Why I Stopped Playing with Rockets

For a couple of months, I was spending hours everyday, building space vessels and launching them into orbit and beyond. I was hooked and reading and watching everything I could find on astrophysics and space exploration.

So why did I quit, cold turkey? Like so many things, I reached a point of proficiency where to advance further, would require an additional investment.

My photo of the Orion Nebula
Photo of the Orion Nebula, captured with a Nikon D7100 camera & Tamron 600mm lens.

With astrophotography, I struggled to get a descent photo of a nebula and in another season one of Andromeda galaxy. But I realized that I had reached the most that I could expect from my cludge of DSLR camera, telephoto lens and tripod for a telescope. To accomplish better pictures would require an investment in more hardware.

With Kerbal Space Program, I was not going to actually land on the surface of another moon or planet with a heavy upgrade in my mathematical understanding. The prospect of a deepdive into “rocket science” was not without its appeal — if I was younger.

So, I’ve left Kerbal and the space race behind, spending more time on projects that I might actually finish that might also be of value to others.

¯\_(?)_/¯

What’s Inside Coffee?

According to this infographic, coffee is not nearly as harmful as it is sometimes reported to be, or they are just not giving us the full story. Wired gives us this infographic as a short video to share with us what is in the coffee so many Americans are addicted to. And since many start […]

According to this infographic, coffee is not nearly as harmful as it is sometimes reported to be, or they are just not giving us the full story. Wired gives us this infographic as a short video to share with us what is in the coffee so many Americans are addicted to. And since many start in high school, now may be a good time to share it.

The infographic begins by sharing that 98% of coffee is actually water, only 2% is “the good stuff.” A small percentage is actually the same chemical that cockroaches emit to warn of danger, so it may be a good thing to keep around. But as far as the caffeine itself, this infographic only shares that it keeps you awake.

This infographic does not share much about the chemicals in caffeine, aside from their name and a small tidbit of information. Assign each chemical to a group of students and have them discover what it does to the human body. Will you students still want to drink their coffee?

Blog: http://visual.ly/whats-inside-coffee?_from=homepage