Showing posts with label History and Science. Show all posts
Showing posts with label History and Science. Show all posts
Saturday, December 26, 2015

A Merry Christmas from Maximilien Robespierre (with a side-note on that Newton business)

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From the vaults via last year's Tumblr post: Understandably enough, we tend to think of December 25 primarily as Christmas, thereby ...
Tuesday, July 21, 2015

Q: Once the rockets are up, who cares where they come down? A: Often, near Samoa

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We are all familiar with the dramatic scenes of the fiery takeoffs of US space vehicles. We are arguably somewhat less familiar with the l...

The Moon Landing in the Service of Advertising, Anno 1969

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I always thought this was a very clever advertising strategy. ( enlarge ) Back in 1969, when the Apollo 11 moon landing took place, S...

Moon Landing Anniversary (and animation, space toilets, and cheese)

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If it's July 20, it's time to haul out my old post, which combines lunar exploration, zero-gravity toilets, animation humor, and the...
Sunday, July 31, 2011

Up, up, and away: The Birth of the Air Force in the Civil War

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What does the space shuttle have to do with the Civil War ? Well, the connection is tenuous, but it's there. When we think of the Civ...
Sunday, April 3, 2011

April Fools Us (but spring is nonetheless here)

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I was excited by the arrival of spring weather and sentiments even before the formal onset of the season. Indeed, in the first week or March...
Monday, December 27, 2010

New US Polling Results on Evolution: What Do They Mean?

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• Nearly eighty percent of Americans believe God played a role in the development of the human species. • More than fifty percent of Americ...
Wednesday, December 22, 2010

How Rigorous Are Anthropology and Physics? Hard to Know

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Cross-check: Science "faction": Is theoretical physics becoming "softer" than anthropology? What makes a doctrine or fie...
Saturday, December 18, 2010

17 December 1903/1935: Two Dates When Aviation Changed the World (with some thoughts on the Wright Bros., the DC-3, and the personal computer)

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Today is the anniversary of the date in 1903 when the Wright brothers famously changed history with "the first powered, controlled, sus...
Saturday, October 30, 2010

30 October 1938: Orson Welles's "War of the Worlds" Broadcast

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On this day in 1938, enfant terrible Orson Welles and his Mercury Theatre on the Air made their now-infamous broadcast of an adaptation of ...
Thursday, October 21, 2010

21 October 1797: Launching of USS Constitution; the need for preservation and interpretation continues

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 Mass Moments notes that, on this day ...in 1797, USS Constitution was launched in Boston. It took three attempts to set the immense ship...
Saturday, August 7, 2010

Coming Attractions: this Sunday, on National Geographic, "and Man created Dog"

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 Just a heads-up on a new program about the human role in the evolution of the dog. Here, an excerpt: It runs Sunday evening at 9 p....
Wednesday, July 28, 2010

Credo quia absurdum (2): Karen Armstrong Gets Her Comeuppance

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I was beginning to despair and think that I was the only literate person who found Karen Armstrong banal, dreary, and vacuous. Well, thankf...

Credo quia absurdum? More bad science: Der Spiegel denounces the homeopathy hoax

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From the sublime to the ridiculous, poetry to poison.  One of those topics one just loves to hate. I've always been fascinated (in a ...
Tuesday, July 27, 2010

A Tale of Three Poetry Contests (hmmm . . . what rhymes with Jerusalem, entropy, and free trade?)

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I know it is often said that poetry is hot again, so perhaps I should not be surprised at the appearance of several poetry competitions reac...
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Sunday, July 25, 2010

iPhone GIS app—plus great new web interface for Amherst mapping

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There's a new iPhone app that lets you access the world of Geographic Information Systems (GIS), and is already getting good reviews ....