Prometheus and Methuselah The mountains of California, Nevada, and Utah contain magical creatures. These ancient beings live thousands of feet above sea level in unforgiving terrain. Sometimes, you might encounter one, a gnarled hermit, and suspect she is dead. Yet these presences are masters of survival; they have outlasted countless human civilizations; they have […]
Prometheus and Methuselah Read More »
Alien Aurorae In Episode 228 we learned the basics of an aurora, the gorgeous, ephemeral dance of the firmaments. Solar winds slam into Earth’s magnetosphere, a meeting that kicks off a process that excites atoms in our atmosphere, producing fluorescent displays in the sky. Those fortunate few who witness them are mesmerized and thrilled. But we earthlings
Aurora The Valkyrior [Valkyries] are warlike virgins, mounted upon horses and armed with helmets and spears. /…/ When they ride forth on their errand, their armour sheds a strange flickering light, which flashes up over the northern skies, making what Men call the “aurora borealis”, or “Northern Lights”. — Thomas Bulfinch, Mythology Sorry, Disney fans, we
Sprites, Elves, Trolls, Pixies, Ghosts, Gnomes, and Blue Jets No, we’re not traveling today to Middle-earth or into the belly of a dungeon crawler. Instead, we’ll take to the skies. All the fantastical characters of today’s title are real phenomena in the upper atmosphere! Lightning strikes – photo by Mircea Madau Most of us
Sprites, Elves, Trolls, Pixies, Ghosts, Gnomes, and Blue Jets Read More »
The Bluetooth Bombshell Hedwig Eva Maria Kiesler dropped into being on 9 November 1914 in Vienna, Austria. If you’re a fan of classic cinema, you might know Kiesler by her stage name, Hedy Lamarr. Billed by Louis B. Mayer, the head of MGM, as “the world’s most beautiful woman,” Lamarr found widespread fame during the Golden Age
The Bluetooth Bombshell Read More »
You Shall Pass Most of us are well familiar with overpasses, those three-dimensional intersections of highways and byways. These structures allow roads to cross safely without those pesky traffic lights, stop signs, or roundabouts. An overpass on the New York Thruway – image by Jojalozzo Utilizing vertical space for road travel is good for both
Roy G. Biv Many students learn the mnemonic Roy G. Biv to recall the visible colors: Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, Violet. It’s a handy way to quickly remember the order of a rainbow spectrum. Have you ever asked yourself, “what exactly is indigo?” Is it near blue? Near violet? A mixture of the two? If
The Orphan Tsunami and the Ghost Forest Whale was a destroyer. Whale attacked and killed all the smaller whales, which provided food and oil to humans. The people began to starve. From her home in the mountains, Thunderbird spied the distress of the humans on the coast. She soared over the ocean, waiting for Whale to surface. When
The Orphan Tsunami and the Ghost Forest Read More »
The Loudest Sound On 27 August 1883, reverberations from the northwest disturbed the morning serenity of sheep ranchers outside Alice Springs, Australia. The men later described the sound as “a series of loud reports, resembling those of artillery.” No war raged in central Australia in 1883; no military exercises took place. Were these ranchers under
May the Forces Be With You Yeah, I’m a day late. When you write articles on specific days of the week you can’t fight the calendar. And this year 4 May landed on a Tuesday. Nobody likes to read about a holiday, no matter how fourced, after it happens. I could have posted this episode on
May the Forces Be With You Read More »