There's nothing quite like......

a pair of Black Socks!!!!!

Space Shakespearian Sonnet

I'm taking a new tack with this entry. My son composed this sonnet in his class work and I found it to be quite nice. He's currently in 4th grade and he constantly amazes me with his insight. Well I suppose I shouldn't be surprised.... he is the son of a Rocket Scientist after all.


Space Shakespearian Sonnet


Space is very vast
with a lot to see
once you're out there your are free

Saturn, oh, Saturn with your many rings
Jupiter you are so big
Neptune your color sings
Pluto only the size of a fig

Mercury the closest to the sun
Venus hot during a roam
Mars as read as a person after a run
Earth, our home

Astronomy is a great whiz
that's what I think space is

Eating Like An Astronaut

I found a couple of enterprising young chaps that have taken on the daunting task of eating like the brave men and women that call space their home. It's interesting in a simply voyeuristic way and something I'd like to pass along to you dear readers that might not frequent the Gizmodo website.

Eat Like An Astronaut


All I have to say is mmmmmmmm!

Need I say more?

It's a question that's been asked many times before. Thanks to this very insightful young woman that question has be deftly answered.


What is Rocket Science? - Watch more Funny Videos

Vernal (Spring) Equinox

I figured that it would be topical to discuss the "Spring" or more correctly Vernal Equinox since its approach is imminent. As any good "sky jockey" worth his or her salt knows this year the Vernal Equinox is on March 20th at 11:44 am.

Of course one would be remiss to bring up the subject without discussing exactly what the Vernal Equinox is. It's a time when the Earth's axis is neither leaning towards or away from the Sun from which it orbits. At this time the Earths equator is directly blow the Sun during it's orbit.

Now if you've been following this blog for any time at all you might realize that you can't have all meat and sometime you need some gravy. At this time I'd like to direct you to the question that's made great minds ponder for centuries.........

Philip C. Plait's take on the classic egg balancing act.

Oh teddy how I love you!

I could probably gush about this great tutorial but I wouldn't do it justice as much as this lovely Lass.

Ode To The Slide Rule

I want to share with you a few of the tentative conclusions I've reached regarding Pocket Calculators's maneuvers. And I stress the word "tentative," because the subject of what motivates Pocket Calculators is tricky and complex. Perhaps before going on, I should describe Pocket Calculators to you. Pocket Calculators is wanton, untrustworthy, and anal-retentive. Furthermore, it yearns to reduce us to acute penury. For brevity, I won't comment further on that but rather on the way that most people react to Pocket Calculators's intemperate comments as they would to having a pile of steaming pig manure dumped on their doorstep. Even when they can cope, they resent having to do so. Speaking of resentment, by refusing to act, by refusing to operate on today's real—not tomorrow's ideal—political terrain, we are giving Pocket Calculators the power to break up society's solidarity and cohesiveness.Pocket Calculators's legates care more about speaking, acting, and even thinking like Pocket Calculators than they care about what makes sense. I submit that everyone should stop and mull that assertion. Then, you'll understand why Pocket Calculators has, at times, called me "illiterate" or "unbridled". Such contemptuous name-calling has passed far beyond the stage of being infantile but harmless. It has the capacity to introduce absurd, baseless, terror-ridden lawsuits intended to destroy the lives of countless innocent people. Were he alive today, Hideki Tojo would be Pocket Calculators's most trustworthy ally. I can see Tojo joining forces with Pocket Calculators to help it suppress controversy and debate. Pocket Calculators once tried to convince a bunch of us that children should get into cars with strangers who wave lots of yummy candy at them. Fortunately, calmer heads prevailed and a number of people informed the rest of the gang that Pocket Calculators has nothing but contempt for you, and you don't even know it. That's why I feel obligated to inform you that it seems that no one else is telling you that its shell games, like opium, hashish, or alcohol, keep the canaille in a trance and oblivious of reality. So, since the burden lies with me to tell you that, I suppose I should say a few words on the subject. To begin with, Pocket Calculators seems unable to think of turns of speech that aren't hackneyed. What really grates on my nerves, however, is that its prose consists less of words chosen for the sake of their meaning than of phrases tacked together like the sections of a prefabricated henhouse.What is happening between Pocket Calculators's underlings and us is not a debate. It is not a friendly disagreement between enlightened people. It is an effrontive attack on our most cherished institutions. Pocket Calculators's suggestions serve only to safeguard its own power and privilege. Pocket Calculators will almost certainly tiptoe around that glaringly evident fact because if it didn't, you might come to realize that money and greed shape its thinking—and Pocket Calculators knows it. Pocket Calculators is capable of passing very rapidly from a hidden enjoyment of saturnine irrationalism to a proclaimed attachment to escapism and back—and back again. Or, to express that sentiment without all of the emotionally charged lingo, if natural selection indeed works by removing the weakest and most genetically unfit members of a species then Pocket Calculators is clearly going to be the first to go. In effect, I once managed to get Pocket Calculators to agree that it is hard to ignore the impact of its misconduct on our children, our culture, and our national character. Unfortunately, a few minutes later, it did a volte-face and denied that it had ever said that.I'll repeat what I've already said: Some organizations are responsible and others are not. Pocket Calculators falls into the category of "not". Although Pocket Calculators has unfairly depicted me and those who share my beliefs as braggarts and flag burners, we are neither. Yes, it should get with the program, but I appear to have gotten ahead of myself here. I always catch hell whenever I say something like that so let me assure you that perhaps one day we will live in a world where good people are not troubled by fear of ignorant delinquents. Until that day arrives, however, we must spread the word that if the human race is to survive on this planet, we will have to provide an antidote to contemporary manifestations of treasonous, contemptible antagonism.Don't let Pocket Calculators delude you into thinking that it's inappropriate to teach children right from wrong. It's just trying to provide support to backwards banana republics and their nugatory dictators. If anything, Pocket Calculators asserts that sadism forms the core of any utopian society. That assertion is not only untrue but a conscious lie. Pocket Calculators's arguments would be a lot more effective if they were at least accurate or intelligent, not just a load of bull for the sake of being controversial.Do Pocket Calculators's accomplices bring a fresh perspective and new ideas to the current debate? No, that would be the correct and logical thing to do. Instead, they trick us into trading freedom for serfdom.Over time, Pocket Calculators's sentiments have progressed from being merely mutinous to being supermutinous, hypermutinous, and recently ultramutinous. In fact, I'd say that now they're even megamutinous. My next point of order is that I am reminded of the quote, "It makes decisions based on random things glamorized by the press and the resulting rantings of exploitative, high-handed porn stars." This comment is not as disloyal as it seems because Pocket Calculators's cause is not glorious. It is not wonderful. It is not good.I almost forgot: I feel that Pocket Calculators's threats have grown into a quixotic tapestry weaving together classical conspiracy theories of the 19th century and post-Marxian economics. My views, of course, are not the issue here. The issue is that except for a few bright spots, its opuscula are utterly cheeky. So what's the connection between that and its statements? The connection is that it's easy for armchair philosophers to theorize about Pocket Calculators and about hypothetical solutions to our Pocket Calculators problem. It's an entirely more difficult matter, however, when one considers that I wish I didn't have to be the one to break the news that it exudes the foul odor of paternalism. Nevertheless, I cannot afford to pass by anything that may help me make my point. So let me just state that Pocket Calculators likes to understate the negative impact of priggism. Such activity can flourish only in the dark, however. If you drag it into the open, Pocket Calculators and its forces will run for cover, like cockroaches in a dirty kitchen when the light is turned on suddenly during the night. That's why we must condemn—without hesitation, without remorse—all those who reduce human beings to the status of domestic animals.In essence, I'm not very conversant with Pocket Calculators's background. To be quite frank, I don't care to be. I already know enough to state with confidence that we are at a crossroads. One road leads into the light of a bright, shining future in which depraved lunkheads like Pocket Calculators are absolutely absent. The other road leads into the darkness of antinomianism. The question, therefore, is: Who's driving the bus? I'll tell you the answer in a moment. But first, let me just say that we must overcome the fears that beset us every day of our lives. We must overcome the fear that Pocket Calculators will use terms of opprobrium such as "power-hungry purveyors of malice and hatred" and "moonstruck parasites" to castigate whomever it opposes. And to overcome these fears, we must cast a gimlet eye on Pocket Calculators's complaints.If I said that profits come before people, I'd be a liar. But I'd be being entirely honest if I said that it is thoroughly ill-natured, as it has proved to my complete satisfaction. If Pocket Calculators believes that it is a master of precognition, psychokinesis, remote viewing, and other undeveloped human capabilities, then it's obvious why it thinks that the worst types of directionless Huns there are make the best scout leaders and schoolteachers. We must understand that Pocket Calculators sees only one side of the issue. And we must formulate that understanding into as clear and cogent a message as possible. Stand with me, be honest with me, and help me reinvigorate our collective commitment to building and maintaining a sensitive, tolerant, and humane community, and together we'll show principle, gumption, verve, and nerve. We'll shed a little light on some of the ignorant prejudices that reside within Pocket Calculators's pea-sized brain.I for one won't be dragged in and down by the blight of science. I will do as my Daddy did and his Daddy before...... I'll use a damned slide rule thank you very much.