Category Archives: Discursive Detours

A catch-all category

A Big Diamond, a Little History, and Some Geology

I take commercial puffery with a grain of salt, but that 2,492 carat diamond from the Karowe mine does seem “epic”. It’s also what I’ll be talking about this week: along with the Karowe mine, Botswana, what diamonds are and … Continue reading

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“Doing Something Wrong”: Just a Thought

I ran across remarks made by a Utah politician earlier today. This isn’t the source I stumbled on, but it’s the one I could find when I tried searching for it, later: “Utah Lt. Gov. Apologizes to LGBT Community in … Continue reading

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Something New: Polaris Dawn Commercial Test Flight

A very quick overview of a commercial human spaceflight mission, an excerpt from the news, and an embedded video which may provide live coverage. Continue reading

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Squishy Stars, Science, and Sirach

A paper published this month doesn’t so much tell us what’s inside a neutron star, as show what’s not inside. Considering how little we know about these immensely-dense stellar objects, that’s a significant step toward understanding the things. I’ll take … Continue reading

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“We Will Come After You”, Being Careful, and Truth

America has changed since my youth. I’ve seen fire and brimstone give way to tofu and soy sauce, rotary dial phones replaced by smartphones. Some things, however, haven’t changed. Like the value we place on freedom. How my country’s self-described … Continue reading

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