About me:

Welcome to my little corner of the Internet. In cyberspace, I go by the nickname Wolverine (no, it’s not an X-Men reference — I’m a huge fan of Michigan Football). My name is Daniel. I’m a 35-year-old amateur astronomer & skeptic living just outside beautiful Austin, Texas. Among my other passions are photography, science, space exploration, cosmology & nature. Here you’ll find commentary on those topics and perhaps more with the passage of time.

About my site:

First and foremost, it’s my goal to share the beauty and wonder of the cosmos with others. Astronomy is a deeply rewarding hobby which borders on the addictive. We humans have gazed into the skies and pondered the cosmos, wondering what’s out there and what makes it tick, for the duration of our existence on this planet. You and I are fortunate enough to hold a more privileged position than our ancestors thanks to generations of ingenuity of invention. As each week passes we edge closer to solving the great mysteries the universe holds. The more we can collectively learn about the cosmos - and our place in it - the better.

Additionally, it’s crucial that we equip ourselves with the proper tools in order to best make sense all this stuff around us, and as such I’m a staunch advocate of science and science education, with strong emphasis placed on critical inquiry. To reach our most accurate, reasonable conclusions about the nature of the universe and all its treasures, sound foundations in science, reason, logic, and critical thinking are a must. Consequently, I’ll occasionally tackle current or popular misconceptions, misrepresentations, or pseudoscientific claims. In time I’ll hopefully expand the number of entries here devoted to skepticism; if in the meantime you require an introduction to these schools of thought and their scope, surf through the Skepticism section of my links page to learn more.

My stuff:

All imagery and content ©2005-2007 Wolverine’s Den, unless otherwise stated. NASA/JPL imagery, however, is public domain. Please contact me if you’d like to reproduce my writings and photographs. Reproduction without my consent is prohibited.

My favorite astrophoto:

Well, one of them anyway. But this is what I’ve used for years as an avatar… sort of an unofficial trademark:

Some of my favorite quotes:

“Anecdotal thinking comes naturally; science requires training.” — Michael Shermer

“The Universe is wonderful enough without having to make up nonsense about it.” — Phil Plait

“For me, it is far better to grasp the Universe as it really is than to persist in delusion, however satisfying and reassuring.” — Carl Sagan

“Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity, and I’m not sure about the former.”
– Albert Einstein

“Facts are stubborn things; and whatever may be our wishes, our inclinations, or the dictates of our passions, they cannot alter the state of facts and evidence.” — John Adams

“In questions of science, the authority of a thousand is not worth the humble reasoning of a single individual.” — Galileo Galilei

And, my #1:

“From this distant vantage point, the Earth might not seem of any particular interest. But for us, it’s different. Consider again, that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us.

On it, everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every superstar, every supreme leader, every saint and sinner in the history of our species, lived there — on a mote of dust, suspended in a sunbeam.

The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that in glory and triumph they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner. How frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds. Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the universe, are challenged by this point of pale light.

Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves. The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit? Yes. Settle? Not yet. Like it or not, for the moment, the Earth is where we make our stand.

It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and a character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot — the only home we’ve ever known.” — Carl Sagan

Proud member of The Planetary Society

Proud member of the James Randi Educational Foundation