I recall reading about him in High School and then studying his work more in university and thereafter. He passed away today; his legacy will live on. Rest in Peace.
I recall reading about him in High School and then studying his work more in university and thereafter. He passed away today; his legacy will live on. Rest in Peace.
A good friend of mine, Jim des Rivieres, is having an exhibit of moth photographs at the Museum of Nature. Before I met Jim I had no idea moths were so beautiful. But the scans that he produces into photographs is utterly amazing. If you click on the picture of the moth it’ll take you to Jim’s site. You can even order prints of various moths.Or just stare at the ones he’s photographed and stare in amazement. Browsing through the gallery never ceases to amaze me. The coolest thing is that these are all local Ottawa area moths. The colours are utterly amazing. I guess because we see them at night we don’t realize how colourful they truly are. This is Jim’s hobby — he’s a computer scientist by training, and easily one of the best I’ve ever known. I just wish I had a hobby that engaged me so and was as cool in terms of output. For those interested, the exhibit at the Museum of Nature runs from October 8th, 2010 to January 9, 2011. I’ll definitely be checking it out!
I’ve long had a fascination for astronomy. And, truth be told, it was the field of study I was hoping to enter. But European familial demands meant going into something that had a better chance of me getting a job. Besides, my dad said that no son of his was going to stay up all hours of the night staring through a telescope. No problem. He got a son who stays up all hours of the night staring at a computer screen. Oh, the irony. But I am employed, and I probably would have been as an astronomer, too. No matter. Of late I’ve been reading the news regarding discoveries of new planets. Fascinating stuff, to be honest. A tinge of jealousy strikes me with each passing article. But I choose to live this life of an astronomer vicariously. If I can’t do it myself, I can at least stay up on things sort of. I haven’t the hours to do so properly, maybe when I retire I’ll revisit it more fully but that is many years away. The most interesting thing about these planetary discoveries around those far flung stars is that most — if not all — of
When someone tells you “the science is settled” realize they’re neither a scientist nor right. Need proof? Read this. Astrophysicists are having a hell of a time dealing with an odd planet and the repercussions to orbital mechanics, something many would have figured was “settled” over the past 400 years. So next time someone tries to baffle you with the “science is settled” bullshit statement ignore them. Science is never settled. It’s a journey of discovery. If someone claims it’s settled there’s invariably a political motive behind it, not a scientific one. And science and scientists are never afraid of a good debate. Skeptics are welcome, since they keep us scientists on our toes — in fact a good scientist should be the most skeptical about his or her own work. Indeed, all good scientists should always be skeptical. It’s the nature of the business. Plus, what is proposed by a skeptic may well turn out to be true. One doesn’t need to dig deep in the annals of science to discover a lot of non-conformist science was, indeed, the most accurate theory to describe the facts. In the past century plate tectonics comes immediately to mind, for example.
I’ll leave it to the pictures to tell the story. You can see many more at the NASA Apollo site.
NASA just released some mid-resolution pictures of the Moon and the various Apollo landing sites. You can see the lunary lander module courtesy of a low Sun. In the Apollo 14 shots you can see the footpath created by the astronauts. Amazing. Here’s the shot of Apollo 14′s landing site with the footpath.
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard, because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one which we intend to win, and the others, too. – John F. Kennedy On this day, 40 years ago the United States launched Apollo 11 on its historic trip to fulfill John F. Kennedy’s desire to “… commit nation … to achieving the goal, before decade out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.” Above is the launch photo of Apollo 11. You can see many more photographs here and historical information here, both from NASA. It’s time to revel in the most amazing event in human history, the moment we blasted off for another world and set foot on it. Pity we didn’t opt to stay…
Google had a wonderful homage via their front page graphic the other day (July 10th) for Tesla’s birthday. What I’ll put forward is my favourite quote of his: Anything before 10am is an ungodly hour. Which is now backed up by research!
I tire of these creationist fools, in all their guises. Without diligence they’ll shove us back thousands of years with their insane takes on science. Even after Judge Jones’ stated that those pushing creationism displays “breathtaking inanity”. That phrase can be applied to a lot of idiocy out there, today. For the curious wishing to be educated — and probably affronted — watch BullShit! by Penn and Teller. The multifronted assaults on Reason must stop. I worry about our future when wishful thinking is even contemplated as being “science”. Why is stupidity and ignorance constantly elevated above intelligence and knowledge? It baffles me. Breathtaking inanity, indeed.
I’m quite proud of the folks at the NRC here in Canada. They became the first to capture images of three planets circling a star other than our Sun.