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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. -
Author Archives: skullsinthestars
Skydiving ‘Free for All’: A speedstar jump
I broke out another of my skydiving videos to post on YouTube the other day. This one, below the fold, is what is known as a “speedstar”. Most formation skydives are meticulously planned to be “slot perfect”: that is, every … Continue reading
Entering the Google ‘jetstream’
Just an entertaining blog stats observation: a few days ago I noticed that my blog stats started to really spike upwards. This completely confused me at first, as all the hits were appearing on my semi-old post on elephant intelligence. … Continue reading
Posted in Personal
2 Comments
Fizeau’s experiment: The original paper
When I wrote my ‘speed of light’ post, I had to do a lot of searching to find Fizeau’s original paper. Fizeau, as I mentioned, produced the first terrestrial measurement of the speed of light, using a rapidly rotating toothed … Continue reading
Posted in Physics
17 Comments
I need to swear more
Via Respectful Insolence, I found a wonderful web tool that allows you to rate the amount of cussin’ you do on your blog. I rated a pathetic 1.7%: I need to swear more, for fuck’s sake…
Posted in Silliness
4 Comments
Happy birthday to Christopher Walken!
One can hardly let March 31st go by without wishing iconic actor Christopher Walken a happy birthday! This quirky actor has played a number of offbeat roles, including a seemingly-insane drill sergeant in Biloxi Blues, a Bond villain in A … Continue reading
Posted in Entertainment
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C.L. Moore’s Black God’s Kiss
I mentioned in a previous post the “Planet Stories” publications, which are reprints of classic pulp fantasy, horror, and adventure stories. I finished recently one of those publications, Black God’s Kiss, the collected stories of C.L. Moore’s character Jirel of … Continue reading
Posted in Fantasy fiction, Robert E. Howard
6 Comments
Max Brooks’ World War Z
I’ve previously described Max Brooks’ first book, The Zombie Survival Guide, which I found to be a both amusing and chilling fictional field guide written in the wake of a world-wide zombie holocaust. My favorite part of that book was … Continue reading
Phishers: It’s like they’re not even trying any more…
I get so many `phishing’ emails that I used to not bother even looking at them, but some of them are such comedy gold that I’m starting to enjoy the bizarre tales that they tell (like, for instance, the one … Continue reading
Bradley Steffens’ Ibn al-Haytham: First Scientist
A few weeks ago I did a post on the camera obscura and noted that the earliest researcher to really understand its properties was the middle-eastern scientist Ibn al-Haytham (965-1040), who in spite of his impressive achievements is rarely discussed … Continue reading
Posted in General science
7 Comments
Wednesday catblogging: Intrepid Eleanor!
I just had to post about Eleanor, my semi-adopted stray cat. When I arrived back late last night from my trip, she was waiting at the front door for me, wanting to be let in. Of course, I let her … Continue reading
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