Tag: history

My apologies for the light blogging…

…I’ve been struggling with computer problems that culminated today in my taking my desktop machine to the shop. Then I spent several more hours getting my laptop (on which I’m writing this) set up as my temporary desktop machine. By way of making amends, I offer several photos taken while I was strolling around the …

Continue reading

Thank you. Thank you very much.

Still too busy to blog much, but here’s an interesting article on applause. Who invented it…and why? (To which the answers appear to be “Nobody knows” and “Because,” but it’s still an interesting article.)

Vitalogy

Due to a mix-up, the Regina Leader Post failed to run my science column last week. Which means they’re running it this week. Which means I didn’t write a new one this week. Instead, I offer a blast from the past (five years ago) that came to mind because I’ve been poking around the amazing …

Continue reading

Darn, and we just moved…

Dracula’s castle is up for sale.

Alarming developments

I’m writing this on January 2, which means that, for more days than not over the past couple of weeks, I’ve been able to sleep in. But today, at 6:40 a.m., the alarm clock went off, and I staggered out of bed, a stumbling, half-blind example of the effects of sleep inertia (not that having …

Continue reading

Test flying a 70-year-old airplane

A pilot (with a great sense of humour) gets his first chance to fly a DC3, more than 70 years after the famous aircraft first took to the skies. Today, decades later, scores are still in operation. My favorite line: I was much taken by the crew escape hatch on the left-hand fuselage side, just …

Continue reading

An age of miracles and wonders

Few people appreciate that medicine has advanced more since World War II than in all of earlier history. Read the whole New York Times article. Now, what was that about the “good old days”?

I still have a soft spot in my heart for Commodore 64s…

…so I enjoyed this article from the Globe and Mail. I hadn’t heard the acronym TPUG in years. It brought back a lot of memories. Through the 1980s I had two C64s, then a C128 (which lasted me until I bought my first PC in 1993), and the only formal computer course I ever took …

Continue reading

Better fiddling through chemistry

The mystery of a Stradivarius’s extraordinary sound has been solved, and it all comes down to the chemicals used to treat the wood, probably to ward off worms. The unique acoustical results were most likely a happy accident.

Is this the face…

…of Jack the Ripper?

The long-lost secret of Damascus blades:

Carbon nanotubes?

Photo of the Day: A Bottle of Seagram’s…

…that’s actually a lighter. What I can’t help wondering is…do you really want people to think of your fine Canadian whiskey as the apparent equivalent to lighter fluid? From the “things I found in my mother-in-law’s house” series. More photos here.

Easy AdSense Pro by Unreal