On the way home from work the other day, I spotted the following cloud in the sky:
So what does it look like to you?
The weather was iffy this morning, but I went out to the drop zone anyway to see if the weather would be good enough to make a skydive. It turns out it was; however, none of my usual jump friends apparently felt the same way, so I didn’t make a jump!
On the way back, though, I pass through farm country. The cotton is now in full bloom and pretty much ready to be harvested. I snapped a few pictures with the new iPhone and stitched together a couple of panoramas, which I post below.
While I’m thinking about it, I just wanted to thank The Wife again for making a really excellent gluten-free meatloaf for dinner last night! Meatloaf became one of my favorite meals in recent years, and I’ve really missed it since trying to stay off gluten products.
Thanks honey!
A few months ago, The Ridger noted the birthday of weird fiction author Manly Wade Wellman, and introduced me to his character “John the Balladeer”, also known as “Silver John” but typically just known as “John”: an Appalachian mountain man and wanderer who faces off against supernatural evil using only his wits, his brawn, his goodness, and his silver-stringed guitar. Wellman wrote 5 novels and a collection of short stories about John; I’m waiting to purchase an upcoming reprint of the short stories, but I couldn’t wait to read about John’s exploits! I picked up all 5 novels and went through them in short order. All of them I believe are currently out of print; a photo of my used collection is shown below:
The five novels are:
Let’s take a look at the wonderful character of Silver John and the adventures he has…
Hi all — I’m planning to keep The Giant’s Shoulders as a monthly event for the foreseeable future, but we’re going to need some more hosts! If you’re willing to host an upcoming edition of TGS, please let me know via email or the comments.
(I’ve already got Eric from The Primate Diaries as a volunteer, but that was a while ago; hopefully he remembers!)
The fifteenth edition of The Giant’s Shoulders is up at Entertaining Research! Many thanks to guru for putting it together!
The deadline for the next edition is October 15th, and it will be held at Quiche Moraine. Entries can be submitted through blogcarnival.com or directly to the host blog, as usual!
Check back next Monday for more “miscellaneous” highlights!
A few days ago, Chad at Uncertain Principles commented on an article which predicts the death of the traditional university at the hands of online “colleges” offering unlimited classes for $99/month. I thought Chad did a fine job of tamping down the “get smart quick and cheap” enthusiasm the article has for such options, and didn’t feel the need to add to it, until the dean of my college sent a link to another article about such options, “Welcome to Yahoo! U.”
For me, such articles raise two questions: “Will online colleges kill the traditional university?” and “Should they?” My answer to the second question is “no”, and my answer to the first is “maybe, maybe not”.
As someone who just submitted their tenure package this month for review, I obviously have a vested interest in the fate of the university!
This result came out a few months ago, and I’ve been looking for the time to write about it ever since: in a paper published in the June 5 issue of Science, scientists reported the discovery of the first natural quasicrystal!
Of course, in order to get excited about this result, one needs to know what a quasicrystal is! In this post, we’ll take a look at what we mean by the terms ‘crystal’ and ‘quasicrystal’, and then explain why the discovery of a natural quasicrystal is significant.
Well, I finally broke down and got myself an iPhone! My Verizon contract was up, and my phone was getting pretty beat up. Verizon had been getting on my nerves over the past few years with shenanigans such as this one; last week I think this one was the last straw.
So here’s a question: what iPhone apps should I get? Are there any apps that are absolutely essential? What do iPhone users think?
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. 
Skulls in the Stars 