Round Museum

The head of a propane tank is a small menagerie of Rounds. This steel cylinder on a forklift truck at the North Carolina Transportation Museum in Spencer, NC, is the way that liquified petroleum gas is stored and transported in small quantities for general use in engines, portable stoves, and residential central heating. As soon as the metered nozzle is opened, the liquid vaporizes. Interestingly, in the production of propane, large volumes are stored in huge, hollowed-out salt caverns around the U.S.

Earth's immense story plays out in this science theater-in-the-round, connecting scientists to visitors with multi-channel surround sound. "This Museum asks four basic questions about the natural sciences—what do we know?, how do we know?, what’s happening now?, how can you participate?"

SECU Daily Planet
North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences
Raliegh, NC

02.19.17

If your eyes are bigger than your stomach, most of the time that means you've probably eaten too much. But if you're a Disney princess, it means your eyes are literally bigger than your stomach. Sure, cartoons are by definition exaggerations of reality, but the comedians at Above Average noticed that right down the line -- from Jasmine to Aurora to Elsa -- the princesses' waistlines are much narrower than their eyelines.

02.16.17

The puffy burst of seed parachutes emerge from a maturing dandelion. The spherical shape is known as a blowball or clock.

02.13.17

More than 300 feet above the sidewalk, an 11-foot gold cross and sphere glimmers atop the dome of the Cathedral Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul in Philadelphia. The dramatic aqua oxidized-copper dome rises over Logan Circle marking the mid-point along Benjamin Franklin Parkway between City Hall and the Philadelphia Museum of Art. Modeled after the Lombard Church of Saint Charles in Rome, this religious landmark was completed in 1864 during Abraham Lincoln's presidency and is an excellent example of Roman-Corinthian architecture.

02.12.17

Though the new gaol was described as "the finest in 3 kingdoms” compared to the old gaol, that's really a matter of perspective. When it opened 1824, the plans for Cork City Gaol may have been sketched by Ireland’s greatest neo-classical sculptor and Mrs. Deane and her son Thomas may have built a fine red sandstone structure. But if you were locked in the pillory and getting pelted with rotten food, feces or a dead animal, the architecture really wasn't a factor, now was it?

Cork City Gaol
Cork, Ireland

02.11.17

This looks like a rusty old Round. But I'm thinking of a warm evening out on the deck in Raleigh, burgers on the grill, an icy cold beverage, a cool breeze. Family and friends enjoying some music in the twilight. And a candle glowing atop this rusty old stand as the sky turns dark.

02.08.17

A deviled egg at Chip and Philip's house is not just a deviled egg. It's a devilish egg - avacado, bacon, and sweet loving attention.

02.04.17

“All Things Boat” shares a list of funny boat names for the prudent mariner, and they run the gamut from the cheeky “Shameless Hooker” to the creaky “Sea-duction.” In that company, “Dream On” lies somewhere in the middle -- a pleasant name for a yacht, yes, but really ironic on a life preserver.

02.02.17

Its only the end of January, but one can still dream of lazy, hazy inner-tubing days of summer. A sunny, warm August afternoon is really not that far away, and soon Laila with her bright smile will be floating by on Little Lake Sunapee in New Hampshire.

01.31.17