It’s Ada Lovelace Day! How cool is it that the individual most frequently cited as the world’s first computer programmer was an elegant, charming noblewoman who loved dancing, gambling and socializing (completely at odds with the field’s contemporary stereotype)? Born in 1815, Ada was the sole legitimate child of the famed poet Lord Byron, [ Read More ]
I was worried I’d miss out on the final launch of Atlantis – I had a company event to leave for at the same time as the scheduled launch yesterday morning, but thankfully the countdown proceeded with only a brief pause at thirty seconds, and then she rocketed skyward for the very last time. She’ll [ Read More ]
Tonight, NASA will be sending their final transmission to the Mars rover Spirit, who hasn’t been heard from since March of last year. Easily the popular favourite of the two Martian rovers, the aptly named robot lost use of a wheel in 2006 (requiring her to drive backwards across the rocky terrain while dragging the [ Read More ]
There were a number of reasons that led me to choose my current place of residence. Primary among them was the view of the Speed River and its thin strip of woodland habitat, where Osprey would come to fish and the songs of Red-winged Blackbirds and Yellow Warblers would sometimes trickle across the noisy street [ Read More ]
I had to share this animation, taken from a press release made by NASA this morning, and YouTube’d by the ever-awesome Phil Plait (who has a great blog post about it here). It’s an exceptionally clear and powerful illustration of just what that high-tech toy known as the Kepler Space Telescope is doing way up [ Read More ]
From January 6 to February 3, 1979, the Voyager I spacecraft covered a distance of 27 million kilometers during its approach of Jupiter. A selection of photos from this period, taken at the same longitude each Jovian rotation (about once every ten hours) was assembled into a time-lapse animation by the folks back on Earth [ Read More ]
Can you see us? The Earth, as a tiny pale dot caught in a shaft of scattered sunlight as seen from the Voyager I spacecraft, at a distance of six billion kilometers away. Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever [ Read More ]
I spent my Sunday afternoon vegging out and watching TED talks videos. For those of you not familiar with it, TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) is an annual conference of ideas, and has featured the likes of Stephen Pinker, Brian Greene, Al Gore, Stephen Hawking and many other fascinating thinkers and doers. Participants are invited to [ Read More ]
Wow. Now I know what my reef tank’s been missing. The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute (MBARI) has just released images of this incredibly bizarre fish, which looks as though it were flown in from Yugopotamia. And yes, that’s a transparent head. This deep water species is able to swivel its barrel-shaped eyes upward and [ Read More ]
I’m watching an episode of House, where our delightfully snarky protagonist is having a conversation with Thirteen regarding his atheism: “Where’s the fun in that?” asks Thirteen. “A finite, un-mysterious universe…” “It’s not about fun,” House replies. “It’s about the truth.” He’s right, of course. A true skeptic is not concerned with the reality he [ Read More ]
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Birder with a sketchbook, skeptic and popular science junkie. Spends too much on books. Fearful of spiders. Is well trained.
Currently resides in Guelph, Ontario, Canada.
