Richard Feynman — Unquestionably a Hero.
Richard Feynman was one of the greatest physicists ever. think the most provocative and admirable quality of Richard Phillips Feynman (okay more than one) is:
The fearlessness, humor, and outspokenness of his voice (when he speaks he just speaks his mind and he’s usually thought about what he says a great deal, so he just [...]
Tuesday News Blip: Phoenix Lander!
Astronomy: The Phoenix craft of the “Mars Scout Program” to mars is a $475 million mission to launch and land the Phoenix spacecraft on the surface of Mars and explore it. When you consider the massive undertaking of such a project, NASA’s slim budget of $475 million is extremely frugal, pennies really, but [...]
Science: The journal of Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion
Science: The journal of Plasma Physics and Controlled Fusion just announced a possible breakthrough for astronauts enduring long-distance space travel. The earth is protected from meteorites, high velocity cosmic rays, and other space debris from its surrounding “magnetosphere”. Cutting edge physicists aim to simulate this magnetosphere around a space craft. Scientists [...]
Recent Celeb Scene and Global Positioning
Heath Ledger might win the oscar for his maniacal Joker character, making this the second posthumous “Best Actor” award in over 30 years, the most recent (hardly not recent) went to Peter Finch in Network in 1977.
Also, I noticed the ever-growing “I hate Paris club” has continued to spawn. Disdain for that woman — [...]
Dusk till Dawn, Sunset to Sunrise
Okay, I thought this would be a great post because there’s a TON of ambiguity about dusk, dawn, sunset, sunrise….How long is a “sunset”? When exactly is dusk? Can there be a set time for dawn and dusk or is always “when things get darker or brighter outside”? And what about [...]
Chinese New Year Means Good Tidings for all New Resolutioners Catching up to ‘08
All this information IS going somewhere after all! Wondering why I wrote such a detailed and thorough article on Solstices and Equinoxes? Well — in addition to my car being an Equinox, having written a screenplay called “The Solstice” about a ship, and my love for nautical science and understanding how our celestial [...]
Equinoxes and Solstices
Earth’s InclinationEveryday would be an equinox (Latin’s equinoxium, meaning “equality night and day”) if it weren’t for the earth’s subtle inclination. An equinox, the moment when the sun is at it’s zenith directly above (perpendicular to) the equator at noon is the opposite of a solstice (Latin’s solstitium, meaning “the point where the [...]
Wave Dynamics — Surfer’s Almanac: Swell and Wave Formation
Swell – Swells is long, oceanic surface waves, consistently formed by tropical storms and wind systems. A few fractions of a second difference in a wave, on the other side of the ocean, creates a totally different set of waves. Swell waves are often mixed with local chop “noise” waves.
Swell Size — Swell [...]
Funky Weather: Squalls, Virga, and Microbursts
Virga — Whenever any form of precipitation (rain, sleet, snow, hail) forms, but then evaporates before reaching the earth, it is called virga. Virga is a common characteristic of microbursts.
Microbursts — A microburst is the complete opposite of a tornado. A tornado consists of convergent upward funnelling winds, while a microburst consists of [...]
Parralax, Retrograde, all that Visual Brew-Ha-Ha
Parralax — okaya parralax is the “apparent” (But not actual) movement of an object visually because of the REAL movement of the observer. Most common is the STellar parralax where a very distant (millions of miles) star appears to move, but realy it’s the earth orbitting annually revolving around the sun that creates the impression [...]
The Ultimate Star Trek Nerd Post
Star Trek, Astronomical, Cosmological, Planetary Physics terms you have got to know.
Parsec Contraction of “parallax second”; Distance – “parallax – apparent motion — of one arc second”; astronomical unit of length where the earth’s orbit extends an angle of one arcsecond; 19 trillion miles, 3.26 ly
Pulsar – A neutron star that puts out [...]
The Vicinity of Our Universe
Earth (and our sun and solar system) is located on the inner arc of the Orion Arm of the Milky Way galaxy. The Milky Way galaxy, not unlike our own Earth, revolves and rotates. For the Milky Way galaxy to complete one full rotation (pivot) — our for our solar system to complete [...]
FUA — Full Universal Address
I’ve come to realize how truly insignificant — because of their instability, tendency to produce conflict, and mercurial nature — most of the religious, political, and social ballyhoo is, compared to the science of our planet, solar system, and galaxy. Squabbling over borders and domains truly is rubbish, when we glance at our global [...]
Validating Earth Science
I’ve come to realize how truly insignificant — because of their instability, tendency to produce conflict, and mercurial nature — most of the religious, political, and social ballyhoo is, compared to the science of our planet, solar system, and galaxy. Squabbling over borders and domains truly is rubbish, when we glance at our global [...]
