Category Archives: Science

Fascinating how this train is levitated and propelled by MAGNETISM!

Here’s a great animation to explain a bit about those enigmatic Black Holes in our Universe.

Uncle Jay’s word for the week is Independents!

Try this little quiz. Guaranteed to surprise you about which foods have the most calories.  I only got 50% correct.  Let me know how you did.

Check out this MUST READ article!

072.jpgIf you’re ever in the Tucson area, don’t miss the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum.  Part zoo, part botatical gardens, part hands on desert experience, the museum is dedicated to learning and teaching all there is to know about the vast Sornoran Desert.  I’ve never had a zoo or gardens experience like it.  The place is outstanding, beautiful, intimate and welcoming.081.jpg

 

I have long loved the banana.  Here are 20 reasons to include them regularly in your diet. 

WikiHow even tells you how to slice a banana BEFORE you peel it!

Uncle Jay’s word of the week is STELLAR.

Test your OBSERVATION SKILLS with this great little challenge from the Audubon Society.  I needed unlimited time but I got them all. 

 

The GBBC is a lot of fun, if you’re doing it for fun.  If you’re serious about science, don’t bother.

I have participated for years, but I began to discover that if my sightings or numbers disagreed with Cornell’s preconceived notions about what should be in my area, they were disallowed out of hand.  I wrote them and complained and even received promises that the situation would be resolved, seldom to see any changes.  I finally concluded that it wasn’t science and quit participating.  You’ll note that I’ve made some alterations to my oringinal post.  birdchaser has graciously and professionally dealt with my issues in a very timely and personal manner.  I consider them resolved and hope I have not dissuaded any of you from having fun participating in the count.  I think now that I acted a bit brashly and appologize.  However, had I been treated like birdchaser has treated me, two years ago, I wouldn’t have been so bitter in the first place.  That makes for a great lesson in interpersonal relations and good communications skills.  Kudos to birdchaser for caring enough to deal with my issues in such a straight forward, warm and sincere manner.

 The Great Backyard Bird Count is not about learning new things about the birds in our world, except at the personal level, its about supporting somebody’s ego somewhere.

Read the details at What’s Up With That!  Looks like the Polar Bears are safe after all.  Whew!  Al, you gave us a bit of a scare there.

A lunar eclipse will dazzle us this month on the evening of February 21st.  Learn about this and other wonders of the February Sky at Amazing Space.

The top photo was recently released by NASA.  It was captured by a Mars Rover.  Pretty odd looking rock; or is it Sasquatch?  The last image is the first reversed.  Perhaps even a female Sasquatch.  Just about as likely there as here I should think.  Read NASA’s explanation.

A cargo ship pulled by a giant, parachute-shaped kite will leave Germany on Tuesday on a voyage that could herald a new “green” age of commercial sailing on the high seas.

Read about it in the Telegraph.

The structure of this ant colony covers 538 square feet and travels 26 feet into the earth. In it’s construction, the colony moved 40 tons of soil. Billions of ant loads of soil were brought to the surface. Each load weighed four times as much as the worker ant, and in human terms, was carried over 1/2 mile to the surface.  

In the video scientists pour 10 tons of concrete into the colony to learn about it’s structure.

Amazing!

I just read great article in the Christian Science Monitor that really opened my eyes.  Imagine the enormous good we would do the planet if we all observed the Sabbath!  Give the earth a rest every seven days.  It would be good for us and enormously good for the environment.

Personally, I don’t know how I’d survive if I didn’t observe a weekly day of rest.  It is not a hard concept, but greed and public demand have taken that away from many of us.  Recently, my sweet sister-in-law, upon hearing that the local Walmart was 200 people short of a full staff, suggested that they close the store on Sunday.  It was a brilliant idea!  The existing staff is stressed enormously to keep up a busy store.  A day off would reduce the time demand significantly, allow the staff to catch their breath and all without reducing the sales volume significantly at all.  People would just shop on the six remaining days.

I have a friend who moved from Brigham City, Utah to Evanston, Illinois, just north of Chicago.  I asked him what the biggest shock he experienced as a result of the move to a much larger city.  His reply shocked and shamed me.  “In Evanston, all of the stores are closed on Sunday!”

Many of our youth are kept away from church, family and much needed rest, on the Sabbath because the only entry level jobs around, require working on Sunday.  How much harm do we do them by this one solvable problem.

 We could improve life on so many fronts if we’d just keep this simple commandment.  Of course, the solution begins with each of us individually.  If we don’t shop, travel, and dine out on Sunday, the establishments that cater to us won’t be able to justify staying open.  It’s easy to think that my personal effort in that regard won’t make a difference.  Each vote does count.  And, we can do more, we can encourage others to join us.

This new environmental approach, gives me hope that we can gain some political clout in the quest for change, as well.  The environment is a big deal these days.  Simply keeping this one principle would do more for the environment than all the other efforts combined!  It would be healthy, inexpensive, realistic and would bring imediate results!  Let’s start pushing for it!

Big business will resist, of course!  Just like the wealthy plantation owners and shipping giants in Britain, in the 18th Century, resisted the abolishment of the slave trade.  But like the abolition of slavery, keeping the Sabbath Holy, is the right thing to do and it can prevail, if we insist upon it.

Antti Kemppainen  has done what seemed to me to be impossible.  This photograph captures an explosion of fireworks, a bolt of lightning and….. drum roll….. the Comet McNaught all at the same instant!  Not only that but the photograph was wonderfully well crafted.  I suspect from his name Antti may be Finish, but the photo was taken in Australia.  Kudos Antti, a very impressive shot!

I found it at Astronomy Picture of the Day.