Actual sign in front of a church here in Calgary.
I’m sure whoever wrote this sermon did a masterful job of weaving an inspirational message about a God who is both big enough to oversee the entire universe, and small enough to reside within us all, without making it sound as clumsy and confusing as I just did there. I’m sure they did a great job.
But all I could think of was this:
Some fathers look back with pride on their son’s first hockey goal, their first baseball hit, and so on.
Recently, my boy (who just turned three) discovered how to make a balloon hover in a vertical column of air over a furnace vent. He even experimented with disrupting one side of the air flow with his hand to see how it affected the balloon. Check it:
Dr. Wife and I are very proud.
What are your proud parent moments?
It’s no secret that I am trying to appeal to two disparate groups with this blog. I’m probably not the only person in the world who is into both old cars and skepticism, but I haven’t met many others of my kind out there.
My hope is that people already into science and skepticism may come here and gain some insight into the car culture world, and why we do what we do. I also hope that people who come here for the cars might pick up an interest in science education and critical thinking tools. It’s the latter group that I am writing this post for: The gear heads.
I am proudly a geek. I wear that badge with honour. Many (if not most) of my science minded colleagues at comic book shows, sci-fi conventions and skepticism conferences also proudly wave their geek flag. I’m also a bit of a nerd, but that’s not something I’m quite as proud about. What’s the difference? Aren’t nerds, geeks, dorks and dweebs all the same thing? Well, Mr./Ms. Car Show Rock Star, would you say a push-rod V8 and an overhead cam engine are the same thing? No. No you would not. Click the link and let’s start with this:
Hello dear readers!
Despite the lack of updates recently, I am pleased to announce that I am not dead. More updates and blog posts are coming very soon, with my apologies for the delay. The Chevy didn’t quite pass its out-of-province inspection on the first attempt, so between trying to hold down a full-time job, be a halfway decent husband and daddy for my support team at home, and the occasional long night in the garage to sort out a few of the car’s mechanical short comings, I’ve not had much time for bloggy things. It’s all good now, however, and a shiny new Alberta license plate is taped up in the back window. Masking tape on a custom…. yeesh. I should be ashamed of myself.
In any event, the car is now road-ready and I can devote some more time to providing you with some interesting car stuff, science content and skeptical inquiry. In the near future, watch for:
Thanks for sticking around. Let’s get back to work.
Since celebrity endorsements count for precisely JACK SQUAT to people with an IQ greater than that of a toaster (listen up, Suzanne Sommers, Dennis Gage, Sham-Wow guy, and the rest of you), I thought I would get one of my own. (Wait…. what?)
Ladies and gentlemen, Mythbuster Adam Savage:
Thanks, Adam. Your five bucks is in the mail.
Welcome, everyone! Thanks for stopping by. This video provides a bit of background information on me and what this blog is all about. Have a look around at the other pages too (see the list over there to the right) for more information. Feel free to comment on what you’ve seen so far.
Let’s get started.
The Physics of Sleeping Children
Posted: January 12, 2011 in CommentaryTags: humour, physics
A while ago, Junior fell asleep in my lap while I was reading him a book. As he fell asleep, I noticed a curious phenomenon; he got heavier. Other parents I’ve talked to confirm this. Sleeping kids weigh more. Something about them going all limp and noodly causes them to feel heavier. Weirdest thing.
How can this be? Let us turn to the laws of physics for an explanation.
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