Skyehaven’s Cool Thing of the Day

So I’ll let them speak for themselves.

…if you wanted — let’s just say — to read the original account of Newton and the falling apple, you’d have to research which museum, school, or library had the manuscript, arrange a costly visit overseas (if you were not already located in Europe), and try to convince a librarian that you had good reason to look at the original and that you’d be ever so careful with it. If you were lucky, you might be allowed into the collection to see it — look, but don’t touch!

No longer. Turning the Pages has placed some — admittedly few, to date — manuscripts online. Now you can look at the fragile paper manuscript from the 18th century which tells the story of Newton’s development of his theory of gravity from the comfort of your own home. No, you can’t actually handle the manuscripts at Turning the Pages, but it’s unlikely you’d have been allowed to do so had you made that theoretical trip, either.

We’ll call this one more entry into the list of reasons that I’m glad to live in the Internet age.

Keep an eye on the Madeira Islands. They’re aiming to set a new world record for the world’s largest fireworks display. They took the prize with their 2006/2007 New Year’s display and this year are attempting to re-break their own record. It should be a party!

Update: If you missed seeing it live, here’s the show from YouTube.

Folks, you may want to start next year’s Christmas wish list early.

(Thanks to Suki at Reason.com for the link)

Judging from the number of views this has on YouTube, I’m coming late to the party. But I do love some good stop animation, and this is some of the best I’ve seen.

Have a go at Combine from Mind Jolt Games. At first it looks like just another three ball match game. The twist is that combining three balls of one color creates a new ball of the next color up the line. It’s not a button masher. It takes some ability to think ahead logically — and allows ample time to do so — to position new balls in the best place for clearing them later. It’s pretty nifty. Hope you enjoy it as much as I have.

Posted here by special request: A dramatic reading of the open letter from Leon to ABC regarding their butchery of “A Charlie Brown Christmas”.

Solution? Employ your own crass commercialization and go buy the DVD.

Anyone who’s followed my blog for a bit, or frankly even stumbled on it and explored a bit, will notice that I’m a freak for geeky things like space travel. I’m also a fan of interesting art. This cool image combines both. Enjoy.

If you loved Straight No Chaser from last year, then be sure you check out the “Christmas Can-Can”.
If you somehow managed not to hear about these guys last year, be sure you check out their previous Christmas Song “Who Spiked The Eggnog“.

UPDATE: Good grief. How could I have left out their “12 Days of Christmas“?

I received a Dear John letter from my blog. I’ve decided that I’d better spend some time working on our relationship or else it might leave me for good!

So here, for your approval, is video and a news article about an octopus that nearly drowned one of the scientists observing it. No, silly, not in a 40,000 Leagues Under the Sea kind of way. The scientist was so surprised at the antics of the little sucker(s) that he almost drowned trying to laugh and scuba drive at the same time!

King Arthur of Monty Python fame might be surprised to learn that it’s not swallows who carry coconuts!