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The author of Skulls in the Stars is a professor of physics, specializing in optical science, at UNC Charlotte. The blog covers topics in physics and optics, the history of science, classic pulp fantasy and horror fiction, and the surprising intersections between these areas. -
Monthly Archives: November 2008
Holiday cards for ‘geeks’
I’m still in holiday mode and not in scienceblogging mode, but I’ll hopefully be back in the swing of things next week. In the meantime, via Americablog, I present ‘Christmas and holiday cards for geeks‘. A sample:
Posted in Silliness
2 Comments
Happy Turkey Day!
I’m using the day as an opportunity to get some work done on my textbook. We managed to eat our Thanksgiving dinner without kitten interference, as they were too tired to notice. Later, however, the fiancée got up to make … Continue reading
Posted in Animals
4 Comments
Lafcadio Hearn’s Oriental Ghost Stories
Lafcadio Hearn (1850-1904) was a very interesting fellow. Reading through his Wikipedia entry, he was definitely not one to run with the crowd. He was raised in Dublin, but moved to Cincinatti, Ohio at the age of 19. Though he … Continue reading
Posted in Horror
5 Comments
Swoop bowling!
This is my busy class day today, so I don’t have time for a detailed post. However, a friend of mine sent me a video of his recent skydiving exploits, which he refers to as ‘swoop bowling’. I present the … Continue reading
Posted in Sports
2 Comments
How good is your civics knowledge?
Via Daily Kos, I learned that there was a U.S. government civics test given to elected officials by the National Civic Literacy Board at ISI. The results were pretty embarrassing: US elected officials scored abysmally on a test measuring their … Continue reading
Posted in Politics
10 Comments
The perfect metaphor for the D’s response to Lieberman
Of course, we’re all familiar with how boldly the Democrats stood up to Joe Lieberman, the man who campaigned not only for the Republican presidential candidate but also numerous down-ticket Republicans. In the end, the Democrats welcomed him back with … Continue reading
Posted in Politics, Silliness
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Copernicus found?
This is cool. Via Americablog, I learn that researchers believe that they have identified the grave of Nicolaus Copernicus — by comparing the skeleton to two hairs found in one of the astronomer’s books! Copernicus (1473-1543) was the Polish astronomer … Continue reading
Posted in Science news
2 Comments
X-rays from Scotch tape?
One of the joys of physics, and science in general, is that even seemingly mundane objects occasionally yield physical surprises. A great example of this made the news about a month ago: the observation that, under the right circumstances, x-rays … Continue reading
Posted in Physics
13 Comments
Zoe’s sidesliding technique
In lieu of more substantive blogging, I present this video of our cat Zoe: She’s developed her own lazy version of playing, in which she slides along the ground on her side after a toy instead of actually getting up … Continue reading
A Skeleton at the Helm, edited by John Richard Stephens
The post-Halloween season is a good time to snoop around for bargain Halloween books at Barnes & Noble, and two weeks ago I stumbled across a very nice collection of classic horror stories set on the high seas! The collection, … Continue reading
Posted in Horror
3 Comments
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