What has Perseverance learned from 1000 days on Mars? #space

| December 16, 2023

NASA’s Perseverance rover continues on its Mars exploration mission that I’ve followed from the start. The Twitter feed along with the geology exploration and rock sample collection is space science at its best. For those not following the mission as closely, a YahooNews/CNN story last week that summarized the 1000 days of “roving” and of […]

Have you glanced at the moon lately? We’re going back next year.

| December 6, 2023

Read the full article in Phys.org Ok … so it is not “manned,” but check out these physics facts from Discover Magazine anyway 😉  Q: Why does the moon always present the same face to us? I find it impossible to believe that this could happen by chance. — Michael Connelly, Toronto A: Nope, not […]

A visable cryovocanic comet to pass by earth in April 2024

| October 20, 2023

At first glance, a comet THREE TIMES the size of Mount Everest speeding towards earth is enough to get my attention. After a little more reading about this “horned” cryovolcanic comet … it will supposedly pass us by without incident. Whew. That said, it will pass close enough to earth next year (closest point on […]

Physics teacher demonstrates Bernoulli’s principle #science

| September 20, 2023

What do you remember from Physics class? How about Bernoulli’s principle (something mentioned before). Physics teacher shows Bernoulli's principle pic.twitter.com/AUKpechMKA — Mind Blowing (@blowingfactz) September 17, 2023

How political has science and climate change become? #video

| August 16, 2023

Deep down … I think most people know that there is something corrupt when it comes to climate science, grant money and politics. Still we are hesitate to question anything because “who am I to question these complicated issues?” It has always bothered me that so many things become an immediate, high priority “crisis” when […]

The Hadley, Polar and Ferrel Cells and Surf Dancing #video

| June 25, 2023

Someone shared a National Geographic map on climate from a “years ago” issue and I found the discussion of the Hadley, Polar and Ferrel Cells interesting … I even had to look them up. The atmosphere transports heat throughout the globe extremely well, but present-day atmospheric characteristics prevent heat from being carried directly from the […]

What inspires someone to become an engineer? #video

| March 11, 2023

When I was in high school, I headed off to Ohio Northern University to become an engineer although veered off into industrial technology, facility design and then teaching when offered a Miami University instructor position when in graduate school. Now putting that education redirection aside … and the other career moves that followed … I’m […]

A bit more on the Portuguese Man O’ Wars this past week

| February 18, 2023

Brenda commented that I didn’t link any information on the the large numbers of Portuguese Man O’ Wars earlier this week, so figured I would share a beach photo of a bourgeoning Portuguese Man O’ War spawn that were washing up all over the beach this past week (click above). The interesting colored spot on […]

Friday Filler: Flyover images of mountains on Pluto #space

| January 27, 2023

As a boy growing up enamored with the NASA Apollo program and going to the moon in the 1960s, I’m still a little peeved at Pluto’s demotion from planet status. Nevertheless, I’m amazed at the New Horizon spaceship’s video flying over the mountains of Pluto. Amazing and a worthwhile Friday Filler.

Audiobook: “Lethal Tides” by Catherine Musemeche

| October 1, 2022

Another interesting story tied to scientific development during World War 2 has crossed my email inbox from WSJ+.  This one is about the virtually unknown Mary Sears, “the first oceanographer of the Navy.” Her groundbreaking oceanographic research led the U.S. to victory in the Pacific theater during World War II, according to the summary. I’m […]

Who knew? Prairie dogs used the Bernoulli principle

| September 24, 2022

In order to ensure sufficient oxygen within their burrow, prairie dogs use the Bernoulli’s principle. One of the entrances is built with a raised mound of dirt, while the other is not. This determines different wind velocities and different pressures. (Massimo – @Rainmaker1973) Bernoulli flow and viscous entrainment were identified by the researchers as the […]

The itsy bitsy spider stopped by the pool: Misumessus oblongus

| August 4, 2022

One never knows who will stop by to join me by the pool on a hot evening (it is hot this week). On Wednesday it was an American Green Crab Spider (Misumessus oblongus). These little “almost luminous” vivid green spiders move like crabs but don’t spin spider webs. They spend their time climbing through green […]

Just an impressive “enhanced” astronomy related photo

| July 19, 2022

This is what the Andromeda Galaxy would look like from Earth … IF it were a little brighter. Very impressive.

Interesting information on Summer vs Winter Solstice

| June 21, 2022

On Tuesday’s solstice, everywhere north of the equator will receive at least 12 hours of daylight and everywhere south of that point will get less than 12 hours. The continental U.S. will get 14 to 16 hours of daylight, compared with eight to 10 hours on the winter solstice. “All the planets orbit the sun […]

In all of God’s magnificent creation, mankind is unique #TBT

| June 9, 2022

There are days we humans need to be reminded that we are small in relation to the universe, but unique (Genesis 1:27) and loved (John 3:16) in relation to God’s magnificent creation. TIDBITS: Voyager 1 continues into heading into our outer solar system as the space probe continues to communicate with the Deep Space Network […]

Archive: SpaceX rocket launches and successes continue #video

| May 22, 2022

It is difficult to ignore the success of the private space industry and admire companies like Elon Musk’s SpaceX as it launches and re-launches rocket after rocket. From satellite launching to shuttling astronauts to and from the International Space Station, SpaceX definitely has the potential to land astronauts back on the moon and to be […]

NASA’s new mega moon rocket crawls to the launch pad

| March 24, 2022

It was exciting to see the new Space Launch System (SLS) and Orion capsule move toward Kennedy Space Center’s Launch Pad 39B this month as space-nerds anticipate NASA’s Artemis 1 moon mission. The sight of such a large rocket “crawling” toward the launch pad brings back the Apollo program of my youth and the Space […]

Happy Winter Solstice; it is the shortest day of the year.

| December 21, 2021

The planetary astronomer and science guru, Dr. James O’Donoghue, that I follow on Twitter posted a great video illustration that explains today, December 21st … or more appropriately a couple of days that occur as the seasons change. Today is the winter solstice and it marks the shortest day in the northern hemisphere. On December […]

Following NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover as it explores

| December 17, 2021

It has been interesting following NASA’s Perseverance Mars Rover “virtually” since the launch on July 30, 2020 and landing on Mars February 18, 2021. Since that time, Perseverancehas sent back hundreds of photos from the surface, collected (core samples) rocks and spent time “off-roading” on the surface. The terrain photo above (click it for larger) […]

The Asteroid 4660 Nereus will come relatively close to earth

| December 4, 2021

The scientific community which tracks asteroids has known about the “potentially hazardous” asteroid 4660 Nereus, which is the size of the Eiffel Tower, since it was discovered in 1982. It will pass at its closest point in 20-years on December 11, 2021, although still a safe distance from earth. The “egg shaped” asteroid may contains […]

Happy Thanksgiving 2021

| November 25, 2021

It has been a challenging couple of years for most of the country and the world in not only combatting the Coronavirus pandemic’s loss of life and economic impact, but the psychological stress. I am thankful we in America have medical care and the pharmaceutical science able to rapidly develop antiviral medicines and vaccines. Let’s […]

Lunch with Jeff, the economy, inflation and more nukes in China

| October 1, 2021

What once was a weekly or at least bi-monthly lunch with my friend Jeff, has shifted to once every 3 months or so since COVID19. It’s not all due to the pandemic as changes in work habits and eating out habits has contributed to neglecting getting together. Nevertheless, it was enjoyable to spend an hour […]

A modern old favorite map (Pangaea – 175-300 million years ago)

| September 21, 2021

When I was a kid, I remember studying the illuminated glass globe in my bedroom and my grandparents pre-WW II atlas and then stumbling across the science theory showing the Alfred Wegener proposed supercontinent called Pangaea. The other day I saved the image overlay of today’s international borders on top of the globe image (click […]

Clear skies, cool evenings and stargazing this month (Aug 2021)

| August 4, 2021

TIDBIT: Although Jupiter and Saturn can look “relatively close” from our perspective, they are actually 456 million miles apart. Saturn is nearly twice as far away as Jupiter. We have had  a few unusually cool evenings for early August (50-60F degrees) and the clear skies have me looking up. For stargazers and amateur sky watchers, […]

The odds are at least 50-50 … right? #learning #statistics

| June 16, 2021

So why do I always end up trying to open the wrong end of a trash bag? With human intelligence and adaptive learning being what it is, one would think knowing which end of the trash bag to open when pulling one out of the box or roll would favor me getting it correct? I’m […]

Blood Moon, Lunar Eclipse and our new Half-Moon Window

| May 25, 2021

The final new “half-moon” window was installed on Monday this week with the proper wagon-wheel spokes (photo below) .. which coincides with this week’s  “Super Moon.” What makes this one somewhat unique is that there will also be a lunar eclipse where the earth shadows the moon. A total lunar eclipse completely blocks the moon, […]

Experimenting with a Magnetohydrodynamic Drive demo

| April 13, 2021

You can take the boy out of school, but you can’t take school (and learning) out of the boy ( or older man at this point). Over the weekend, I was talking to Brenda about how I’ve been following the NASA feed (tweet below) and waiting for the helicopter to take flight on Mars. The […]

Investing: Buying Vertex $VRTX for 2021 and hopefully beyond

| March 25, 2021

For the most part, I’m a conservative investor, although a regular channel trader, and I rarely speculates on risky upstarts, IPOs, zero-profit tech stocks, pharmaceutical long-shots or the latest crazy … cryptocurrency trend. Since most “risk” involves speculation, I see it more akin to gambling than eyes-open informed value or growth investing … both which […]

What do you know about the Tennis Racket Theorem?

| February 11, 2021

After reading about the Dzhanibekov Effect and seeing a demonstration, I just had to know more. The tennis racket theorem or intermediate axis theorem is a result in classical mechanics describing the movement of a rigid body with three distinct principal moments of inertia. It is also dubbed the Dzhanibekov effect, after Russian cosmonaut Vladimir […]

Understanding the Pfizer and Moderna COVID19 vaccines

| December 27, 2020

There was an interesting article in Prevention Magazine that explains what the COVID19 or generically the Coronavirus vaccines from Pfizer and Moderna do … AND what their ingredients are. It also details the differences between the two from the standpoint of how cold storage temperatures need to be. Check out the article for the ingredients […]

The Great Conjunction: Saturn and Jupiter align on Dec 21st

| December 20, 2020

For those who enjoy astronomy, space exploration or just looking at the night sky, an event know as Saturn and Jupiter’s Great Conjunction is happening on December 21st (although look in the southern sky shortly after sunset  any night this month). A “conjunction” is an event that happens every 20 years for these two planets […]

What’s “The greatest threat to life on Earth” – according to theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking #video

| December 9, 2020

No … not a pandemic (like Covid19) … or 45 years of Global Warming … or the current adopted term – Climate Change – according to Green New Deal Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez or environmental activist Greta Thunberg  … but an asteroid concluded the late Stephen Hawking. Also, there’s some real history, not a political ideology, […]

The trajectory of a bullet thru pipes is shocking! YouTube #video

| September 8, 2020

It is disturbing that someone actually tried this, but “for science” (cough, cough) … the result is eye-opening. I don’t think I’ll ever look into the end of pipes when working plumbing projects again. 😮

Prediction: An advancement in superconductivity is coming

| March 25, 2020

It may not come from space in the form of meteorites as mentioned in the story below, but I think the biggest advancement in this decade will be in superconductivity. Physicists have made fantastic advancements in reducing electrical resistance ever since Dutch physicist Heike Kamerlingh Onnes experimented with ferromagnetism in 1911, but getting superconductivity state […]

A 1989 family glacier photo and thoughts on climate change #TBT

| February 6, 2020

It has been a shockingly mild winter, at least in Cincinnati this year. Generally I don’t put the snow blower on the John Deere 330 tractor until it is needed, yet this year I prepared early … and may have frightened the snow away? Having a winter without much snow is not totally unheard of, […]

Semi-Tech Friday: Solar Telescope view of our the Sun

| January 31, 2020

A wide-angle view of the solar surface from the Daniel K. Inouye Solar Telescope is the highest-resolution image of the Sun ever taken, showing details as small as 30 km wide. Seen here are granules, the tops of giant convection cells. Credit: NSO/NSF/AURA Whether it is gazing at the millions of stars night sky (the […]

Do improvements in technology change views on abortion?

| October 29, 2019

It has been 26 years since the U.S. Supreme Court decided on Roe v. Wade. In 1973, our nine justices decided that pregnant women should have the right to legally choose an abortion (would it be different today?). Our national debate has continued non-stop for decades, but the call is getting louder to re-address the issue […]

Wrinkly-Nosed Tooth-Faced Shark – accurate, but not polite

| July 28, 2019

Who wants to go swimming?  The Great White Shark can detect blood in the water up to 3 miles away! Just look at those expensive teeth. I watched several science programs regarding space and the Apollo 11 moon landing these past couple of weeks … and one the other night explaining the Big Bang theory […]

From “One Giant Leap” boldness, to “Interstellar” brain cramps

| June 15, 2019

Brenda and I watched the movie Interstellar (2014) once before, but we watched it again this past week, and as often happens, we picked up on a few more interesting facts that made our brains hurt … well at least mine: General relativity, The Science of Interstellar, Black Holes and Time Warps. Thankfully I could […]

The Moon and planets gave me a show tonight in Cincinnati

| June 14, 2019

With the colder weather and clear sky over Cincinnati late Thursday evening and Friday morning this week, I took my Lumix GX-8 camera and 100-300mm lens out in the backyard to see what I could photograph. Not much as expected from Jupiter, but I think I could make out a couple moons in the pixelated […]

It is a great week for night stargazing and sky watching – #Jupiter

| June 12, 2019

Just north of Cincinnati the sky was perfect for viewing the rise of Jupiter as the sky darkened about 9:30PM. The bright dot (photo below from my iPhone) rose in the SE sky and arched slowly until reaching its highest point due south at about 12:30AM and then moved lower well after I was in […]

It has been interesting reviewing my Ancestry.com DNA results

| February 12, 2019

Having worked on my family tree with Ancestry.com back in 2010 and then ignored returning 9 years later, it has been interesting to look into it again now that DNA testing has grown in popularity. My results came back a few days ago and they were “as expected” (although the map a bit deceiving). From […]

BMW water injection and how it works to make +50 hp

| January 17, 2019

One of my favorite YouTube channels is Engineering Explained and in this video car guru and mechanical engineer Jason Fenske explains just how BMW used water injection to increase power at full throttle and high manifold pressures. Great stuff. And if this kind of "automotive engineering stuff" interests you and you like aviation like me, […]

Archive: Asclepias Syriaca (Common Milkweed) flowering date shift in response to climate change | Scientific Reports

| December 13, 2018

While this article (PDF version) may not necessarily garner front page news, it is something I wanted to read and archive because it was researched and published by my nephew Aaron Howard. Well done. The consequences of altered flowering dates due to climate change can be severe, especially for plants that rely on coordinated flower […]

Sidetracked into playing with my Stirling Engine model

| November 17, 2018

Last week while clearing off our bookshelves I came across a ticket to The Music Man from 18 years ago when my nephew Ben played the lead in his high school musical. It occurred to me that his birthday was this month and that I should post it to his Facebook page while sending him […]

Human-Induced Climate Change – Take it with a grain of salt

| September 1, 2018

Some interesting results using my birth town and the "number of 90 degree days" in a New York Times "tool" which I interpret as wanting to alarm us into action over the "human induced climate change" projections. If you haven’t already dug your heels in with an opinion (likely influenced by politics either way) … […]

Food for thought from a pediatrician on gender identity

| December 19, 2017

Although I have the traditional conservative view that one’s gender is in our DNA and one that we are born with, I understand there are those who differ. Let’s at least try to agree as a nation that we should at least protect young kids and early teens from the irreparable damage parents and doctor […]

Beautiful Supermoon this weekend – the largest of 2017

| December 3, 2017

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TechFriday: Kickstarter Raspberry Shake and other item arrived

| December 9, 2016

I helped fund the Raspberry Pi based computer Kickstarter project known as the RaspberryShake  networkingworking a large number of inexpensive earthquake monitoring station around the world (www.raspberryshake.org/quick-start-guide). The idea of connecting hundreds if not thousands of independent volunteer monitoring stations isn’t new, but it is a growing force in data collection. Hopefully I’ll be able […]

Can science and snakes help solve our Opioid problem?

| November 2, 2016

Our go-to pain killers are addictive and over prescribed … that’s a given. The problem is what can be done besides better management and stiffer penalties (debatable) to solve the near epidemic problem with Opioid addiction (PDF). Enter the lowly venomous snake. Toxins in the venom of poisonous snakes have the properties of triggering nerves […]

Watched the phases of a super moon lunar eclipse Sunday night

| September 28, 2015

A few of my photos on Sunday night of the Super Moon Solar Eclipse in the sky over Cincinnati, Ohio. Very cool.     Graphic from skyandtelescope.com and usatoday.com below.

InterestingEngineering.com is always educational and informative

| September 19, 2015

It’s probably being marveled by all things engineering that has me gravitating daily to the Interesting Engineering website and I probably browse longer than I should through the educational and “interesting” posts. Image Courtesy of Council on Tall Buildings and Urban Habitat Architecture, skyscrapers and buildings around the world are a monumental undertakings and amazing […]

Trick question: Coal or Natural Gas, which is a cleaner energy?

| June 17, 2014

While listening to CNBC’s Squawkbox yesterday morning, Southern Company’s CEO Thomas Fanning sees exporting U.S. energy as economically a best path forward. The strategy is not without debate and hits opposition from both sides – the anti-fossil fuel greens and conservatives wanting to preserve our nation’s natural resources for America’s future. That argument aside, one […]

Ten aeronautical advancements thanks to NASA

| May 21, 2014

The Dryden Flight Research Center posted ten technology examples on their site that made a big impact on aviation. Most assume NASA has contributed to our science and engineering advancements, but the debate continues over the the high cost of the taxpayers through government funding the NASA research centers or if the private sector can […]

Can science determine if you are a Liberal or a Conservative?

| April 6, 2014

Chris Mooney in an Inquiring Minds podcast interviewed John Hibbing, a political scientist (University of Nebraska) and co-author of Predisposed: Liberal, Conservatives, and the Biology of Political Differences. They conversed at length about the research in measuring sympathetic symptoms of differing political ideologies. Mooney’s follow-up article also appeared in Mother Jones. According to John Hibbing, […]

Winter is here – a little more global warming please

| January 25, 2008

While I was out feeding the dog before sunrise and creaking over the light snow on the sidewalk, I thought “it feels really cold today?” Brrr … it is! Thankfully the sun is out and should warm things up a little bit. Maybe this is a good time to point out that during the 1970s […]

The ol’ Scared Pepper Experiment

| November 29, 2006

My son came home and demonstrated the “scared pepper” — surface tension of water experiment today. I’m not sure I fully understand the ‘science’ behind the dish washing soap and water, but from an offset printing background we depend on surface tension and even enhance it with isopropyl alcohol or a substitute to dampen aluminum […]

A rare interview with Neil Armstrong, “First Man”

| November 11, 2005

For many baby boomers, “The Eagle has landed” and “One small step for man, one giant leap for mankind” (click for audio) were monumental audio moments that recall American success and rekindle proud memories of the Apollo space program. Practically every American alive and countless millions around the world held their breath and watched as […]

Desultory - des-uhl-tawr-ee, -tohr-ee

  1. lacking in consistency, constancy, or visible order, disconnected; fitful: desultory conversation.
  2. digressing from or unconnected with the main subject; random: a desultory remark.
My Desultory Blog