Category Archives: Discursive Detours

A catch-all category

Advent 2022: Remembering the Big Picture

My culture’s Christmas season begins with Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade. Our traditionally-frenzied holiday shopping season does, at any rate. That’s not a particularly good thing, considering what stress can do to folks. On the other hand, America’s shopping frenzy inspired … Continue reading

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Single Stage to Orbit, Eventually

A tip of the hat to Anthony Stevens, whose recent op-ed started me thinking about this week’s topics. I’ll be talking about ideas that didn’t work out, or haven’t yet; three cool single-stage-to-orbit vehicles, including one that flew; and, finally, … Continue reading

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Exoplanets, Air, and the Marshmallow Planet

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) took that image of Jupiter, its rings and moons, a few months back. Aside from being, as one of my daughter’s noted, “shiny,” the picture gives scientists a new look at the Solar System’s … Continue reading

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JWST: Names, Claims and Attitudes

NASA launched the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) December 25, 2021. By July of 2022, the JWST had settled into position at the Sun-Earth L2 Lagrange point: about 1,500,000 kilometers, 930,000 miles from Earth. Then, after deploying its heat shields … Continue reading

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Georgia O’Keefe, a Light, the Moon and a Steeple

Georgia O’Keefe painted “New York Street with Moon” on 47th Street in Manhattan. That’s been what art critics, scholars and reporters have been saying for decades. Except for one, in an article in Sky and Telescope’s most recent issue. Astrophysicist … Continue reading

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