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Time to close out some tabs I’ve had open for a while: ::  The Future Republicans Want A look at the unbelievably fascist document that is the official platform of the Texas Republican Party: The fundamentalist religious fervor perhaps extends most strongly to gay rights and others of alternative sexual lifestyles. The platform directly declares that “Homosexuality is an abnormal lifestyle choice” and that “We oppose all efforts to validate transgender identity.” §§ 143–144 (p. 21). The Republican platform seeks to ban gay marriage. And that’s just one example of the awfulness therein. ::  The Message of the Republican Party:Down the rabbit hole….

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While on my lunch break the other day, I watched this short film about dam removal on streams in the Hudson River watershed. Fascinating film, with amazing photography (well-worth watching in full-screen HD). Were there a place I could say my soul resided, it would likely be alongside one of the forest streams of America’s Northeast.   Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

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In order, these things happened: SiriusXM played “The Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” by Gordon Lightfoot. I looked up the song and read through the lyrics, where I learned that the last transmission from the ship was the Captain reporting, over the radio, “We’re holding our own.” I look up the details of the Edmund Fitzgerald and learn that she sank in just over 500 feet of water. YouTube suggests this video of an oil tanker encountering very rough seas. YouTube then suggests this video in which the depths of various shipwrecks (omitting the Edmund Fitzgerald) are compared. Noting that the deepest shipwreckDown the rabbit hole….

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The very first alignment images from the James Webb Space Telescope are coming back: From the Marshall Space Flight Center’s Flickr page: On March 11, the Webb team completed the stage of alignment known as “fine phasing.” At this key stage in the commissioning of Webb’s Optical Telescope Element, every optical parameter that has been checked and tested is performing at, or above, expectations. The team also found no critical issues and no measurable contamination or blockages to Webb’s optical path. The observatory is able to successfully gather light from distant objects and deliver it to its instruments without issue.Down the rabbit hole….

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A good marker of being an adult is when you find yourself regretting the lack of attention you paid in one class or another in grade school. In my case, sometimes it’s Earth Science, and I really did pay quite a bit of attention in that class! But geology was never really my thing, so I just kinda got through it. And now, I notice things about the world and I wonder how they got to be that way. Here’s a good case in point from my neck of the woods. This image (screen-captured from Google Maps, thanks, Google) isDown the rabbit hole….

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I saw this image on one of NASA’s Flickr streams and I had to share it. It’s a Hubble image of a star-forming region called the “Chameleon Cloud Complex”. Look how gorgeous this is! Here’s some explanation: The segment in this Hubble composite image, called Chamaeleon Cloud I (Cha I), reveals dusty-dark clouds where stars are forming, dazzling reflection nebulae glowing by the light of bright-blue young stars, and radiant knots called Herbig-Haro objects. Herbig-Haro objects are bright clumps and arcs of interstellar gas shocked and energized by jets expelled from infant “protostars” in the process of forming. The white-orangeDown the rabbit hole….

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(A repost from exactly ten years ago, because today is the SIXTIETH anniversary of John Glenn’s flight on Friendship 7! I’ve fixed a bit of wording and removed a dead link.) Sixty years ago today, astronaut John Glenn launched in a spacecraft called Friendship 7 and became the first American to orbit the Earth. Here’s a wonderful documentary, assembled by NASA after the mission’s end, detailing the events of Glenn’s mission, from pre-launch preparations to Glenn’s post-splashdown arrival on the aircraft carrier. I watched this film way back in third grade, when our class was doing a research project onDown the rabbit hole….

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Here’s a photo from the Hubble Space Telescope: From NASA’s Flickr stream: In this image, the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope captures a side-on view of NGC 3568, a barred spiral galaxy roughly 57 million light-years from the Milky Way in the constellation Centaurus. In 2014 the light from a supernova explosion in NGC 3568 reached Earth – a sudden flare of light caused by the titanic explosion accompanying the death of a massive star. Photos of entire galaxies always blow my mind a little…and that photo contains many galaxies. What an amazingly grand universe!   Share This PostDown the rabbit hole….

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I haven’t mentioned this, but the rocket bearing the James Webb Space Telescope blasted off the other day. The telescope is headed for the L2 Lagrange Point, a spot in space where it will orbit the Sun in such a way that it maintains its relative position to Earth. This telescope will have stunning visual capabilities that will put Hubble to shame, which is a bold statement considering the decades of astonishing imagery and science produced by the Webb Telescope’s predecessor. I cannot wait to see the images that come back and to learn the things that Webb helps usDown the rabbit hole….