Photo: Lightning in Front of Eclipse

Astronomy Picture of the Day has a nice shot of a lightning strike during the recent lunar eclipse.

Space Station With Shuttle

Astronomy Picture of the Day has a great photo of the International Space Station with the Space Shuttle Endeavour docked.

Photos and plans of the Hindenburg

This site has plans and photos of the various decks and cabins on the Hindenburg.  The interiors seem like a strange cross between old ocean liners and modern airplanes although the cabins look a bit like those on trains.

Obit: Man Who Flew Through a Mushroom Cloud

The Telegraph has the obituary of Air Marshal Sir Geoffrey Dhenin.  As a young pilot he was given the assignment of flying though the mushroom cloud after a nuclear test.

When the first weapon was detonated, on October 13, Dhenin was already airborne at 30,000ft. As soon as the mushroom cloud developed he turned towards it and placed a wing tip, with a sensor attached, into the cloud to obtain radiation readings. Using special instruments, his observer calculated the probable dose rate. Once assured that the rate “would not be suicidal”, Dhenin turned for the centre of the cloud.

Disney tries to Trademark "Seal Team 6"

I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or not but, according to the Associated Press, the day after the raid that killed Osama bin Laden the Disney corporation tried to trademark the name "Seal Team 6".

Age Your Own Whiskey

American Drink has a post about a kit that lets you "make" or at least finish making your own whiskey. The kit comes with a wooden barrel and some raw whiskey that you put in the barrel for as long as you want.

I would assume this is not available in Canada.

Lego in Space

I often blog about Lego and I often blog about space so naturally I couldn't resist this Gizmodo story about Lego in space.

I thought this was interesting:

the sets will be enclosed in a see-through glove box, "so the small pieces don't get lost in the station." Coleman—who actually trained to do this—will build the sets inside that glove box, demonstrating how they work afterwards in front of millions of kids.

Gravity Plays the Marimba

Make has a post with a video (actually a Samsung ad) of a huge long marimba that is "played| by a ball rolling along it.  It is sort of like musical falling dominoes.

Fitness Myths

I had a bit of trouble picking a name for this post.  The actual article in Men's Journal is called "Everything You Know About Fitness is a Lie" which isn't entirely true since most of what is in the article is well known.  The Lifehacker post that lead me to the article is called "Use Your Gym Better By Learning Its Secrets" which again isn't really what the article is about.

To me the article, which I thought was well worth reading, is about one man's journey towards fitness.  Along the way he makes many observations some of which lead to the two titles above.

Photo: Freedom 7 Liftoff

Astronomy Picture of the Day has a great shot of Freedom 7 - the rocket carrying the first American astronaut - moments after liftoff.

Table Becomes Picture Frame

Make has a post showing a wall mounted picture that folds down into a table.

Where There is No Doctor

I have heard of the book "Where there is no Doctor" many times before and had always wondered about getting a copy - just in case.  Now the book is available online as a PDF.

Lego: Balloon Over Mountains

I love the fake perspective in this Lego vignette.

Lights Under Italian Clouds

National Geographic Photo of the Day has a nice picture of an Italian valley with clouds lit from below.

Canada's Oldest Hercules Leaves Afghanistan

Several interesting facts in this article from the Ottawa Citizen about the Canadian Air Force's oldest Hercules being moved back to Canada.

The C-130 H Hercules has flown nearly 45,000 hours and nearly 18 million kilometres since it was ordered by the Diefenbaker government.

That's over 5 years in the air and 23 round trips to the moon.

I also thought this was amusing:

Col. Al Meitzinger, Canada's last air wing commander in Kandahar, discovered a few days ago that he had a personal connection to the departing aircraft going back to the time when he was a Grade 5 student. His father, Chief Warrant Officer Dave Meitzinger (ret.), checked his old logs and discovered that he flew the same aircraft (tail number 130819) as a loadmaster from 1977 to 1980.

Wolfram Alpha can help you with crosswords

This may be overkill but if you type a partial word into Wolfram Alpha with underscores instead of some of the letter, you will get a list of possible words.

For example: ch__s_b___er

Obama's Cone of Silence

The BBC has an article about the mobile security setup that the US president uses when he travels.

Designed to withstand eavesdropping, phone tapping and computer hacking, Sensitive Compartmented Information Facilities - also known as SCIFs - are protected areas where classified conversations can be held.
They can be permanent enclosures within a building, or mobile areas set up when a world leader is on the move, to allow them to view sensitive documents or have secret conversations without any outsiders listening or hacking in.

Video: The Joy of Stats

The Hans Rosling video The Joy of Stats is now online.  It is a bit long, almost an hour, but is a good intro to what Rosling has been saying about how statistics can be used to help people.  He also makes the point that increasingly powerful computers make bigger and bigger volumes of data usable by humans.

A while ago I blogged about a TED talk that Rosling did using animated graphics to show changes in statistics from the third world.  Still worth a look if you don't have time for the Joy of Stats.

Marines Need Their Chocolate Milk

According to this article in Slate, the US Marine Corps requires the companies that run their mess halls to have chocolate milk at all meals.

The US Army on the other hand has the following breakfast requirements:

eggs-made-to-order, three types of bread, three types of meat, six kinds of cereal, no fewer than one potato dish, and at least one pastry

Intelligence Artist

You may have heard of War Artists who are officially sanctioned artists who accompany troops on missions but the New York Times has an article about an artist who did a similar thing for MI6, the British Secret Service.