RIP Eduard Khil

For those who aren't familiar with his work, Eduard Khil was a Russian singer. Khil became known to a western audience in 2010 when a 1976 recording of him singing a non-lexical vocable version of the song "I Am Glad, 'Cause I'm Finally Returning Back Home" became an Internet meme, known as "Trololo".  The video is embedded below. I hope it brings...

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Alan Turing

Last Saturday was the 100th birthday of Alan Turing. Who, you ask? Thomas McDonald has a good overview of his life and contributions. Wikipedia has a more in depth biography. Any student of Computer Science will learn about Turing at some point. He defined what came to be known as the Turing Machine, which is not a physical machine at all, but a thought...

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Monday Joke

A lawyer dies and arrives at the pearly gates. Saint Peter asks him "What have you done to merit entrance into heaven?" The lawyer thinks a moment and replies, "A week ago, I gave homeless person a quarter." Saint Peter asks Gabriel to check this out in the record, and after a moment Gabriel confirms it. Saint Peter says, "Well , that's fine,...

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Dystopia

I've never been a big fan of dystopian movies like THX 1138 or 1984. I found Fahrenheit 451 to be fairly decent, and Gattaca was actually good, but aside from that, I can't think of any dystopian movies I've enjoyed. Books fair better, but not much. I recently finished Lord of the World, and despite other people telling me that "the end makes it...

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Because Truth is Beautiful

Came across a site, Best Catholic Posters. If you want some nice posters of prayers, scripture, science, or some brochures, holy cards, art, calendars, etc. You can find it there. They also have some free downloads of posters and material. Check it o...

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Young Women I Admire

There are certainly enough horror stories in the news. But occasionally there is something that gives one some hope that the next generation is not as bad as the one before it. I recently read two stories of young women who went against the prevailing culture to do what's right, and thought I would share their stories. Meghan Vogel is a runner; the...

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Monday Joke

One of the people I like to listen to and read is Julie Davis. She and Scott Danielson do an awesome podcast called A Good Story is Hard to Find. She also podcasts at Forgotten Classics, and blogs at Meanwhile Back in the Kitchen and Happy Catholic. Over at Happy Catholic, Julie often (not always) offers a "weekend joke" on her blog. every Monday I...

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Fracture Mechanics

While surfing around the Interwebs this morning I came across this reflection, that I wanted to share with you all. Click here for the complete post. Fracture mechanics is the science of studying sudden-failure phenomenon. Materials have a yield strength (the stress under which they will yield) but in many cases materials fail at applied stresses below...

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Eureka

I confess, one of the shows I follow on TV is the SyFy channel original series Eureka. Yes, it is often hokey, and the science is bogus, and the alternate universe stuff gets annoying, but for whatever reason, I find it enjoyable. So there. Besides, it's in its final season. Warning, here come spoilers. If you've been watching recent episodes, ...

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How to View the Tranist of Venus

If you've been following science news at all, you know there is a transit of Venus on Tuesday. The image to the right is one I took of the last transit of Venus. This is what a transit looks like. Kinda cool. Having been asked by a couple of folks I thought I'd make a post on how to safely view the transit of Venus which is scheduled for around...

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Good Design

Some things are just so well designed you nkow that a lot of thought and effort has gone into the planning. For instance, each time I start my car, the radio resets the volume so that it doesn't blare at me, even though the volume might have been left up high when it was turned off. And even then, the sound doesn't just come on, but it fades in at...

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Hoax

I came across an atheist site that had a "challenge" of sorts. It listed the attributes of a "Hoax Religion" and asks the question "How is your religion different from a hoax religion?" Now, I'm not saying for one minute I think these are accurate attributes, but I thought it would be interesting to see how my religion (Catholicism) stacks up against...

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