For those of you who are completely ignorant of the significance of March 14, today is Pi-Einstein Day (sometimes shortened to just Pi Day by the luddites and laymen). It is a big holiday among the geek world, and even the U.S. Government has recognized its importance.

First off, today is Albert Einstein's birthday. That alone makes it worth celebrating, as the great man not only developed the theory of relativity that he is famous for, but also provided proof of the existence of atoms with a...

There has been an interesting announcement from one of the teams at the TRIUMF national laboratory on the subject of medical isotope production. They are claiming that they have been able to produce a radioactive isotope known as Technetium-99m in a particle accelerator / cyclotron instead of a nuclear reactor. If there results hold up to scrutiny (which they should) and if it is economical, this could have a major impact on medical physics and on government policies on nuclear reactors.

Many...

I enjoyed tonight's episode of the Discovery program, Mythbusters, as I do every Sunday, but this episode was especially interesting because of a segment on a physics thought experiment called “Blow Your Own Sail”.

This is a very old thought experiment for physics students. Suppose you are in a sailboat on a day with no wind, and there is no motor onboard but there is a large fan. Can you use the fan to blow the sail and propel yourself along?

According to Newtonian physics for every acti...

In answer to some mocking and hurtful questions regarding my addiction to education, here is the list of courses I audited this term. And I must say that admitting to an education addiction is the first step in recovery :D

• Integrated Circuit Design and Construction - This is a fourth year undergraduate engineering course, focused on the design and construction of integrated circuits (or microchips in common parlance). I can't really see this ever being useful to me in a practical sense, ...

 Someone asked me earlier this month what sort of things I work on as a semi-independent science and technology consultant. It's a bit complicated to explain, so instead I thought I would give a list of the projects and tasks I have been involved in in one randomly selected week. So here it goes:

Monday – I started off the day with some imaging work for a client of Lonrach R&T, in which I had to design/modify an algorithm to generate a 3D model of a prototype using multiple 2D photos. There...

I saw this poem/commentary a few years back, and I think it is worth re-posting here:

I awake on Christmas morning, warm and comfortable on the sofa.

I couldn't wait for the morning to come, so I snuck down and slept with the tree and the presents, full of excitement and anticipation for the day to come.

All the lights are dark except for the tree, and the colors are reflecting off the walls and the floor in all shades of the rainbow.

The ornaments twinkle with reflected light and reflectio...

It is Rememberance Day again, a time for all of us to take some time out of our busy lives and remember all of the men and women who have defended this country and protected the innocent around the world. They have done a lot for us, and too often are forgotten when they are no longer needed.

I always like to take this opportunity to think about all of my family members who have served, and how rough it was for them and how much they have sacrificed.

First on the list is my grandpa, Ernie F...