Aug

31

Jellyfishing!

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 31, 2007 | 2 Comments

I’ve always had a fascination with jellyfish. These strange, brainless, spineless bells that swim through the ocean trailing deadly tentacles, sometimes reaching one-hundred feet long, are beautiful and strange, and beautiful because they’re so strange. I recently ran across an article detailing myths about dealing with jellyfish stings and actual remedies. (The article is from [...]

Aug

3

Big Dog.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

August 3, 2007 | Leave a Comment

August is typically the hottest period of the summer in the Northern Hemisphere, the period some people call “Dog Days”, a term which dates back to the Greeks who believed only dogs were crazy enough to go out in the heat. Anyone who’s owned dogs knows it’s more likely humans who are the crazy ones, [...]

Jul

27

Bye Bye, Bat Boy!

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

July 27, 2007 | Leave a Comment

The Weekly World News, which is one of the few magazines I find myself actually tempted to buy while standing in the supermarket checkout line, is ceasing publication. They’ll maintain their online version, but the old familiar paper edition, with its headlines about the Angel of Death visiting Earth, Mother Nature endorsing Al Gore’s presidency, [...]

Jul

6

Little Bear.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

July 6, 2007 | Leave a Comment

If you live in the Northern Hemisphere and look due North you’ll see a distinctive constellation known, variously, as The Little Dipper, The Little Bear, or, to the Romans, Ursa Minor. At the end of the little bear’s unusually long tail (in mythology said to have been lengthened by the bear’s spinning around the pole), [...]

Jun

8

We Are The Martians.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

June 8, 2007 | 1 Comment

He was, in Roman mythology, the bringer of war. Known as Ares to the ancient Greeks, Mars gave us the name of the month March, when wars were often started or renewed in ancient times.

May

22

Sorry, Mr. Tombaugh (again).

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

May 22, 2007 | 1 Comment

As usual I’m a day late and a dollar short, but, as the Chicago Tribune reported, the town of Streator, Illinois, held their first ever Pluto Expo on May 18th and 19th to celebrate hometown hero Clyde Tombaugh (born February 4, 1904, died January 17, 1997) and his 1930 discovery of what was, until 2006, the [...]

Apr

26

The Hunter And The Hunted.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

April 26, 2007 | 1 Comment

Most evenings at this time of year I can stand on my front porch and look up at the constellation Orion hanging over the horizon, conspicuous because of the brightness of its stars Betelgeuse (the shoulder), Rigel (in his left leg), Bellatrix, many other bright stars, as well as the Orion nebula. In mythology Orion was a [...]

Mar

27

Beautiful Reaper.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

March 27, 2007 | 1 Comment

In Roman mythology Saturn was the leader of the Titans, and son of the sky god Uranus. He also swung a mean scythe. As the story goes, Uranus was a tyrant who wouldn’t allow his wife, the Earth goddess Gaia, to give birth to her children. Only Saturn was brave enough to confront him, and [...]

Mar

1

Dark Side of the Moon.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

March 1, 2007 | 2 Comments

Mark your calendars: on March 3rd a total lunar eclipse will occur. If you’re in the Eastern United States you’ll see it occurring as the moon rises in the East (although prime viewing will be in Europe and Africa). Farther West the eclipse will be over by the time the moon is visible, but there [...]

Feb

21

Evening Star.

Posted by Christopher Waldrop

February 21, 2007 | 4 Comments

If you live in the Western hemisphere you can look to the West half an hour to an hour after sunset and see our closest neighbor: the planet Venus. Named for the Roman goddess of love and beauty (and wife of Vulcan, though Venus also carried on a torrid affair with Mars, among others), it [...]

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