That’s right – sixty years ago today, Yuri Gagarin from the Soviet Union became the first human in space, and the first to orbit the Earth, and the first to scare the hell out of some Russian farmers when he landed, mostly due to the secrecy that the Soviet space program maintained. I’ve covered my thoughts on this accomplishment, and the space race in general,
Category: Science & Evolution
That story I mentioned
So in the wildlife rehab post recently, I mentioned a story about a grey squirrel and that I may explain it in detail later. That post was first made in 2013, then reposted in 2014 and again in 2021, and I am now getting around to relating that story I figure eight years is enough to build the suspense…
At the time, I worked for a humane society that tackled a lot of projects, among them wildlife
Too cool, part 47: ze frank is back
I’ve already seen at least two other websites that have featured this video, so I’m slow, but we already knew that. Still, it was too good not to feature, a fine mix of information, illustration, and humor – because it’s by ze frank of course. I’m never sure how to capitalize or separate that…
Anyway, if you haven’t seen it (or even if you have,) take a gander
Too cool, part 46: Perseverance
This is far from the first place you’re likely to have seen this, but there’s also no way I can let this go past. You have almost certainly heard about the touchdown of the Perseverance rover on Mars a few days back now we have the videos of that touchdown, even taken
Here’s why: Bigfoot and related
I haven’t followed through on this category of posts for a while, and now is as good a time as any, so let’s delve into why science doesn’t take Bigfoot/Yeti/Skunk Ape et al seriously. And while I focused on the giant humanoid accounts here, a lot of this will be equally applicable to other cryptids such as the Loch Ness Monster and Chupacabra and so on. So let’s
So many questions
I had started this a little while ago and was hashing out the drafts when I realized Darwin’s birthday was coming up, and felt delaying it until now was appropriate. That said, I apologize in advance, because this post is simply begging for a lot more research on my part, but instead of engaging in that and coming back with something more informative, I’m plowing ahead in ignorance (like
But how? Part 28: But why?
Various aspects and versions of this one have been tackled before, but I decided to approach this directly when reading about some of the alternate theories (other than the Big Bang) regarding the beginning of the known universe. The author said that there were two approaches to some of the traits that have been proposed as alternate scenarios:
- We can attempt to devise a theoretical mechanism to explain those phenomena, while simultaneously maintaining all the successes of the prior theory and making novel predictions that are distinct from the prior theory’s predictions.
- Or we can simply assume that there is no explanation, and the Universe was simply born with the properties necessary to give us the Universe we observe.
The second outright announces that no one’s even
This week needs some restraint
There’s a bunch of stuff going on this week that you should already be absolutely aware of and I could avoid posting entirely, but just in case…
This entire week is the Lyrids meteor shower, peaking around Tuesday but hey, meteor
What makes it special
On this date, we remember the man from above, the carpenter’s son who changed the world for all humankind and brought in a whole new culture, outlook, and future by his selfless actions, regardless of how anyone personally feels about it within circles that somehow dismiss his presence. So today, let’s all keep him in our hearts, and strive to emulate the courage and convictions of
Something after all
First off, I must start with the obligatory daffodil, the first in our yard at least. It opened sometime yesterday but the rain didn’t stop until that evening, so it’s a nighttime flash shot.
But I spent the past couple of days trying to find something to do for Darwin Day, which is today: Charles Darwin was born on this date in 1809, and of course,
