One of the world's greatest mysteries...

I know, I know, why would you want to think about the world's greatest mysteries, when we could think about the UNIVERSE'S greatest mysteries? Well, my friends, I have two answers to that question: First, we live on earth, and it is therefore extremely relevant to our daily lives, and second, the earth IS part of the universe. Checkmate.

Also, I know for a fact that this is a question that has been on a lot of your minds. Some people lose sleep over it, although, I'm not sure who those people are. The question is: how are tower cranes built? Well, in order to answer this, we first need to review what a tower crane is, then we need to identify its important features, and then we NEED to watch an informational animation with a sweet/spicy techno soundtrack that I first discovered on my favorite crane blog, and arguably the best blog about cranes on the internet: http://www.craneblogger.com/

So what is a tower crane? What do they look like? You might be asking yourself, "have I ever seen a tower crane?" Well, if you live in Seattle, you have never NOT seen one...except while you are sleeping. Here are some stylish pictures of tower cranes:

The last picture is not a crane. That is the space needle. It is similar to a crane in that it is tall and also rotates, however, unlike cranes, it is not useful in the construction of skyscrapers.

So, what are the important features of a tower crane? For this I turn to the Visual Merriam-Webster online dictionary:
These are incredible machines because they seem as though they are impossible. They seem as though they should tip over...but they don't because they are heavily anchored into the ground, and because of the counterjib ballast. Great. So, now for the most important part: how do these things get built?

Well there are apparently two answers to this: initially, they are built by other, smaller, mobile cranes with telescoping arms. Eventually, however, the tower cranes become too tall, and at that point, what do they do? Well, clearly, they build themselves, using something called a "top climber!" According to the HowStuffWorks.com article on tower cranes, the top climber is installed between the last piece of the mast and the "slewing unit" which is the piece that allows the crane jib to pivot. When a new piece of the mast is ready to be installed, as you will see in the video, the jib and counterjib are balanced by picking up a weight on the hook. After this, the top climber pushes the jib, the operator's cab, and the slewing unit upward with hydraulic rams, which opens up a space above the old mast segment for the insertion of the newest piece of mast. Well, I feel as though I am not doing this justice, so I will let you see for yourselves:

At the Edge of the Heliosphere

This is it. Back by overwhelming demand, it is time to dip our toes into the heliosphere. There are too many things to learn so we have to pace ourselves. Most of what we have to learn sounds like dialogue from a Star Trek episode...specifically, Deep Space 9...yikes! (I have never actually seen Deep Space 9, so I apologize if that offends anyone, namely, John, my only reader that I am aware of (thanks John!) and I also apologize if it is actually an awesome show, but it always looked slightly dorkier than The Next Generation, which is what I used to watch after school. THAT show was good).

Let's start with some key words and phrases for tonight (we will slowly expand this list over the next few days/weeks/years, so don't be surprised if you don't know what a heliosphere is by the end of this post (or ever, for that matter...I am still slightly doubtful that my brain can comprehend such a thing).

To begin, a vague definition of the heliosphere: A bubble which surrounds our solar system, which is generated by the sun itself.

Holy crap, this is going to blow your mind. I bet you thought you knew what the sun was right? You are wrong. I was wrong, at least. The sun is the star at the center of our solar system. According to Wikipedia, which is going to be the source of many of my Sometimes Facts, I'm warning you right now, the Sun accounts for 99.86% of the mass in our solar system. And you know what it is made out of? Gas! About 73.5% hydrogen and 24.8% helium, with the remainder made up by a variety of elements. How is it possible for something that is about 25% helium to account for 99.86% of the mass in our solar system? I mean, helium floats; it's lighter than air. They put it in balloons. Sure.

Do you know how it's possible? The sun is HUGE, about 1,300,000 times the volume of the earth. This video explains it all (at least it's a good start):