Year: 2011

Blech. Had to do some manual database maintenance. Gave up on default multi-site configuration as too painful, and turned off all caching. Things seem to be working, but we’ll see.

I’ve been rather frustrated with my web site lately as I’ve been getting random Drupal failures telling me it can’t find “settings.php.” Utter nonsense; the file is there, permissions are correct, and it usually finds it just fine. So, if you’ve been confronted with a rather odd home page or link when navigating my site, …

Random Drupal FailuresRead More

Okay, temptation overtook me again . I pulled out the IR blocking filter and took an hour’s worth of images, plus enough calibration frames that I should have been able to eliminate the flaws in the previous images. The results, below, are better, but there are a few nagging issues. [G2:41283 class=g2image_centered exactsize=800] This time, …

M31 with a Meade DSI Pro II – reduxRead More

The weather was just too clear last night to avoid the temptation, so I dragged out my equipment and started taking pictures. Admittedly, almost anything done from here in Brooklyn, “pretty-picture” wise, has to be considered practice since it rarely works out unless its the moon or planets. But I thought I would try either …

M31 with a Meade DSI Pro IIRead More

I’m listening to a radio commercial about the shuttle bus to Newark Airport. They want to claim 184 passenger miles per gallon. My minivan is not particularly fuel efficient, getting about 22-23 miles per gallon (note the missing “passenger” qualifier). On short trips around town, like a run out to Home Depot, I’m the only …

Misleading Math, Fuel Economy, Public Transportation.Read More

Due to poor weather, tonights event is being canceled. I am an optimist at heart, but the forecast is now for cloudy all the rest of today and overnight. The original announcement is below, but the event is canceled. We’ll be hosting the annual stargazing event in Shore Road Park on Sunday evening from 8:00-9:30 …

PS102 TV Turnoff Week Stargazing – CANCELLEDRead More

Well, they’re really only free if you print your own, but you can do that by downloading the PDF from posters section on the APS web site.

I guess this falls into the “how far behind are you in your reading” category. The December issue of APS News reported that Physics Central was a finalist in the web awards from the Institue of Physics after a redesign late last year.  PhysicsBuzz was listed as a finalist in the “Best Blog” category. I …

Physics Central Web SiteRead More

Usually I’m blogging about astronomy, but the March issue of Science and Children had an article “Water Pressure in Depth” that covers an experiment that is part of the Webelos scientist activity pin, and something I have done with Webelos. They turn the simple demonstration activity into an inquiry activity. They also use plastic milk …

Water Pressure ExperimentRead More

I just saw this one in the March issue of Science and Children, and it’s something I definitely have to incorporate into the moon phase activities I do with the kids. The original comes from the Top Science web site, and while I’ve enjoyed their short ads in the magazine, I never looked at their …

Easy Moon Phase ModelRead More