Author Archives: skullsinthestars

A. Merritt’s Seven Footprints to Satan

Posted on July 20, 2012 by skullsinthestars

Abraham Grace Merritt (1884-1943) was an author with an vivid and bizarre imagination!  Among his surreal fiction stories one can find a hive-like race of metal, electrically powered geometric shapes (The Metal Monster, 1920), a colossal stone face dripping tears … Continue reading →

Posted in Mystery/thriller | 11 Comments

Optics basics: refraction

Posted on July 16, 2012 by skullsinthestars

In all of my discussions of basic principles of optics, I’ve so far neglected to talk about one of the most fundamental and important: refraction!  In short, refraction is the bending of a ray of light when it passes from … Continue reading →

Posted in Optics basics | 6 Comments

Weird Fiction Monday: Mass Effect: Apocalypse

Posted on July 9, 2012 by skullsinthestars

(Updated to add one more smart-ass comment.) It’s time for Weird Fiction Monday, when I post stories that I’ve written — both new and old — for the entertainment (hopefully) of my readers!  As always, I note that I haven’t … Continue reading →

Posted in Fiction | 10 Comments

My own little “Higgs”-related story

Posted on July 3, 2012 by skullsinthestars

The physics community is in a near frenzy today with the expectation that, tomorrow at 9 am Geneva time, researchers at the Large Hadron Collider will announce the first significant evidence that they’ve discovered the “Higgs boson”, a fundamental particle … Continue reading →

Posted in Personal, Physics | 10 Comments

The Giant’s Shoulders #48 is out!

Posted on June 24, 2012 by skullsinthestars

The carnival was a little delayed, and my announcement of it is even more belated, but the 48th edition of The Giant’s Shoulders history of science blog carnival is up at Clerestories!  In the carnival, you can read: The history … Continue reading →

Posted in General science, Science news | Leave a comment

An American in Spain, part 8: Granada and the Alhambra

Posted on June 21, 2012 by skullsinthestars

The final part of the seemingly-endless photo travelogue of my (not quite so) recent trip to Spain with my wife and her family! (Part 1, Part 2, Part 3, Part 4, Part 5, Part 6, Part 7) Having exhausted ourselves with a very extensive visit … Continue reading →

Posted in Travel | 4 Comments

How well can the government spy on us via satellite?

Posted on June 13, 2012 by skullsinthestars

About a week ago, NASA announced some really good and unusual news.  The National Reconnaissance Office, in operation of the United States’ spy satellites, had some extra unused “hardware” to donate to the space agency: two Hubble-quality space telescopes, initially … Continue reading →

Posted in Optics | 18 Comments

Skydives at CarolinaFest 2012!

Posted on June 10, 2012 by skullsinthestars

I’ve been quite busy and having a hard time putting together some science posts.  In the meantime, I thought I’d share a video of a couple of skydives I did a bit over a week ago at CarolinaFest 2012 at … Continue reading →

Posted in Sports | Leave a comment

Laird Barron’s The Croning

Posted on June 3, 2012 by skullsinthestars

I love Laird Barron’s writing!  I first came across his work in the horror collection Haunted Legends; Barron’s story, “The Redfield Girls”, really stood out to me above all the others in terms of its eloquence and eeriness. Since then, … Continue reading →

Posted in Horror | Leave a comment

Weird science facts: April — May 2012

Posted on May 31, 2012 by skullsinthestars

Though I stopped doing a Twitter weird science fact (#weirdscifacts) a day several months ago, I’m still occasionally posting facts as I come across them.  Here’s a collection of a few tidbits I came across over the past couple of … Continue reading →

Posted in Weirdscifacts | Leave a comment