Recently in CONTEXT

Monday, January 18, 2021

Burning Oxygen in an Atmosphere of Propane

Isaac Asimov wrote a science fiction story, “The Dust of Death” based on a similar premise. We now know that the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Titan is composed mostly of nitrogen, with methane less than 5% by volume.

Posted at 21:37

Sunday, January 17, 2021

Building an Apollo Ground Service Equipment Panel Prop

Putting a collection of those cool Apollo-era control panel switches to “work”.

Posted at 14:52

Friday, January 15, 2021

Humidifiers: Simpler Is Better?

Not mentioned: if you have a lot of lime scale (calcaire) in your water, the the wick of an evaporative humidifier will become less and less effective as its pores are clogged with scale deposits. So, even if you don't have a problem with smelly gunk growing in the humidifier, it's best to replace the wick(s) at least once per season or when you notice the relative humidity falling below where it's normally maintained.

Posted at 20:40

Wednesday, January 13, 2021

Heeees back!

Hi! I'm Clippy, your office assistant! pic.twitter.com/SOZOf2jqZY
— Faces in Things (@FacesPics) January 13, 2021

Posted at 19:35

Monday, January 11, 2021

The Nuclear Salt Water Rocket

Posted at 13:00

Sunday, January 10, 2021

1962 Italian Magazine: “The World of 2022”

This Italian magazine from 1962 predicted what society would look like in 2022. The ‘With You Forever’ is a little eerie, given our current circumstances. pic.twitter.com/M5jyGKRKow
— Helen Ingram (@drhingram) January 9, 2021

Posted at 14:51

Friday, January 8, 2021

The Closest Star to the Solar System: Proxima Centauri with Parallax Nick

Posted at 14:41

Thursday, January 7, 2021

SAT Score Inflation over 45 Years

The gradual degradation of an excellent test for no good reason. It gets even worse if you take the expansion of the test-taking pool into account.

The two break points are the major revisions in the SAT in 1994–95 and 2016-17 pic.twitter.com/hqM5lSypng
— Charles Murray (@charlesmurray) January 7, 2021

Posted at 19:50

1975 Mainframe CPU Module — Amdahl 470

In the 1970s, I worked right down the street from Amdahl headquarters and across the orchard from Intel's starship. I never imagined such hackery was being perpetrated chez Amdahl. Had I known, I might have applied for a job there.

Posted at 00:40

Monday, January 4, 2021

Empire of Stupid: “Amen and Awomen”

The prayer to open the 117th Congress ended with "amen and a-women."

Amen is Latin for "so be it."

It's not a gendered word.

Unfortunately, facts are irrelevant to progressives. Unbelievable. pic.twitter.com/FvZ0lLMDDr
— Rep. Guy Reschenthaler (@GReschenthaler) January 3, 2021

Posted at 15:09

Sunday, January 3, 2021

Average Colour of Solar System Bodies

The average color of some solar system objects. Measured spectra converted to CIE XYZ converted to sRGB. pic.twitter.com/2whxPycPM1
— Donald Mitchell (@DonaldM38768041) January 2, 2021

The Earth is purple? Who knew?

Posted at 12:39

Saturday, January 2, 2021

Welcome Aboard the R.100

For a detailed account of the British airships R.100 and its government boondoggle competitor R.101, see Nevil Shute's magnificent book Slide Rule.

Here is a video about the R.101 by Bill Hammack, author of the book Fatal Flight.

Posted at 13:13

Friday, January 1, 2021

Jill Tarter: Signals from Proxima Centauri, Advice from Carl Sagan, and SETI @ 60!

Posted at 20:06

Thursday, December 31, 2020

The New Spirit—1942 Donald Duck Propaganda for the U.S. Income Tax

In 1942, the U.S. Income Tax, which was previously paid by only 13 million people, was increased and extended to hit more than 50 million, or 75% of all working Americans. It was called the “Victory Tax” and promoted as supporting the war the U.S. had just entered. In October, 1942, Time magazine called it “The biggest piece of machinery ever designed to separate dollars from citizens.” The Treasury Department enlisted Disney Studios and Donald Duck to promote the tax as a patriotic “privilege, not just your duty.”

“Taxes to beat the Axis!”

The film was nominated for a 1943 Academy Award as Best Documentary.

Posted at 11:59

Wednesday, December 30, 2020

Ice Age Woolly Rhinoceros Carcass Found in Siberian Permafrost

BREAKING: Another extinct ice age beast exhumed from the permafrost. Exceptionally well-preserved carcass of a juvenile woolly rhinoceros discovered in Yakutia. Its internal organs and stomach contents await investigation. Photos by Valery Plotnikov. https://t.co/5TB8mwbajT pic.twitter.com/yw71lQf6Gf
— The Ice Age ❄️🌞 (@Jamie_Woodward_) December 29, 2020

Posted at 14:34

Tuesday, December 29, 2020

Earth During a Solar Eclipse

Posted at 12:24

Monday, December 28, 2020

Robin Hanson — How Far Away Are Expansionist Aliens?

Sunday, December 27, 2020

The Floppotron: Stayin' Alive

Floppotron 2.0 includes 64 floppy drives, 8 hard drives, and two flatbed scanners, all driven by an array of custom controllers built from various hardware. It was designed and constructed by Paweł Zadrożniak in Poland.

Posted at 12:50

Friday, December 25, 2020

The Scale of Everything — The Big, the Small and the Planck

Posted at 15:17

Tuesday, December 22, 2020

Jupiter-Saturn Conjunction Observed at Radio Wavelengths

Conjunction of Jupiter and Saturn seen in radio. pic.twitter.com/IQGCtx9vLe
— Dr Wladimir Lyra (@DrRRLyrae) December 21, 2020

At Jupiter, what you're seeing is a cross-section of the “plasma torus” around the planet formed by emissions from the moon Io. This outshines the planet at the 2 cm wavelength of the image.