Origins of the RQ-170 Sentinel

Wonderful post on AviationIntel.com about the history of the US’ newest spyplane, the RQ-170 Sentinel which was used in the Osama Bin Laden raid and most famously was forced to land in Iran.  The post traces the origin of the airplane from early technology demonstrators.  I love reading about the covert programs of the US military […]

Learning All the Time

This morning was a good opportunity to take some phenomenon in the natural world and explain what it was and how it works – all while the kids were naturally interested in it.  I try to look for opportunities to do this and encourage the kids to think about the mechanisms that are all around […]

Pizza Cognition Theory

From Serious Eats comes the Pizza Cognition Theory which stems from how people learn what something is — which is that they first must learn what that thing is *not*: The first slice of pizza a child sees and tastes (and somehow appreciates on something more than a childlike, mmmgoood, thanks-mom level), becomes, for him, […]

282

I came across this list at Wikipedia (not surprisingly, about spaceflight).  It lists *every* human spaceflight since April 12, 1961 (Vostok 1).  And the total surprised me: 282 Only 282 flights with humans in over 49 years.  Less than 6 per year on average.  This includes 3 flights from the X-15 program and 3 flights […]

The Earth and the Moon

@NASAhistory just posted to twitter that this pictures was taken 33 years ago today: I love pictures like this, the Earth and the Moon in one frame.  This image was taken by Voyager 1, the first to look back from such a distance (7,250,000 miles away), and the right equipment, that the Earth and Moon […]

Neat Mac Tip

I like sites like lifehacker.com, but I find that there are usually nice suggestions, but that I really pick up on some of their suggestions immediate. But this one I really got me and is turning out to be very useful. The tip is: use “option” on a mac to open a new window in […]