Via BoingBoing and several e-mails, The Oak Ridge Associated Universities Health Physics Historical Instrumentation Collection presents the Nuclear Slide Rule collection! Just in time for your contribution to any of the forthcoming "atompunk" anthologies...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:47 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 40 words, total size 1 kb.

The Bad Astronomer talks about the bow shock around Betelgeuse (I have to pick up his new book, Death from the Skies!. Any book that uses an exclamation point in the title...)

To give this a SF twist, look up Gregory Benford's short story Bow Shock, which appeared in the first issue of Jim Baen's Universe. Why this story did not win a Hugo or a Nebula, I'll never know.

From direct images of exo-planets to stuff like this, it's amazing how astronomy keeps coming up with stuff that...well, amazes! "What a fascinating modern age we live in", as Captain J. Aubrey put it.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:41 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 108 words, total size 1 kb.

Harrison H. "Jack" Schmitt, the only geologist to walk on the Moon, has resigned from The Planetary Society.

Finally, becoming a deep space-faring nation again constitutes a mult-generational endeavor, particularly if Mars is in the mix. Unfortunately, the government-run, politicized K-12 school system will not currently support such an endeavor. It has totally failed several generations of young people, not just in STEM subjects but in history, language and economics. This problem has to be solved first. The people requirements for a return to the Moon should help jump start that process, although it will take a much more grassroots effort to be successful.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 12:55 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 213 words, total size 2 kb.

One of my most treasured astronomy books is a massive NASA-published collection of pictures from the 1960's-era Lunar Orbiter series of probes. You can get a copy online, if you search, but if you want a "deadtree" edition, be prepared to get another mortgage out.

So it was pretty amazing to see that the data from these probes is still of use: it is being reprocessed to get more detail and will help out our future unmanned and (the new administration willing) manned missions to our nearest neighbor.

I really hope that they reprocess the image known as The Picture of the Century (download the 9.8MB version for a real "wow!). That is my all-time favorite.

(Some details here.)

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:09 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 127 words, total size 1 kb.

An article looking at the hoops one has to jump through in order to do experiments at home. Have you looked at a kid's chemistry set recently? Trash!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:52 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 32 words, total size 1 kb.

Cast your peepers over the names of those who have contributed to the latest Mind Meld at SF Signal!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:32 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 23 words, total size 1 kb.

1 J. Michael Straczynski? Awesome!

Posted by: John D. at October 29, 2008 09:23 PM (A8+6d)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Take a look at these pictures of slime molds. Isn't life on Earth strange?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:29 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 20 words, total size 1 kb.

GPS? Pah! Who needs it?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:31 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 15 words, total size 1 kb.

As one commentator notes, the Xeelee are at it again!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:26 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 16 words, total size 1 kb.

The strange world of biology...gets a little stranger.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 08:39 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 18 words, total size 1 kb.

It's the end of the world as we know it...and I feel fine. more...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 06:37 PM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 83 words, total size 1 kb.

I never realized how much Wall-E resembled Stephen Hawking until I saw this.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:09 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 25 words, total size 1 kb.

A fascinating look at Six Books on the Revolutions of the Heavenly Spheres by that best-selling author Nicolaus Copernicus. Was it really the book nobody read?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 28 words, total size 1 kb.

Everything, I repeat, everything, is answered with this one graph. Have a scientific question? Look no further!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 11:39 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 21 words, total size 1 kb.

Log tables, slide rules and "computers", oh my!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 10:47 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 12 words, total size 1 kb.

Whenever presented with a startling new scientific revelation, apply the crackpot index!

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 04:40 AM | No Comments | Add Comment
Post contains 14 words, total size 1 kb.

An interesting look at those little cubes and other geometric solids that rule the roleplaying game tabletop. Are they "fair"?

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:48 AM | Comments (2) | Add Comment
Post contains 24 words, total size 1 kb.

1 It's a small world, Fred. My office (when I'm in it) is just down the hall from Ed's at Wolfram Research.

Posted by: Bill White at July 24, 2008 09:50 AM (OiNdx)

2 If somebody starts humming Disney tunes, somebody is gonna get hurt...

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at July 24, 2008 11:35 AM (jc70B)

Hide Comments | Add Comment

Well, too bad I'm not female...but if you are, and need an excuse to drink more coffee!

Of course, once you're done reading all the caveats, etc., you may shrug your shoulders and ignore the article and just drink coffee as usual. Or not. Maybe "balance" is all we need.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 04:49 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 52 words, total size 1 kb.

It's nice this time of year when it is clear. The sun is done, it is starting to cool off. You can sit outside with a cool beverage and watch the bats. The stars start to pop out. Speed on to Spica. Arc on to Arcturus. If you know the sky fairly well, you can start to pick out constellations: spot two of the stars in the Big Dipper, and you can make the rest of the stars "pop" into existence.

Look there, in the east. It's the full Moon. To the left (well, to the right if you are "upside down" from my perspective) is Jupiter at its brightest. Even a relatively modest pair of binoculars would be handy right now. You could pick out what of the four largest moons are visible around Jupiter and see features on the Moon (although any phase other than full is best, as the craters show up better when the sun is not overhead!).

Check out the satellite tracking sites like Heavens Above. Check out when the ISS will be visible from your location: I caught it the other night and it was spectacular. As it moves through your sky it'll change in brightness and maybe even color. Keep checking when it'll be visible when the shuttle is up...there's nothing quite like seeing the two of them flying in formation or how much brighter the "dot" is when they are docked.

Yep, it's a beautiful night tonight.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 07:19 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 253 words, total size 2 kb.

The review can now be viewed here.

Posted by: Fred Kiesche at 09:26 AM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
Post contains 13 words, total size 1 kb.