Welcome to Heather’s Homilies
Tau Kē Tēnei Wiki: NASA is Hiring Astronauts
On 14 December, a new application period for those who want to be NASA astronauts opens. I'd love to be an astronaut, but fail at a couple of hurdles even to apply. I'm not a US citizen, a history degree is not a qualification they're looking for, and I don't have...
Auē Tēnei Wiki: Women in DAESH
On Friday I spent a couple of hours going through the latest issue of Dabiq, DAESH's on-line magazine. They released it last week to boast of the murders, injuries, and terror they have inflicted anew on the world. The events in Paris and the downing of the Russian...
The Dragonfly’s Incredible Vision
I'm subscribed to a number of YouTube sites, and BBC Earth is one of them, but as usual Amy Carparelli was quicker off the mark than me and brought this one to my attention before I got around to checking my subscriptions. This one describes the amazing vision of the...
Auē a Tau Kē Tēnei Wiki
Worries and Winners of the Week (again!). You may remember I wanted to name this segment of my website in Māori in recognition that I'm a proud New Zealander. I came up with some words a few weeks ago, but wanted to check that I'd got it right before I used them. So I...
An Update from Rosetta
We have another great video via Amy Carparelli (@AmyAmylou1993) about the European Space Agency's Rosetta mission. It explains three of the things we've learnt from the mission so far, and three questions that have arisen from what has been learnt....
Why Would DAESH Attack Paris?
Vox produced this video a few hours ago, explaining the reasons why DAESH would attack Paris. I agree with their reasoning so here it is: https://youtu.be/3bIvqS7gnQo
Auē Tēnei Wiki: Paris, France
What else? France has experienced their 9/11. The Friday 13th myth originated in France, and DAESH has made it a reality. I was happily supermarket shopping on a beautiful sunny morning when the first of seven suicide bombers detonated his vest yesterday morning New...
Tau Kē Tēnei Wiki: Cambridge University Engineering Photo Competition
These are the winning photos from Cambridge University's 2015 Engineering photo competition. The annual competition is sponsored by Zeiss and always has many beautiful images. This year's winner, by Rachel Garsed, is called Shot in the Dark. It's of a bullet hole...
Ted Cruz: Atheists “not fit” to be President
I'm sure Ted Cruz isn't the only candidate vying to be United States president to think this, but thankfully such bigotry isn't usually voiced. However, as Cruz is mainly relying on the evangelical Christian vote to get him votes in the Republican primary race, making...
Once Upon a Time … in Space
I find the European Space Agency's Rosetta Mission fascinating. What it took to just land on that comet is amazing. I subscribe to their YouTube channel, but as always, before I got to check out my subscriptions, Amy Carparelli (@AmyAmylou1993) had tweeted their...
Worry of the Week – 8 November 2015: Seventh-Day Adventists
This post has obviously come about because of Dr Ben Carson. He's done what none of the other US Republican presidential primary candidates could do, and that's overtake Donald Trump in the polls. This has brought added scrutiny to Carson's background, which is...
Winner of the Week – 8 November 2015: Cuteness!
There are so many horrible things going on in the world that I've decided to do another post focussing on some of the wonderful things to be found in our natural world - this time the cuteness of baby animals. If you're not a sucker for baby animals, you won't enjoy...