering.

Vulcanology is the study of volcanos.

The term comes from the Latin Vulcan, the name of the Roman god of fire whow as associated with volcanos.

Gene Roddenberry, in his originial vision for Star Trek, wanted each alien race to represent some flaw in humanity that we needed to overcome. He called his hyperrational race the Vulcans because they were actually a violently emotional race who had overcame their explosive and irrational impulses through mastering logic and reason.

Leonard Nimoy and William Shatner are both Jewish.

Nimoy got the idea of the now famous Vulcan hand greeting from old Orthodox Jews in his childhood neighborhood, who would make this hand gesture to each other as a way to say "Shalom." The three groupings of fingering represent the three upward slashes of the Hebrew letter shin (the first letter of shalom):



Compare that to:

William Shatner and singer-songwriter Leonard Cohen were childhoods friends.

The 60's hit "Wild Thing," covered by the Troggs, Jimi Hendrix and countless others, was written by Chip Taylor.

Chip Taylor's real name is Wes Voight, and is the brother of actor Jon Voight. That makes him the uncle of Angelina Jolie.

Chip Taylor also wrote the hit "Angel of the Morning."

Here's Chip (ont eh left, of course):

Sculptor System 270,000 Ly and 5,500 diameter Ly

There is no rabies on any of the Hawaiian islands. This means that if you get bit by a dog or cat here, you don't have to worry about getting rabies (duh - but important). It also means we don't have to immunize our puppies and kittens against rabies. It also means that if you want to bring an animal susceptible to rabies from anywhere else in the world except Australia to Hawaii, that the animal must have an acceptable level of rabies titer in its blood. Needless to say, it is a very expensive and time-consuming process to bring a pet from the mainland. (I know, I brought my golden retriever here and we thought we knew the process but it still took a year and cost over $1000).
Makai as a puppy?

Icelandic livestock has remained disease-free for centruies due to its isolation and the countrty's strict no-import laws of foreign livestock. The laws mainly protect the Icelandic horse, an ancient breed descended from the hosres Vikings brought to the island. Iceland is extremely proud of this horse breed, as it has been a vital element in its ecomony and culture. It even appears in the oldest of Icelandic literature. For centuries this horse was the only viable means of transportion around the Iceland, espeically in poor weather. While horse populations are declining in other parts of the industrialized world, Iceland maintains a 1:4 horse to human ratio.

And could you blame the Icelanders? They're so cute!



The Icelandic horse, which is small and would be considered a pony elsewhere, is a very unique breed. It is capable of up to 5 gaits, 2 more than most other horses. It walks, trots and canters/gallops, and some can also paces and/or tolt. Horses that can do all five gaits are considered the finest among the breed. The tolt is unique to the Icelandic horse alone. A tolt is a four beat gait that involves the moving the hindlegs well underneath to allow the shoulder , neck and head to remain at a higher level, and the forelegs are lifted high in a graceful and swift movement. A good "tolter" can do this gait so smoothly that the rider can hold a full drinking glass in his hand without spillign a drop (and yes, they do this in exhibition shows). It is similar to how a Americian Saddlbred walks a "running walk" but no breed can do this gait as smoothly or as fast - a fast tolt can be as fast as a gallop.

Even though Icelanders don't allow imported horse, they do export this breed. And not surprisingly, there's big demand for them. Dang, they're cute. Here's another pic:

the first fire department in the united states was founded by Benjaman Franklin in Boston.

Yay Ben!

Theres a pony auction every year on Chincoteague Island.

...as a form of population control of the feral (wild domestic) ponies that live there.

Marguerite Henry, a children's author, wrote several stories about a Chincoteague ponies. The most famous are his books about one named Misty.

Here's Henry and Misty:



Henry went to Chincoteague in the 40's for the purpose of finding a good story to write. In the process she ended up writing several books (fiction based on the lives of real ponies) about Misty, Misty's half-sister Misty II, their foals and other Chincoteague ponies.

Henry's first Chincoteague book, Misty of Chincoteague is the second most popular children's book about a horse, after Black Beauty. The book won the Newberry Medal for Children's Books in 1949.



The real Misty and her offspring lived on Beebe's Ranch in Maryland, who bought Misty and her mother at auction when Misty was still a nursing foal. While Henry was writing the books, Misty lived with Henry on her ranch in Illionis. After ten years Misty was set back to Beebe's to be bred. The stuffed bodies of Misty and her first foal, Stormy, are on display today in the Chincoteague Pony Museum at BeeBee Ranch.

Neurons work by means of electricity.

Thom Yorke's birthday is Oct. 7.

I was born in Florida.

Cats are more likely to survive a fall from a higher location than a lower one. My brother-in-law is a theoretical geometrist and he spent several years studying the geometryof cats falling. His mathmatical explanations are way too obscure for me to understand.