Satan, Get Thee Behind Me

(Satan Sowing Tares–Félicien Joseph Victor Rops 1833-1898) Sometimes I look at other people and think, it must be easier for them than it is for me, they’re always so happy. I’m really picky. I only like certain things, at certain times, in certain colors, and they have to smell good. When things go off and [...]

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the therapist in your head is named corpus callosum

(mid-sagittal brain fibers that connect the two hemispheres through the corpus callosum, photographed by Thomas Schultz–2006) In my last post, which you can read here, I noted that it is important for me to take some quiet moments to listen to what my emotional body is telling me. If I’m able to do that I can [...]

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who likes cubism?

(Le Pigeon aux Petits Pois-Picasso, 1911) Raise your hand if you like cubism, please! I used to not like it. The first time I saw some cubism, I was just bored. But then again, I was 15 and I felt bored with everything. You could have shown me a mathematical equation for a process that eliminated [...]

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alternative science.

(Roger-Noël-François de La Fresnaye) I was reading a blog posting this afternoon when I came across this quote: The greatest threat to science and scientific progress is not religion, ignorance, or superstition, it is the mistaking of a model or paradigm for Reality, or “laws of Nature.” It is the creation of a type of religious [...]

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johannes kepler-imperial mathematician, murder suspect, harbinger of the industrial revolution.

Aristotle had done ancient and medieval astronomers a considerable service by drawing a line between physics and the mathematical sciences, including astronomy, in a way that could be interpreted to mean that astronomers need not search for Aristotelian “causes” for celestial motions. By Ptolemy’s day, it had become routine to invent devices such as the [...]

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kitties, mooses, noses and dwarves-astronomers are people-pt III

The last two astronomers I’m going to expound upon have a book written about them entitled Tycho and Kepler: The Unlikely Partnership that Forever Changed our Understanding of the Heavens. It’s written by a woman named Kitty Ferguson. (I love that name…Kitty Ferguson…what a terrific marriage of whimsy and pragmatism!) Usually I find historical non-fiction [...]

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astronomers are people–pt II

Last night I looked at M13, M57, Jupiter and his four Galilean moons, the Swan Nebula, the Andromeda Galaxy, and Comet Hartley, all through a majorly big telescope (24 inch Cassegrain) at Pine Mountain Observatory. The inside of the telescope looked like this (although this is actually the inside of the 32 inch experimental scope): [...]

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astronomers are people too-part one.

Columbus Day is rapidly approaching. I know that, because two of my sisters were born on Columbus Day. And one nephew too. One of my sisters, whose birthday is rapidly approaching, got me a present for my birthday (which is in April) and even if she didn’t mail me my present yet, she got me [...]

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you eat bugs, you just don’t know it. (til now)

(Inago no Tukudani: Locust with sweet soy sauce savor) Aside from in the United States, Canada and Europe, most cultures eat insects for their taste, nutritional value and availability. (from HowStuffWorks.com) It’s called entomophagy, literal translation from Greek entomos, insect and phagein, to eat…and it happens all the time. All you picky Canadians, Europeans and United Statesians who [...]

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michaelmas daisy.

(Aster Blooms photographed by André Karwath aka Aka) I’ve been seeing this pretty little flower all around town of late. How could I have missed this all summer long? I asked my 11-year-old what kind of flower it was because she has a memory like a steel trap when it comes to flowers. She told me [...]

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