Happy Tau Day

Note: I thought I had scheduled this but it turns out I had it set to go on July 28. Which is not Tau Day. So you're getting this late. But correctly dated. Timey-wimey.

In the interest of controversy, I am happy to celebrate Tau Day (despite the fact that there are no good punny jokes about tau and to celebrate people eat two pies, which seems to go against the whole anti-pi thing the tau people have going) by linking to several Vi Hart videos, wherein she explains why pi is wrong.

In which PhysicsGirl is covered in butterflies* and eats bugs

*Not really. But I did eat some bugs. Covered in chocolate.


I had a cheap two-for-one deal for admission to the Cambridge Butterfly Conservatory, so the DC and I went last Saturday. I had researched what to wear to create a welcome place for butterflies to land, but it turns out what you need is a hat. The butterflies completely ignored me in favour of the DC's flat cap. The only other person with a butterfly on her was a little girl with a, you guessed it, sun cap. Duly noted.

Other than that, it was a lovely day. I've never been to the Niagara or any other butterfly conservatory, so I have no basis for comparison, but there were butterflies. And they were pretty. I was happy.



The Paradise café has really good food, at a good price for what you're getting. Go hungry. I had the cashew-lentil burger, which was delicious, and it was a huge meal.

The conservatory has things other than butterflies (such as birds and bees and giant bugs and so forth). They sponsor various events like monarch-tagging and brunches; if I lived closer, I'd love to hang out here more often.


Speaking of bugs, I bought some edible bugs in the gift shop. The DC refused to try them, but honestly you can't even tell you're eating bugs. I was a bit disappointed.


To see the rest of my photos, click on the title below and scroll to the picture in the thumbnail.

From Rambling Through Toronto

After the conservatory, we stopped at Len's Mill Store to do some fabric shopping. I picked up enough fabric for four items, but spent less than $100. And there was a lot of fabric I managed not to buy. I need to come back.

Road trip!

More internet fame... albeit anonymous...

The fog has lifted somewhat. The final marks are in, everyone acquitted themselves more or less honourably, and I make my annual "I promise to stay on top of things next year" pledge. So now I can catch up on some blogging. I've been places, people, and done exciting things. Well, interesting things. Okay, things.

This post is about none of that. It's a really quick post to indicate that I'm still alive and that I'm kind of excited about stuff on the internet.

I may have mentioned The Lizzie Bennet Diaries, which you should totally watch because I need them to keep making these videos, and also because in this adaptation, Kitty Bennet? Is an actual cat^*. Anyway, a bunch of fan tumblrs have popped up, one of which is Lizzie Bennet Diaries: Confessions. I posted something and Bernie Su, the head-writer of the LBD, loved my post. Squee!

Aaaand... we finally get to meet Bing Lee! And hopefully Darcy. I love Mondays and Thursdays, and I am in no way too invested in a fictional series.

Now, go watch it!

^*This being the age that it is, naturally she has a Twitter account. You can follow her and the other characters on my Twitter list.

Transit of Venus

If you didn't know about the transit of Venus yesterday, you aren't following the right people on Twitter. It's something that happens in pairs eight years apart separated by long intervals of over a century due to Venus orbiting the Sun at a wonky angle. Historically, we used it to figure out just how big this solar system we are inhabiting really is. You can learn more about it at the Wikipedia page.


This being pretty much a once-in-a-lifetime event^*, and despite all the marking I still need to get done, I knew I would kick myself if I didn't at least try to see it. But with no special sunglasses or welding goggles, and with a history of bad luck with pin-hole viewers, the question was how.

The answer was: Galileo to the rescue.