It's another below-freezing day...   So I installed some more replacement lamps today.  These three are in our “TV room” on the second...

Fly...  This one died of natural causes, so far as I can tell.  I found it on a window sill.  The piece of wood holding it upright is a c...

“They didn’t understand how men could not see these problems, but it’s because so many of us are being so goddamn quiet.”  What's it li...

Environmental problems you don't hear about...   One of these I discovered years ago, in reading a book about why cities are so dirty.  ...

“Because we’re primates with vested interests in tracking social hierarchies and patterns of social affiliation.”   I read this article – O...

4°F...   That's what it got down to last night.  It's much warmer now, though: 7°F. One of my neighbors has a ewe, and she's b...

In my basement window casement...

When the sun came up this morning ... I could see that it looks like winter outside!  All this will be gone in a few hours, though – the fo...

Inclusion...   Found in a rock that was cleaved in the process of building our fireplace.  The cleaved surface has hundreds of crystalline...

What could this be?   Why, it's a piece of Hershey's chocolate!  But what are all those little specks visible in the photo (60x, c...

Winter preparations...   The early snowfall motivated me to get ready for winter.  Warm boots and gloves were the first priority, followed q...

Barn: progress report...   The siding crew was here again yesterday.  They installed the tarpaper and mesh base for the rock that will be on...

Philae is asleep on 67P...   If we're really lucky, it will wake up again when enough sunlight hits its solar panels.  One piece of good...

The Department of Energy ... claims to be making big money on it's “green tech”  loan program, despite losses from the bankruptcy of S...

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...