A collection of photography and exploration focusing on Upstate South Carolina and beyond.
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Last night was the first night of Passover. According to Wikipedia… Passover begins on the 15th day of the month of Nisan, which corresponds to the full moon of Nisan, the first month of the Hebrew calendar, in accordance with the Hebrew Bible. This is also the first full moon after the vernal equinox, and … Read More “Paschal Moon” »
Today President Obama signed an executive order effectively lifting the ban on stem-cell research. While that line of research will remain controversial, and I’m not going to comment on it directly, there were other things that the president said that were very encouraging. CNN perhaps puts it best… Bush’s critics argued the former president allowed … Read More “Restoring Scientific Integrity” »
This is the “Year of Science” at Furman, and many activities have been planned to highlight the sciences, including dedication of the new Townes Center for Science later this season. One of the activities is a production of Michael Frayn’s “Copenhagen” at the Furman Playhouse. We (and about half of the chemistry faculty) went to … Read More “Copenhagen @ Furman” »
Google has taken its Google Sky functions and made them available on Google Maps as well as Google Earth. Google Sky for Maps features much of the same space imagery as its Google Earth counterpart. You can zoom in (out?) for a closer view of deep space objects and stars. There are also links that … Read More “Sky, Moon, and Mars” »
Last night the weather was perfect for observing the lunar eclipse, and we had a great location for viewing. Laura’s Chemistry Techniques class was having an end-of-term party at the Hanks-Veas estate north of Travelers Rest. The skies up there were certainly darker than our downtown location, so I loaded up telescopes, cameras, and binoculars … Read More “Lunar Eclipse” »
The Soviet Union surprised the world 50 years ago today by launching Sputnik 1. Even though there have been lots of commentaries and rememberances, I wanted to mark the occasion here for a couple of reasons. First, there was the reaction in the US. There was the total shock that the Soviets could be us … Read More “Remembering Sputnik” »
BoingBoing featured a link to a collection of French art from 1910 which was supposed to show life in the year 2000. As with most futuristic art from that period, the artist took the familiar and extrapolated what it would become. As with other collections of this sort, some of the images are eerily prescient, … Read More “That Grand, Glorious Future” »
Today Google released a new version of Google Earth, version 4.2, which includes a cool new feature called Google Sky. You can basically toggle between views – looking downward, then looking upward from the exact same lat/long coordinates for a view of the night sky. A toggle button now appears on the toolbar that allows … Read More “Looking up instead of down – Google Sky” »
Laura and I attempted to watch the Perseid meteor shower last Sunday night. Normally, we would hop in the convertible and try to find some dark sky. However, it was still dreadfully hot, and the clouds were iffy, so we just pulled chairs into the front yard and stared at the sky for awhile. I … Read More “There must be dozens of them!” »
Growing up as the son of the local school principal had its problems (some taunting by classmates, etc) but it also had some perks. For example, my brothers and I would often grab Dad’s keys to the gymnasium. We would go at night and leave the lights off, then throw a glow-in-the-dark Frisbee in the … Read More “Good Old Edmund” »