The Hubble Space Telescope is ailing -- its main camera stopped working a few weeks ago, and several of its stabilizing gyroscopes have failed. One more space shuttle servicing mission is scheduled for September 2008. The HST has not only been a marvelous scientific tool, it may well be the best public relations tool astronomy …
Creationist earns PhD
A man named Marcus Ross recently earned his PhD in geology from the University of Rhode Island. The unusual thing about this is that he is a young-earth creationist. With his views on the age of the earth, I was very surprised that the university awarded him his doctorate, and there are secularists out there …
The great train wreck
Here's a great photo for a physics lesson on inertia or kinetic energy: And here's the description of this accident from Wikipedia: On October 22, 1895, the Granville–Paris Express train overran the buffer stop at Gare Montparnasse station. The engine careened across almost 30 metres (100 feet) of the station concourse, crashed through a 60 …
Scottish parliament
Here is the Scottish Parliament debating chamber. It is a beautiful room, with lots of wood and natural light. I like things that are well done. Christians sometimes debate about aesthetics, with some saying our buildings should be built with bare-bones budgets, while others build elaborate cathedrals. Each side in these sorts of debates usually …
Mars and Valentine’s Day
Valentine's Day is just four days away, which makes me wonder... Is Mars the planet of war? After all, Venus was the Roman goddess of beauty and love, while Mars was the god of war. This Valentine's day, let us resolve to think better of the red planet! Mars is really a happy, loving place, …
Galaxies
The Astronomy Picture of the Day for February 8, 2007: Most of the objects in this image are galaxies, even many of the small specks. The only objects that are stars within our own Milky Way Galaxy are those that have spikes. Oh, the depth of the riches and wisdom and knowledge of God! How …
Viewing Mercury
Most people have never seen the planet Mercury, but it has been known since ancient times. Being close to the sun, it is never found high in the night sky; rather it is viewable only shortly after sunset or before sunrise. This week, Mercury will be visible in the western sky after sunset. Mercury is …
Science Videos #2
NOVA -- Watch Online -- A few episodes are available online, some in part, some entirely. Segments range from 2 minutes (Lab meat -- growing edible meat in a lab culture) to 146 minutes (The Elegant Universe -- all about string theory). MIT OpenCourseWare -- Videos of complete lecture courses at the Massachusetts Institute of …
Eat well
From Scientific American Blog: The best dietary advice is fundamentally, "Eat food. Not too much. Mostly plants." Not too complicated. Not very expensive. Not tied to the latest diet fad. Good for your heart, and your wallet. However, I'll still eat a good steak every once in a while. Grace and Peace
Science Videos #1
Thermite reaction - a chemical reaction that generates enough heat to melt iron. Alkali metal reactions - I've put sodium in water for a science demonstration, but that seems rather tame compared to rubidium or cesium in water! Tacoma Narrows Bridge - the ultimate engineering mishap. Concrete and steel are flexible! Liquid metal - watch …
Sponge Moon
Today's Astronomy Picture of the Day is of Hyperion, one of Saturn's 34+ moons. Here is the APOD discription of this image: Explanation: What lies at the bottom of Hyperion's strange craters? Nobody knows. To help find out, the robot Cassini spacecraft now orbiting Saturn swooped past the sponge-textured moon in late 2005 and took …
A wild world of a different sort
Back in October, I wrote a post about the idea of introducing large mammals (elephants, camels, lions, and so on) into the high plains of the United States (see Pleistocene mega-fauna -- coming to a drive-thru safari park near you). The idea is to somewhat restore the pre-human ecosystem by bringing in mammals that went …
Wild World
At the middle school and high school level, biology textbooks usually have a section on biomes, which are large regions of the Earth that have distinctive communities of plants and animals. Examples of biomes include desert, tropical rainforest, temperate grasslands, and tundra. These biomes can be subdivided into smaller ecoregions, which have more specific assemblages …
The Doomsday Clock
The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists has moved its famous "Doomsday Clock" to 5 minutes before midnight. This clock has moved forward and backwards depending on this ("liberal") group's perception of how close the world is to nuclear holocaust (timeline). It has been as close to midnight as 2 minutes during the 1950s, when the …
Knowing God – Chapter 4 Quotes
Chapter 4 of Knowing God is "The Only True God," and it has to do with the prohibition in the Ten Commandments against making idols. "Idolatry consists not only in the worship of false gods, but also in the worship of the true God by images" (quoted from Charles Hodge). Just as it forbids us …
Knowing God – Chapter 3 Quotes
We continue to read Knowing God by J.I. Packer at the dinner table. Chapter three is "Knowing and Being Known." What were we made for? To know God. What aim should we set ourselves in life? To know God. What is the 'eternal life' that Jesus gives? Knowledge of God. 'This is life eternal, that …
World Population
Here is an interesting World Population animation from a biology class web site at the University of Western Kentucky, which calculates the population of the Earth when you were born.
Stellarium
For several years, I have been using Starry Night software in the classroom when teaching about the stars. The students love it, but at $49.95, they were unlikely to be able to do anything with it at home or in our computer lab. I found an excellent substitute for free on the internet: Stellarium. There …
Gas Prices, County by County
US gasoline prices, on a county-by-county basis, are portrayed on the US National Gas Temperature Map. Gas here in Europe ranges from around $4 per gallon (here in Romania) to over $6, so no complaining allowed. Grace and Peace
Church sign generator
A lot of church signs are goofy, or downright heretical. But you can make your own church signs at http://www.churchsigngenerator.com. Here's a few of my own: Grace and Peace ------------------------------------------- PS More generators: Official seal, concert ticket, etc... Street sign Warning signs
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