Peacock spiders live in Australia, and Jürgen Otto just discovered 7 new species. They make me wish I had the time and skill to sew some velvet cushions. Sorry this is late. The weekend was overly interesting and I haven’t had time until now.
I boiled some water to cook broccoli, turned the kettle off and emptied it into the pan. About 5 minutes later I noticed that although the switch was in the “off” position, the little light was on. So I picked it up and looked inside to see an ominous red glow. Eek! I hastily filled it from the tap to cool it, but the bottom started dripping anyway. It stank,…
A friend held a yard sale today. Since she lives only about half an hour away, I went. I arrived just after another friend called Isa. She was a bit worried about her van, because it started to overheat just before she arrived, and she was waiting for it to cool before she checked the radiator. So we both bought stuff. Then Isa poured water into her radiator and immediately…
I had to get up early today to work at the observatory. The two visits went well, although I had to modify the second one because the telescope was taking delivery of a new scientific instrument called EMIR. EMIR is huge and it weighs 5 tonnes, and I was quite excited to see it. I was also pleased to see the project manager briefly, because I’ve known her for 25…
My story Anita’s Ringtones got an honourable mention in On The Premises’s mini contest 29. And my blog post about Fiesta de la Cruz on La Palma is up at Hello Canary Islands If you enjoy either (or both!) please feel free to share on social media.
Cecilia Payne deserves to be far more famous than she is. She discovered what the stars are made of. Cecilia was born in Wendover on May 10, 1900, so she’d be 116 today. Her father died when she was just 4 years old. She won a scholarship to Cambridge university to study botany. She switched to astronomy after a year after attending a lecture by Arthur Eddington and passed her exams,…