Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, fun facts, science, Thoughts, trivia on December 13, 2021| Leave a Comment »
The other day I found myself wondering, “Why does Venus spin in a different direction than most other planets?”
Short answer: Something Big Happened. We don’t know what but There Are Theories.
Longer answer, in case you need all the exciting details for trivia night:
Why does Venus spin the ‘wrong’ way round? – 2 Sisters In STEM
Venus – NASA Solar System Exploration
Bonus fact: The average surface temperature of Venus is 864°, perfect for baking pizza.
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Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, Fiction, free fiction, genre fiction, sff, Thoughts, writing on December 1, 2021| Leave a Comment »
I’m a little too caught up in work to write the piece I was planning for today, so instead we have a free story via Slate’s Future Tense Fiction. It’s long, so save it for when you have time to do a little thinking about the environment, technology, and society.
“Ride,” a new short story about climate change, A.I., and social credit by Linda Nagata, with a non-fictional response by Henry Grabar, a journalist who reports on cities and autonomous vehicles.
Jasmine’s thoughts turned to the boy. He’d claimed he’d met someone on a shared taxi ride, a nameless stranger who’d told him about the Easter egg—a hidden bit of code embedded in the programming controlling the city’s autonomous taxi fleet.
Probably, the boy had been stringing her along. Yet there had been something about him, a sweetness, a rare sincerity that made her want to believe him—and anyway, what was the harm?
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Posted in Entertainment, Likes, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, creativity, fun, inspiration, interesting, internet, Thoughts, wackiness ensuing on November 17, 2021| Leave a Comment »
I accumulate a lot of links. Work links, sure, but on my way to the data mines I often come across fun, interesting, obscure or downright delightful corners of the web. They inform me when I need a bit of learning with lunch, cheer me up when the news is too newsy, and otherwise remind me that the internet, like the world, is not 100% terrible.
What sort of links? I’m so glad you asked:)
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Look Up! An Introduction to Identifying Raptors in Flight
* The answer is yes.
20 of the Best History Podcasts to Help Us Actually Learn From the Past
Honest Government Ad | Carbon Capture & Storage – YouTube
Introducing the Icelandverse – YouTube
Bohemian Catsody – A Rhapsody Parody Song for Every Cat Queen and King! – YouTube
This man won a Guinness World Record for his tree that bears 10 types of fruit
The True Story of the Blue People of Kentucky
Photos of the world above and below the sea by David Doubilet
Periodic Table of the Elements, in Pictures and Words
How to Identify that Light in the Sky
Scientists Create 3,000 TB Simulation of the Universe You Can Download
And since I’m a baker, here’s one last link:
All You Could Ever Want to Know About a Pumpkin Slingshot
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Posted in Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, climate change, Fiction, imagination, inspiration, superheroes, Thoughts, writing on October 23, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Part of what good fiction does is to create a world and place the reader in it, allowing you to imagine yourself battling the Empire, slaying the dragon, or rescuing the fair prince in distress. But I get it, fiction is also a distancing mechanism.
Satisfying stories open with a problem and close when that problem is resolved, leaving the reader with the sense that they’ve helped and no more needs to be done. I think that can be particularly true when it comes to real challenges like climate change.
Sometimes what’s needed is a picture.
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Meet ThisClimateDoesNotExist, a project by a group of scientists from the Quebec AI Institute in Montreal. They’ve put together a tool that lets you visualize the impact of climate change not on the world in general, or even a region, but on an address.
Take Killian Court at MIT, overlooking the Charles River. What would it look like flooded?* Or the US Capitol Building? Or the Sam’s Club parking lot in West Palm Beach, The Alamo in San Antonio (and I’m pretty sure we can kiss the River Walk goodbye), Pike’s Place Market in Seattle, or (now it’s getting real) the Guinness Brewery in Dublin?
* Not worried about flooding? Try the options for wildfire or smog. Also unpleasant!
Then picture yourself there too. Who better to be the hero of that story?
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Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, inspiration, Thoughts, xkcd on October 21, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, fun facts, inspiration, learning@lunch, ocean, Thoughts on October 19, 2021| 1 Comment »
I found this visualization of ocean denizens and depth fascinating. It looks simple but keep scrolling down (and scrolling, and scrolling) to see what lives where and how.
Elephant seals can dive to 2400 meters deep? That may be why the Headless Chicken Fish (real name) goes 500 meters deeper. Then there’s the Cookiecutter Shark, Flabby Whalefish, Dumbo Octopus, Sea Pig, Faceless Fish (who comes up with these names, they’re awesome) and not-really-related to jellyfish Comb Jelly.
And did you know that Orange Roughy can live up to 200 years? Or that the Patagonian Toothfish is found down to 3900 meters and has antifreeze in its tissue? I didn’t.
Next time there’s a choice of fish for dinner I think I’ll head over to Seafood Watch to find the most sustainable options. And skip the Orange Roughy.
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Posted in Entertainment, Science!, Writing, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, genre fiction, inspiration, learning@lunch, NASA, space exploration on October 12, 2021| 1 Comment »
What am I reading with lunch? How about a graphic novel about a woman, space, and a spunky little robot? App and interactivity are optional (but could be fun).
NASA – First Woman (read online, download PDF)
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Posted in Likes, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, family, meteor shower, NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day on September 28, 2021| 1 Comment »
Today’s Astronomy Photo of the Day is a video, two and a half minutes of the Perseid meteor shower as seen from the Indian Astronomical Observatory in Hanle, India.
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Watching this takes me back. We would wake up at three in the morning and head to the back yard to watch meteors burn through the atmosphere. I’d anchor myself on Orion, my first and still favorite constellation, then watch the sky for the next magical streak of green.
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Posted in Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, space, Thoughts on July 16, 2021| Leave a Comment »
How long would it take for a ball to drop on Venus or Jupiter or Mars? This cool visualization knows!
Posted in Likes, Science!, tagged #365Ways, #365Ways2021, family, home, Lampyridae, memories, Thoughts on July 2, 2021| Leave a Comment »
Yesterday I took a brief break to check on my butterfly weed (blooming happily!) and noticed an interesting beetle by the door.
“Ooh,” I asked myself, “could that be a firefly?”
It could. It was.
Last night, between brightly-colored expressions of Canadian joy (aka celebratory fireworks), we spotted brightly-colored expressions of firefly joy above the cedar hedge. The lone Lampyridae had a hard time competing, but he gave it his best shot.
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I have great memories of family nights outside in the garden when I was a kid, watching hundreds of fireflies looking for love. It was magic.
We don’t have hundreds now, but I’m working to make our yard as firefly-friendly as I can, particularly around mating season (aka now). Here’s how:
Some of the things you can do:
Time to recapture a bit of that summer magic.
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