Announcing a Guest Blogger...

Starting next month we will have out first guest blogger through a special arrangement, through space and time, with the University of Padua, a Tuscan physicist, the father of modern observational astronomy, Galileo Bonaiuti de' Galilei. Sr. de'Galilei will be posting to our blog during the International Year of Astronomy. Blog readers may post questions and comments to Sr. de'Galilei and ask him about his work in mathematics, mechanics and astronomy. Sr. de'Galilei will be blogging about his recent and on-going work and his methods as well as any discoveries he might make.

In addition, we expect in February to have another guest blogger. This person shares a birthday with Abrahan Lincoln and with our own Carol Kuhns. Watch here for more information

==JFK==

A Triple Conjunction

This triple conjunction photo is courtesy Bob Riddle [briddle@kcmsd.net]: the waxing crescent Moon, Venus, and Jupiter form a striking grouping shortly after sunset in Lee's Summit Missouri.

You Mean I Could Be Paid for That?

Hey kids, you know how your mothers and fathers say: "If you work really hard, and study, and don't spend all of your time playing, you could have a really good career"? Parents, you've said that to your kids: I know that I've said it to mine (more than enough, as they will tell you)...

But bearing in mind the popularity of our LEGO^TM sets and our Mindstorms NXT sessions at HMS Beagle, here's a link to a story on the BBC News website about a man who makes his living building new LEGO creations. He's one of the designers behind Legoland Windsor, in west London.

It's a fascinating story, and reminds us all that some of the best jobs come from the dreams that we had as kids, including jobs in the sciences... and jobs where you get to spend the day playing with LEGO.