All Purls. No Swine.
“I have loved the stars too truly to be fearful of the night”– Sarah Williams Sarah Williams was a British Victorian poet who is best known for “The Old Astronomer,” written in the person of an elderly astronomer on his deathbed who speaking to his young pupil. Her output is short, as was her life (1837-1868),… Continue reading Quote of the Day: Worlds Beyond Earth
You see, one thing is, I can live with doubt, and uncertainty, and not knowing. I think it’s much more interesting to live, not knowing, than to have answers which might be wrong. It comes at about the middle of this interview excerpt: https://youtu.be/cRmbwczTC6E A man of science. Not a religious man, but one who… Continue reading QOTD: Richard Feynman on the Unknown
This isn't a Valentine's Day post. It's a copy of a six-year old Ricochet post, one for which the editors mangled the original title (which appears above), and which I like rather better than theirs. I was reminded of it earlier today when I was retrieving a bunch of drywall trowels from the garage, and… Continue reading I Know a Hawk From a Handsaw. And a Cat From Some Guacamole
Sixty-one years ago today, on July 23, 1962, a small (less than 36 inches in diameter) satellite which orbited the earth once about every two-and-a-half hours, transmitted--simultaneously and at the same time--the first of two scheduled, scripted, public transatlantic television programs onto home screens throughout the Western world. For the first time ever, families could… Continue reading Telstar: “The Electronic Bridge”
Apollo 11 launched from Cape Canaveral. Four days later, two of its crew stepped out of the Lunar Landing Module onto the moon's surface. I remember. I was--with my parents, my sister, and my infant brother--summering at home in the UK. We'd rented a television, because many of the locals didn't have one. And we… Continue reading On This Day–Fifty-Three Years Ago…
Where did the universe come from? How does it work? When did it begin and when--and how--will it end? People have asked variations on these questions since people started asking questions. Where Did the Universe Come From? And Other Cosmic Questions, by Chris Ferrie and Geraint F. Lewis examines those questions. The authors show how… Continue reading Book Review by Seawriter: Answering Cosmic Questions
Today, July 10, 2021, is the fifty-ninth anniversary of the launching of Telstar 1, a 170lb communications satellite launched for the purpose of receiving ground signals and re-transmitting them back to earth. According to britannica.com: Following Telstar’s launch on July 10, 1962, a giant movable horn antenna near Andover, Maine, locked onto the satellite when… Continue reading Musical Interlude: Telstar
During the decades humans first reached outer space, they were also reaching for the ocean’s uttermost depths. They even managed to reach those depths before placing a man in orbit. Opening the Great Depths: The Bathyscaph Trieste and Pioneers of Undersea Exploration, by Norman Polmar and Lee J. Mathers tells that story. It is a… Continue reading Book Review By Seawriter: To the Uttermost Depths and Back
One shortcoming of current machine-learning programs is that they fail in surprising and decidedly non-human ways. A team of Massachusetts Institute of Technology students recently demonstrated, for instance, how one of Google’s advanced image classifiers could be easily duped into mistaking an obvious image of a turtle for a rifle, and a cat for some… Continue reading I Know a Hawk From a Handsaw. And a Cat From Some Guacamole
Sure there are. Starting with any that involve frivolous harm to bunnies or other completely innocent four-legged or two-legged living creatures (as is not the case with many makeup and cosmetic brands She does not endorse). Frankly, I've never felt that the softness of the tissue surrounding my eyes, or the fullness of my lips,… Continue reading Are There Any Crazy Science Projects that RWKJ Would Not Support?