The Eclipse is Coming, The Eclipse is Coming!

Hi All,

The eclipse is coming, the eclipse is coming.  Unless you've been hiding under a rock, you probably know that there is a total solar eclipse coming on Monday, August 21st!

The last time there was a total solar eclipse was in 1991 - over 25 years ago.
NASA has a great eclipse site  for adults and for kids!  Click here for the site. 
And the site has links to Events and Activities and Resources all related to the eclipse.  Click the prior links to go to that subject. 

CNN Travel created a funnish site called the 'Slacker's Guide to the 2017 Solar Eclipse'.  For complete coverage of the eclipse users can visit the formal CNN Eclipse website.  Viewers can also watch live, in virtual reality, as the eclipse moves coast to coast on August 21st!

Click on this link that will tell you the best place(s) to see the 2017 eclipse! 

So when you are watching the eclipse you'll need a set of eclipse glasses.  Click here to learn more. 
And here.
And here.  

TimeandDate.com  has a map of the solar eclipse on this site.

For those of you who are awed at the rarity of the eclipse, visit this Washington Post site for an article titled 'Here's every total solar eclipse happening in your lifetime. Is this year your best chance?'

Finally, click here to learn a bit more about the history of the eclipse and much, much more.

Enjoy the sites and the links and the eclipse.

Regards,
Stu

Earth Day 2016

Hi All,

Welcome to Earth Day 2016!

If you're not sure what Earth Day is, click here for the Wikipedia entry for what actually is and does and stands for.

Click on this link for the United States EPA website discussing Earth Day.  There are links to Events/Activities, Project Resources and Ideas.  There is also a section called Earth Day Every Day.

The History Channel has an excellent Earth Day site - here's the link. The link has a lot of historical information regarding Earth Day as well.  This link explains how the first Earth Day came about.

 This next link helps to coordinate various Earth Day activities around the country.  Click here for various links... Tree for the Earth, and Earth Day Toolkit,
 
Finally, click on this link for information from the United State Census Bureau about Earth Day.

Happy Earth Day,

Regards,
Stu

Leap Second!

Hi All,

No doubt you've probably heard of leap year.  If not, click here and you'll get up to speed for what you need to know about for this blog entry.  Leap year 1 article.  Leap year 2 article.

Well, now there is a thing called 'Leap Second'.  What the heck is leap second?  Indeed, it is an extra second that will be added on June 30th at 8pm..  Why?  'So that watches, computers, clocks and other time tracking devices can sync up with the Earth's slowing rotation...the 61 second minute threatens to make computer systems go haywire...'

For more information about tomorrows' leap second click on the next bunch of links: CNN, Google article titled 'Time, Technology and Leaping Seconds', Neil deGrasse Tyson's tweet on Leap Seconds,
ACMA/ITU article about Leap Second and Gizmodo's article about Leap Second.

Hopefully this is one second, that 'doesn't take a second'.

Regards,
Stu

Earth Day 2015

Hi All,

Did you know that Wednesday, April 22nd, 2015 is Earth Day?  Click on this link for a very comprehensive summary of what Earth Day is, how it started, and what it means to planet Earth.  For a bit of context, click on this History Channel link that talks about the history of Earth Day.

Readers would do well to take a look at the formal Earth Day website - which can be viewed here.
The site is chock full of facts, articles, links and more about Earth Day and the Earth day network. 

Even the US government has information about Earth Day - click on this link for the whole story.  There are links and activities, volunteer events for Earth Day, and a brief history of Earth Day.

Envirolink has an Earth Day 2015 calendar which can be found by clicking on this link.  Users can add their own events to the calendar, and view all Earth Day events here as well.

Finally, click on this link which explains 'why Earth Day is important' and this link as well.

Happy Earth Day 2015!

Regards,
Stu

Astronomy Picture of the Day and NASA website

Hi All,

Just a quickie post today.  Click on this link for NASA's (National Aeronautics and Space Administration) Picture of the Day. 

Here is a summary of NASA's picture of the day: "Discover the cosmos! Each day a different image or photograph of our fascinating universe is featured, along with a brief explanation written by a professional astronomer." Now that's a quick and accurate summary of the website!

Note that there are links below the picture.  The webpage is very heavily hyperlinked.  For example, you can click on Subaru Telescope, locked in a cosmic dance, Hubble Legacy Archive,  loops and tails, interacting galaxies back up to quintet status and constellation Pegasus.  Clicking on these links will get you ever deeper into the various (and myriad) sub sites of the NASA website.  Very cool  stuff - fore example, I clicked on the 'interacting galaxies back up to quintet status link' and I got more links from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory!  On this page you can find Chandra Observatory images by date - which goes all the way back to 1999!

Those of you who like 'all things NASA would do well to visit the Multimedia link on the NASA homepage. It is very, very interactive and has links for the Public, for Educators/Teachers, and For Students.  The shear number of  videos, images, NASA TV Live, Interactive Features, Podcasts and 3D Resources on the Multimedia page is awesome!

So sit back and gear your tablet, laptop or desktop computer up for a long, long adventure when you visit the NASA website!  

Enjoy the links and the website!

Regards, 
Stu

Science Daily - science news

Hi All, 

Just wanted to give readers a heads up on an interesting science news website called ScienceDaily.  Click here for the link. 

What does the site include?  Well, its current and timely news articles related to the sciences.  There are links for subjects like Health and Medicine, the Mind and Brain, Plants and Animals, the Earth and Climate, Space and Time, Matter and Energy, Computers and Math, and, finally, Fossils and Ruins.  Each of the aforementioned subjects can be reached by clicking the previous link.

Also available on the site are links to videos, images and articles.  There is also a search box at the top right side of the page which is very helpful for users who just want to type in a phrase that doesn't correspond to the subject headings that I previously listed. 

Users can also get all of ScienceDaily's headlines sent to them every day via the Science Daily RSS newsfeed or the Email newsletter.  Note that users will have to subscribe to a specific subjects' RSS feed or Email newsletter in order to receive the headlines.  Aka...users can't just get a summary of all ScienceDaily's articles on a daily basis.  

Site isn't as well designed as it could be - there are too many advertisements and the site is a bit cluttered. But...that's a small price to pay for a current, topical, relevant website that covers 'non-mainstream' topics like science and technology. 

Enjoy the site!

Stu