Ryan's Philosophisationing

Ryan Shelton's Philosophisationing of Karma on Rove.

Mass–energy equivalence

[Note: Do not read this article if you have learned physics or are talented in science.] Maybe you know it better as E = mc². The only reason I called it "mass–energy equivalence" was because Wikipedia calls it that, and also I couldn't write that "squared" thing in the title.

We've all heard of Einstein's formula for relativity, E = mc². Einstein proposed his formula in his 1905 paper, "Does the inertia of a body depend upon its energy-content?" But what does it really mean? Well, in the formula, E is energy, m is relativistic mass, and c is the speed of light in a vacuum (which is 299,792,458 meters per second).

So basically, expressing the formula in words: energy equals mass multiplied by the speed of light squared. Described using units, E (in joules) = m (in kilograms) multiplied by (299,792,458 m/s)². Thanks Einstein!

Kristy's First Week

Kristy, the new newsreader, has some pranks played on her on Rove.

Carl Baron Standup

Carl Baron's Standup from Rove two weeks ago.

New McDonald's Video Game

Have you heard of the McDonald's Video Game? Basically, you control what happens at McDonalds, from the storefront, the pastures where you raise your cows and the slaughterhouse. Keep your eye on your money figure and make sure it doesn't run out!

This game was featured in a CNET article.

Click here to play the game.

Tennis Grand Slam Dates

The four Grand Slam tournaments are the most important tennis events of the year in terms of public attention, world ranking points, tradition and prize-money awarded. Here are their dates:

Tournament	Surface	Date
Australian Open	Hard Courts	January
French Open	Clay	Mid-May and early June
Wimbledon	Grass	Late June and early July
US Open	Acrylic hard courts	August and September

Just to keep you up-to-date, here are some current rankings:

1	Rafael Nadal		0	14960.0
2	Roger Federer		0	10470.0
3	Andy Murray		0	9020.0
4	Novak Djokovic		0	8830.0
5	Juan Martin Del Potro		0	4830.0

Where do domestic dogs originate from?

What is the origin of man's best friend and when did the friendship begin? The common domesticated dog is a subspecies of the gray wolf. The gray wolf is an ice age survivor originating during the Late Pleistocene around 300,000 years ago. The gray wolf can be linked back even further to a small weasel-like mammal called Miacis about 60 million years ago, which is the ancestor of all canids (i.e. dogs, coyotes, jackals, wolves and foxes), however Miacis is irrelevant to what we're talking about today. To sum up, DNA sequencing and genetic drift studies reaffirm that the gray wolf shares a common ancestry with the domestic dog.

This raises another question: how did humans, who haven't been around for that long, manage to influence the creation of so many breeds of domestic dogs? According to an uncited source from Wikipedia, the domestication of the gray wolf took place in a handful of events roughly 15,000 years ago in central Asia. Also according to Wikipedia, archaeology has placed the earliest possible domestication at about 30,000 BC and, can confirm that they were already domesticated by 7,000 BC.

However, according to About.com, dog history has been studied recently using mitochondrial DNA, which suggests that wolves and dogs split into different species around 100,000 years ago. Nevertheless, the author notes that "another recent study" suggests that the entire population of dogs today are descended from three females near China about 15,000 years ago. A burial site in Germany called Bonn-Oberkassel has joint human and dog interments dated to 14,000 years ago. K. Kris Hirst states that 13,000 year BC date is the probable date of domestication.

According to Encyclopedia Britannica, fossil remains suggest that five distinct types of dogs existed by the beginning of the Bronze Age (around 4500 BC). They were the mastiffs, wolf-type dogs, pointing dogs, sight hounds (such as the Saluki or greyhound) and herding dogs. Illustrations of dogs dating from the Bronze Age have also been found on walls, tombs, and scrolls throughout Europe, the Middle East, and North America.

Dogs were interbred to enhance their powerful attributes. Fleet-footed sight hounds were revered by noblemen in the Middle East, while in Europe powerful dogs such as the mastiff were developed to protect home and traveler from harm. Many breeds are extremely ancient, while others have been developed as recently as the 1800s.

Sources:
http://en.wikipedia.org/
http://archaeology.about.com/od/domestications/qt/dogs.htm

"Dog." Encyclopædia Britannica. 2009. Encyclopædia Britannica Online School Edition. 8 May 2009 <http://school.eb.com.au/eb/article-15458>.

McGinnis, Terri. "Dog." World Book Online Reference Center. 2009. 8 May 2009.