The case of the smoking bulb...   That's an LED bulb, a “candelabra” bulb enclosed in a glass envelope.  When I installed this particu...

There once was ... a playground for “special needs” kids in Seattle.  It was a really nice place for these kids; the only one in the enti...

Quote of the day...   From P. J. O'Rourke: “There is only one basic human right, the right to do as you damn well please.  And with it...

A clarifying example ... of how politicians think.  The FCC has been signaling for months that it's considering some level of Internet ...

The science of ... snow rollers!   There are a lot more snow roller photos, along with an explanation of how they form ...

Barn: progress report...   The siding crew has completely finished all the siding on the first floor, and have installed the soffits on th...

So what does a winter wuss do when there's white stuff outside?   He assembles shelves, of course.  At right is one of our storerooms ...

Barn: progress despite the white stuff!   The siding contractors are here, beavering away in their winter garb, hanging siding on the barn. ...

What's that white stuff, part 2...   Well, it's coming down in large quantities now.  Big, fluffy snowflakes.  There's about a h...

Great moments in conduit laying...  I took these two photos late yesterday afternoon, while Jim J. and his son Talon were laying the condui...

What's that white stuff?   It's snow, and it's coming down with a completely unreasonable enthusiasm.  Depending on which fore...

The day of the lights...   It was too darned cold out yesterday for me to work outside, so I spent much of the day installing new light fixt...

The wisdom of farmers...   Via my mom, who for once is enjoying warmer temperatures than I am... Farmer John once lived on a quiet rural h...

If life gives you nails ... then obviously, you sculpt with them.  Well, that's what John Bisbee says, anyhow!  Many more photos here...

Follow the bouncing Philae...   The Philae lander made it down to Comet 67P's surface, but not in the way it was designed to do.  The ...

The surprising history of sliced bread...   I was very surprised to learn that the first commercially sliced bread was produced in 1928 . ...

Our sun ... in a gorgeous time-lapse movie covering the last two weeks of October 2014.  You can see AR 2192 (the largest sunspot in over...

Barn: conduit is being run!   This morning the builder's son (Trent J.) finished up the shovel work on the conduit trench (I finished th...

Barn: the siding is going on!   A crew of five showed up this morning, unloaded all sorts of tools (including a 20' metal-bending brak...

Awesome geekery!   That's a drawing of 18th century Italian scientist Amedeo Avogadro ...