Aurora Borealis, May 2024

Moon on lower left, Victoria, BC lower center, looking northwest from the southern shore of the Strait of Juan de Fuca.

In May 2024, a series of CMEs (coronal mass ejections) sent billions of tons of highly charged particles rushing outward from the Sun at between 500 to 3000 kilometers per second. When some of these particles reached the upper atmosphere Continue reading Aurora Borealis, May 2024

UFOs: They’re out there, or right here

A UFO on the back of a truck.

There has been much news froth about UFOs over the past several years, for no good reason. There are some who still argue the Earth is flat, and others that vaccines are a plot by Communists or drug companies or Continue reading UFOs: They’re out there, or right here

More on the NOAA Wave Pool

As mentioned elsewhere, NOAA has a wave pool. Designed by Jim Sanborn, it is formally known as Coastline, but there is no plaque or signage that displays the name, and almost no one knows it by any other name than Continue reading More on the NOAA Wave Pool

Dublin 2019: Retrospective Hugos for 1944

Dublin 2019: An Irish Worldcon was the 77th World Science Fiction Convention, the oldest science fiction convention in the world. Each year, it meets in a different city, and for 2019, the host was Dublin, Ireland, the first time for Continue reading Dublin 2019: Retrospective Hugos for 1944

NOAA Wave Pool

The NOAA Wave Pool (also concatenated as “Wavepool”) is a kinetic sculpture created by Jim Sanborn. It is located in the courtyard of Silver Spring Metro Center 4, on the NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration) campus in Silver Spring, Continue reading NOAA Wave Pool

Awards and Honors

Everyone wants to be recognized for something. This has resulted in an explosion of different ways to be recognized, ranging from spending money to get your own trophy (or get your name engraved on a brick, or monogrammed shirts, or…) Continue reading Awards and Honors

World Heritage Sites, United States

Checklist of World Heritage Sites visited in the United States. This is a dynamic list, with plans for checking off more sites in the future. ✔︎ means “visited,” and ✖︎ means “need to visit.” Mesa Verde National Park – ✖︎ Continue reading World Heritage Sites, United States

Light of other days

This photo was taken well after sundown. The light on the ridgeline is reflected from snow off the Olympic Mountains, bouncing back into the sky and reflected again off the clouds. It looks as if it could be from city Continue reading Light of other days

AI and haiku

Siri does haiku. Haiku is a very ancient form of Japanese poetry, based on a pattern of seventeen syllables over three lines of five, seven and five syllables. It is also the bane of introductory literature students unfamiliar with poetry Continue reading AI and haiku