Christmas is a time of reflection, a time to think deeply about some of the important questions the Yuletide brings to mind. For example: Q. How come Christmas trees keep sucking up water even after they’ve been cut down? A. A tree slurps up six or seven litres when you first put it up, and …
Tag: Christmas
Christmas songs
So Christmas is over for another year, and as we head into 1995, only one question remains to haunt us: Just what are frankincense and myrrh, anyway? Here come “We Three Kings,” bearing gifts from afar. The first king brings gold; a fine present, indeed. But then the second king starts singing, “Frankincense to offer …
Rudolph the red-nosed reindeerigible
Another Christmas Eve, another lonely rooftop vigil for aerotarandusdynamicists around the– What’s an “aerotarandusdynamicist”? Perhaps a recap is in order. I have written before about the under-funded field of aerotarandusdynamics. The word, like all good scientific words, is a Latin amalgam: “aero” (air), “tarandus” (part of the scientific name for reindeer, “rangifer tarandus”) and “dynamics” …
Christmas shopping
“A scientific Christmas is a memorable Christmas,” I wrote last week in my column on scientific gifts. But it occurred to me, post-column, that shopping for Christmas gifts involves science even if all you’re buying is a tie for Dad. Consider, for example, the music playing in the store. The best known source for store …
Science gifts for Christmas: 1994
As a kid, I only wanted “fun” gifts for Christmas. I didn’t want anything “practical,” like (horrors!) underwear. And “educational” was way down my list, too. Yet my favorite gifts of all were actually very educational: I just didn’t notice, because I was having so much fun with them. These were the gifts that involved …
Clausotechnolometry: the study of the technology of Santa
A couple of Christmases ago I wrote about aerotarandusdynamics: the study of flying reindeer. In passing, I mentioned their mysterious master, one “Santa Claus.” Now scientists are studying him, too, trying to understand the advanced technology this “jolly old elf” (as one authority describes him) uses yearly in his Christmas crusade. These scientists are “clausotechnolometrists.” …
Christmas trees
It’s that jolly time of a year again when we celebrate new life by murdering 40 million trees. Which, I hasten to add, is simply a dramatic opening and not the beginning of a manifesto for the Evergreen Liberation Front. Fact is, I’m a big fan of the custom of having a Christmas tree. For …
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