M Thomas Apple Author Page

Science fiction, actual science, history, and personal ranting about life, the universe, and everything

‘PigeonBot’ Brings Robots Closer To Birdlike Flight

January 18, 2020
MThomas

True story: On the first day of our honeymoon, a pigeon shat on the top of my head as we were walking to the mountain hot spa.

I wonder what would come out of robot pigeons 🤔

— Read on http://www.npr.org/2020/01/16/796786350/pigeonbot-brings-robots-closer-to-bird-like-flight

99.9999999% of Your Body Is Empty Space

January 14, 2020
MThomas

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Are you sitting down for this? Well, you’re not really. Your butt isn’t actually touching the chair you’re sitting on. Since the meat of your atoms is nestled away in nuclei, when you ‘touch’ someone (or something), you aren’t actually feeling their atoms.

Nobody has ever really touched anything in their lives.

Sleep tight…

(Not exactly a new article, but still interesting; and, yes, I might be using this to justify an awful lot of my soon-to-be-beta-read new novel 😉

No, it’s not actually an iPhone. Yes, please stop the sloppy reporting, thanks

January 9, 2020
MThomas

AncientIPhone

This is already a few months old, but I thought I’d finally get around to blogging about it: The “ancient iPhone” of “Russia’s Atlantis.”

Spoiler alert: it’s not one, and there was no such place. But that didn’t stop the “news” from spreading. Continue Reading

It’s life, Jim, but not as we know it. Maybe.

November 14, 2019
MThomas

The pattern remains a mystery, but researchers are beginning to narrow the possibilities.

While the changes are most likely…geological in nature, planetary scientists can’t completely rule out an explanation involving microbial life.

Just as the Viking landers claimed? Uh-oh.

Or is it just chemicals (perchlorate, bleach-like substances) in the soil, releasing oxygen and methane depending on the amount of sunlight/heat?

How would this affect humans who set up camps in the low-elevations areas, where they could be closer to water?

Hm…

www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-50419917

Here There Be Witches — i.e., Strong Women

November 1, 2019
MThomas

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The Witching Hour and Hallowe’en have come and passed, but there’s still time to think about family history…since, of course, it does involve witches. And ghosts.

We have two witches and one ghost in the family tree, on my mother’s side (my father’s side has pirates, kidnapped settlers, and Captains who start intercontinental wars, but more on that in another post). The witches, of course, were caught up in the Salem Witch Trials of 1692 and 1693. Otherwise known as the Salem Witch Paranoia. Victims of insecure white men. So what’s new? Continue Reading

The Halloween “Shat-Attack”

October 23, 2019
MThomas

It had been rumored for decades that the mask the killer Michael Myers wore in the Halloween films was in fact based on Shatner’s face. Not just his face, but specifically a Captain Kirk death mask created for Star Trek. As it turns out, the anecdote is very true.

😳

Yup. In an interview, Shatner even talked about wearing a mask of his own face for trick or treating.

(It’s in the linked article.)

Pleasant dreams 💤🎶🕸🕷🦇🧟‍♀️🧛‍♀️🧟‍♂️🎃

https://intl.startrek.com/article/the-shatner-halloween-connection?amp&__twitter_impression=true

Humans Have a ‘Salamander-Like’ Ability to Regenerate Damaged Body Parts, Study Finds

October 12, 2019
MThomas

Paging Dr. Connors! Dr. Kurt Con….

Our bodies have retained the capacity to repair injured or overworked cartilage in our joints, says new research published today in Science Advances. Remarkably, the mechanics of this healing process are practically the same as what’s used by amphibians and other animals to regenerate lost limbs

Oh.

Um.

Nevermind. It was a cool idea, anyways…

— Read on gizmodo.com/humans-have-a-salamander-like-ability-to-regenerate-d-1838909848

Winter is coming…well, not quite but

October 9, 2019
MThomas

Sorry I haven’t posted anything in a while. I know it’s been about two months. Summer was filled with fun family activities in Montreal. September was filled with trips to libraries and feeling sorry for myself. Got into a bit of a funk.

Now I’m back in Japan, back to the daily grind, and trying to find time to sort out all the stuff I mailed back from Montreal.

Rest assured, there’s lots of stuff to write about. Some of it even makes sense.

I’ll be writing a few quick posts about various cool science and space things in the upcoming days. Then maybe a couple of longish ones about weird family history. And maybe even an update on my SF novel.

Yeah. I still didn’t finish the first draft. Stuck on 70,000 words. But the end is in sight!

More later…

A brief rant about Netflix: No, that’s NOT what “original” means

August 6, 2019
MThomas

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This is not a complaint about Netflix in general (well, not necessarily, but anyway). Without Netflix, I might have gone, shall we say, a little…

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…this past winter. I’ve been working temporarily in Montréal, several thousands miles of miles apart from my family, and being able to watch movies and older TV shows has been a great escape from the depressing monotony of single life.

But I feel the need to tell Netflix that I do not appreciate their use of the word “original.” Continue Reading

No, the “golden asteroid” will NOT make you rich

June 27, 2019
MThomas

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I wrote about this a couple of days ago (based on an article from two weeks prior), but it’s interesting to see random websites suddenly jumping on the “we’ll all get rich!” asteroid mining band wagon. Hey, everybody, let’s copy-paste stuff and not use our brains!

A new article by rt.com even includes two click-bait links to “how gold was formed” that have nothing whatsoever to do with NASA’s probe to (16) Psyche. Of course, we shouldn’t expect any less from an obvious Russian “news” distributor. But in the interests of calling out the bad reporting in this and similar “news” articles spread online recently, let’s give this a hearty smack-down.

Continue Reading

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