Swans on Tea

Smithsonian.com: Myths of the American Revolution
[M]uch of what we know is not entirely true. Perhaps more than any defining moment in American history, the War of Independence is swathed in beliefs not borne out by the facts. Here, in order to form a more perfect understanding, the most significant myths of the Revolutionary War [...]

Skulls in the Stars: Lord Kelvin vs. the Aether! (1901)
[T]hese speculations resulted in a number of interesting results. For instance, we have noted previously that Earnshaw’s theorem (1839), an important result in electromagnetic theory, arose from an attempt to determine the forces that hold the aether together. In 1902, Lord Rayleigh attempted [...]

OK, not really.
Dec. 30, 1924: Hubble Reveals We Are Not Alone
Hubble used Leavitt’s formula to calculate that Andromeda was approximately 860,000 light years away. That’s more than eight times the distance to the farthest stars in the Milky Way. This conclusively proved that the nebulae are separate star systems and that our galaxy is not [...]

Galileo’s Moon Drawings

Letters of Note: “He is a second Dirac, only this time human.”
Robert Oppenheimer’s letter of recommendation on behalf of Richard Feynman.
The reason for telling you about him now is that his excellence is so well known, both at Princeton where he worked before he came here, and to a not inconsiderable number of “big [...]

Uncertain Principles: Science Ahead of Its Time?
[T]his does not beg but rather demands the question: are there any examples of truly revolutionary ideas in science? That is, are there scientific theories that jump well ahead of what was “in the air” at the time of their creation, in such a way that they would [...]

The Economics of Pinball
The economics of pinball at its peak, when it took advantage of programmable electronics that would shortly be its downfall.
In 1980, pinball went digital, multi-ball, and multi-media starting with the game Black Knight. Black Knight brought pinball to a new level, literally speaking because it was among the first games with [...]

Astronomical Clocks – Literally and Metaphorically
The term astronomical clock is one that is used fairly loosely. Effectively any clock that shows astronomical information – as well as the time – can be so classified. They can show the location of the sun in the sky, for example. In addition to that they [...]

Gavyn Davies does the maths
The tank problem.
Don’t think this analysis has shown up on Numb3rs yet.

I bought some batteries, but they weren’t included. So I had to buy them again.
Steven Wright
Cocktail Party Physics: batteries not included
Some historians believe primitive batteries were used in Iraq and Egypt as early as 200 B.C. for electroplating and precious metal gilding. Around the 1790s, through numerous observations and experiments, Luigi Galvani, an [...]

I remember walking to lunch one day back in 2002, in early October, discussing some shootings that had been reported either that morning or the morning before. This was not a normal topic for conversation — shootings in the DC area are not uncommon — but these were sniper attacks and not taking place [...]

Letters of Note: Prepare For Contact
1924 telegram from then Chief of U.S. Naval Operations, Edward W. Eberle, instructing all Naval stations to monitor the airwaves for any unusual transmissions due to anticipated contact from Martians. August 22nd of that year was witness to the closest Mars opposition since 1804