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Hello, my reading friend passionate about astronomy. Would you like to continue without further delay this presentation devoted to the solar eclipse of August 1932? Wunderbar! Before undertaking that reading exercise, allow me to identify some of the eminent British researchers en route to Canada aboard the Canadian liner SS Montcalm operated by Canadian Pacific Steamships Ocean Services Limited for the purpose of observing said eclipse. Yes, the ones you saw on the photograph above a few

Hello, my reading friend. To be precise, hello. Yours truly’s long association with the wondrous Canada Aviation and Space Museum in Ottawa, Ontario, leads me on this day to pontificate on a subject of a highly celestial nature. I must admit that I am not an umbraphile / eclipse hunter. This being said (typed?), a total solar eclipse is definitely a sight worth seeing. Indeed, I seem to recall seeing a partial annular eclipse in Ottawa, in May 1994, but I digress. A solar eclipse or, more

Greetings, my reading friend. How are you this week? May I offer you the caption of the photographs you just saw, my reading… Err, why the puzzled look? Please do not tell me that the names Heath Robinson and / or “Rube” Goldberg do not ring a bell. It is too early in the day for such a shocking revelation. Sigh… What do children learn in school these days? You do realise that, by forcing me to explain who William Heath Robinson (1872-1944) and Reuben Garrett Lucius “Rube” Goldberg (1883-1970)

Willkommen! Bienvenue! Welcome! Mein lesender Freund. Ami(e) lectrice ou lecteur. My reading friend. In eine Geschichte aus zwei Reinhardts. À un conte de deux Reinhardt. To a tale of two Reinhardts. One could argue our tale began in 1812 with the birth of Gottlieb Friedrich Reinhardt, quite possibly in Strümpfelbach, Württemberg, one of the kingdoms which made up the Rheinische Bundesstaaten, a short-lived (1806-13) confederation of German speaking client states established at the behest of

Welcome back, my open-minded reading friend. Shall we continue our look at the way French language daily and weekly newspapers in Québec dealt with flying saucer sightings in their neck of the wood during the 3 three or so weeks which followed Kenneth Albert Arnold’s epoch-making experience of 24 June 1947? Good for you. A sighting occurred in Montréal, Québec, in the early evening of 8 July 1947. Thirty or so people observed a very large and dark object which consisted of two superposed discs

Greetings, my reading friend, greetings. As many people around the globe take stock of the 75th anniversary of Kenneth Albert Arnold’s now famous 24 June 1947 sighting of 9 unidentified flying objects, soon described as flying saucers, moving at very high speed near Mount Rainier, in the state of Washington, it would be interesting to look at the early days of the modern flying saucer phenomenon through the eyes of the papers aimed at the major segment of the population of what could be

I have a favour to ask, my reading friend. Would you be willing to entertain the possibility of accepting a well-known if defunct Canadian confectionery company as a worthwhile topic under our agriculture and food heading? Much obliged. You will of course have noted that today’s illustration was / is brought to us by The Aylmer Express, a newspaper which still existed as of 2022. Even though that particular name made its appearance in that small Ontario town located near Ottawa, Ontario, in

Buongiorne, amico lettore, buongiorno e benvenuti a questa seconda e ultima parte del nostro articolo su un uovo italiano su ruote, l’Iso Isetta. You will remember that this Italian microcar was mainly produced in West Germany. This being said (typed?), that country was not the only one where an assembly line was set up, which explains in part the several nicknames given to the Isetta: in West Germany, rollende Ei (rolling egg); in Argentina, ratón alemán (German mouse); in Brazil, bola de

Greetings, and welcome to the world of planetariums. You will remember that, in part 1 of this article of our incomparable blog / bulletin / thingee, we had gone through the early stages of the remarkable life of Armand Neustadter Spitz. Let us follow through by going through the later stages of that remarkable life, the part which concerns his contribution to the development of planetarium projectors. Indeed, Spitz seemingly believed that a planetarium was the best teaching aid ever invented