I Voted -- But it didn't fix anything

Moon at Jockey's Ridge

This is a view of the full moon over the massive sand dunes at Jockey's Ridge in Nags Head on the Outer Banks of North Carolina. The Photoshop composite was created by my friend Tom Hassell and is the best Windows desktop background image I have ever used. -- Dalton Hammond

Full Moon at Jockey's Ridge

Discovering Pluto

In the old days astronomers would often take pictures of the same area of the sky several nights apart. They could then study the images in a binocular viewer that combined the images. By closing one eye or the other the astronomer could spot planets, comets, or dwarf planets, all of which moved across the stars, which don't move.

I took these two images four nights apart using the 16" Slooh robotic telescope at Mount Teide observatory in the Canary Islands. Can you spot the object which moves between the two 5-minute exposures? If you can, just think: If you had noticed it 83 years ago, YOU would have been listed as the discoverer of Pluto. -- D.H.

Artificial Life

A friend of mine has a young daughter who is studying Computer Animation. One of her recent homework assignments was to animate an object and give it human movement.

I suggested that she find a way to animate a D.M.V. employee.

-- D.H.