On Earth

This week's AON has lots of conjunctions—be sure to observe them! Here it is: The Garradd comet is still in the sky! Here's how to observe it! January 9th: full moon January 10th: Ganymede and Europa transits in North America January 13th: Venus-Moon conjunction January 14th: ...more

Astronomy World will be posting a weekly blog post that informs fellow observers upcoming interesting events in the sky. These will include: Moon phases—It can be fun observing different phases of the moon (how much of the moon is dark). It is also fun observing the dark side ...more

SHAITAN n pl. -S an evil spirit 60 points (10 points without the bingo) For the closing of these Halloween-themed bingo words, there's no better word than SHAITAN, the evilest of all evils, which is present in all horror movie monsters and demons. Generally speaking, SHAITA ...more

The Like Lace Stitch This is a beautiful stitch that can be done on any size needle and with any size yarn. When you use a small size needle and thin yarn it will come out looking very delicate. When you use a larger needle and bulky yarn it will come out thick and cozy. It's ...more

Over the past decade, Marvel Studios has been a dominant force at the box office, raking in more than $21 billion dollars. Averaged out over that span of time, the yearly earnings of those movies outweigh the gross domestic product of some countries. And while those films hav ...more

For some time now, I've been dying to make the trek to the world's largest airplane graveyard outside of Tuscon, AZ. The ultimate field trip that I never seem to get around to. Now, thanks to Google Maps, anybody can now check it out remotely: up close, high-res, beautiful.  ...more

Hey everybody, here is my entry for the medieval building contest. I don't actually care if I win, it was just fun to think about. I have this great book series called The History of Private Life which goes into wonderful detail about how people did everyday things throughout ...more

Impossible, right? Ahh, well science says fire and ice can and do coexist. The Science of this experiment:Dry ice at -109ºF, is frozen carbon dioxide (CO2), not water (H2O). Dry ice is also much colder than a freezer ice cube. To be exact it is almost as cold as Earth's cold ...more

We are living in a golden age of craft beers. Originally invented by the ancient Egyptians, every culture now has its own tastes regarding beer. The process of making beer is so multi-faceted, it's a miracle that any gets made at all. However, there are lots of steps along th ...more

Since the rise of private property and industrial production, modern capitalism has been on a undeniable crash course with Mother Nature. It's no so much that we'll end up murdering the entire planet, but just that the planet will quietly smother us with a pillow of famine, he ...more

WonderHowTo is a how-to website made up of niche communities called Worlds, with topics ranging from Minecraft to science experiments to Scrabble and everything in-between. Check in every Wednesday evening for a roundup of user-run activities and how-to projects from the most ...more

The 68th Annual Golden Globe Awards take place this Sunday, January 16th, 2011 between the hours of 5 and 8 PM PST — that's 8 & 11 PM for those of you on the East Coast (and Somewhere in the Middle for those of you Somewhere in the Middle). Can't make it to the Beverly Hilton ...more

The beauty of Android is that nearly everything can be customized. But sometimes, we get so caught up in tweaking functionality and other minutiae that one of the most important interfaces gets neglected—the home screen wallpaper. Well, developer Gianluca Spadazzi has come up ...more

You can create a lot of impressive effects by stacking or layering photos, whether you do it in a darkroom or with Photoshop. The Harris shutter effect makes your photos super colorful, and double exposing or stacking negatives makes for some crazy looking portraits. But, if ...more

The comet Garradd is almost at its peak now, plus there's plenty more events going on this week, so be sure to observe! Until March: The Garradd comet has almost reached its absolute highest magnitude! This comet is bright and easy to follow, so be sure to check it out! Febr ...more

There isn't much going on this week, unless you like to observe the moons of Jupiter! January 27: Io transit January 28: Io and Ganymede occultations, Europa Transit January 29: Io transit January 30: Europa eclipse, Moon at apogee (404,324 kilometers), First quarter moon B ...more

One of the best things about talking to other people who love food is that they point you to weirdly beautiful ingredients, like this: No, that's not an escapee from Middle Earth you're seeing. It's one of Mother Nature's best attempts at making fractals come alive into a gold ...more

NASA just released this beautiful image of what's leftover from a supernova explosion. The red cloud is expanding cosmic debris, the blue is a blast wave of electrons, and the stripes at the edge tell of a high energy burst of x-rays that may be bound for earth. This image was ...more

Like Marvel's Avengers, Facebook's Camera AR platform now has a number of new AR superpowers at its disposal, so it is fitting that Earth's Mightiest Heroes have the distinction of displaying them. Available now in via Facebook on iOS and Android, the Avengers: Infinity War A ...more

Umbra, penumbra. Not exactly abracadabra, but if you've taken an astronomy class, you know exactly what the umbra and penumbra are. And any Earthling would agree that the umbra is the best place to be during a solar or lunar eclipse. When the Sun, Earth and Moon are precisel ...more

Remember—winter is the perfect time to observe! There are a lot of events going on this week, so pull out that observing chair. Here they are: The Garradd comet is still in the sky and is approaching its peak. Here's how to observe it! January 17: The moon is at its perigee o ...more

I have to admit that I am an environmentalist wacko. That may sound strange, considering my life is tied up in PVC, which is considered one of the most poisonous materials on earth... but it's true. I love this planet, and I want it to be inhabitable for as long as the sun is ...more

If you've yet to witness B.A.S.E. jumping, it's an activity for adrenaline junkies first publicized by filmmaker Carl Boenish in '78. The freefall sport employs ram-air parachutes, and is most commonly executed in locations such as the highly elevated El Capitan rock formation ...more

I don't know about you, but visions of pumpkin pie and cornbread stuffing and big, juicy turkeys are constantly dancing through my head right now. I'm sorry, healthy eating habits, but it's Thanksgiving week, and all I can do is think about food. Although I can't wait to fill ...more

The classic Super Mario Bros is perhaps the most beloved video game on Earth. Almost daily, homages to Mario pop up on the web over and over and over again. Everybody loves the charming 2D world of Mario. But what would Mario look like in 3D… and moreover, what would Super Mar ...more

This week's AON might be a little short, but finally, the Garradd comet's peak has come! I picked the Garradd comet to follow because it's a bright and easy-to-follow comet. Be sure to observe it! If you need help finding it, you can find more information here. Until March: T ...more

Some of you have already seen the superbness of tonight's "super moon", but for those of you in the western half of the United States, there's still time to ready your cameras and enjoy March 19th's super full moon. It's the biggest full moon in almost 20 years, the last one a ...more

Alexander Augusteijn captures one of the world's most deadly projectiles slicing through the Earth's delicate water droplet. Via PetaPixel: "I am a photographer from the Netherlands, specializing in high speed photography. I use a normal flash to achieve very short illuminat ...more

Water covers approximately 70 percent of Earth's surface and the human body contains up to 78 percent water, depending on body size. Yet, water seems to be taken for granted here on Earth. But if you travel to an orbital altitude of about 250 miles, water starts looking pretty ...more

At this point in our series on creating a customized hacking container, you should be able to use Docker to save and retrieve customized instances of Ubuntu from your own machine. Make sure to revisit part one and part two if you need a refresher. Previously: How to Create a ...more

I'll have to post up some pictures of astronomy-related papercraft models that I have made at some point, but for now here is a link to a few different papercraft models of the planets. I need to go back through my resources because I know there are a bunch of sites out there ...more

Note: This shower is only visible in the Northern Hemisphere. The Quadrantid meteor shower is one of my personal favorites, mainly because of the amount of meteors it produces. You can sight more than 100 meteors per hour- that's more than 1 meter per minute. Even though that ...more

WonderHowTo is made up of niche communities called Worlds. If you've yet to join one (or create your own), get a taste below of what's going on in the community. Check in every Wednesday for a roundup of new activities and projects. Thanks to all of our active moderators and ...more

It's not uncommon to find a good mod these days, for any given game. But as I have mentioned before, Skyrim is not just a game. It's a drug... A horribly entertaining drug.. Which leaves you in withdrawal stage as soon as you turn away for a few minutes (e.g. may cause confus ...more

This week's AON may be a little short, but the ones to come will be packed full with information. I am really hoping for the skies to clear so I can observe soon! Through March 2012—The Garradd comet is getting brighter! It will peak in February. Here's how to observe it! Jan ...more

With all the controversy around the Pixel 3 XL, the regular-sized Pixel 3 might be the phone of choice for most users. Thanks to the huge boost in screen size, the little brother is now an easier pickup for those who like a bigger screen. And once more, the internals are the s ...more

Do you think humans are the only ones who like the challenge of a good word game? Well, think again, because homo sapiens aren't the only ones up for stimulating their brains. Other species on planet Earth like to play Scrabble, too, and they're the ones most likely to actuall ...more

There’s no point to playing all of the different tower defense games available today. Most adhere to the original formula, so playing 2 or 3 really good ones (like those mentioned in my previous post) would be more efficient. But the tower defense genre isn’t going anywhere—t ...more