Yes, Scientists Have a Sense of Humor

A physicist I know was mentioning a conversation with another physicist, talking about Stephen Hawking and how he holds the Lucasian Chair. She: Most people know that Newton held this famous chair. Him: Of course, that was before they put wheels on it.

Tiltrotor

The local Air National Guard base has several V-22 Osprey tiltrotors. There have been complaints of them flying and hovering too low over a particular Frankfort neighborhood, so tonight they have changed to flying low over _my_ neighborhood. They're out with some other large helicopters. I can see and hear them. They all have their running lights on, and the bodies are vaguely visible in reflected street light.

Additionally, the Ospreys have green lights on the rotor tips, so they can keep track of where they are. So there's this shadowy shape with blinking lights on the fuselage, and what looks like two green rings.

I got a real good look at one of them. When it flew over my house at about a hundred meters. That was close enough to get a good look at the fuselage.

I tried taking photos, but there's just not enough light for the autofocus to lock.