(The two little crescents in the above picture are the planets Jupiter and Venus. Their shape is an artifact of my camera and blowing up the picture beyond what it can manage.) There are two definitions of the ecliptic that are easy to find. One says that the ecliptic is the plane of the earth's [...]
I recently read a fascinating book called The Victorian Internet by Tom Standage (Walker and Company, NY, 1998). The author's thesis is that the telegraph was very similar to the modern internet in its ability to connect people from all over and to send information anywhere, almost instantly. He traces the invention of the telegraph [...]
This is the presentation Dr. Lucy Hancock gave at a session on space weather at the Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society's session on Space Weather, in January, 2022. Dr. Hancock presented an anomaly in solar radiation data, and suggested it be explained as the effect of space dust shading the line of sight [...]
Who is Matilda? When Dante reaches the top of Purgatory he encounters a lady who guides him through the mysteries he encounters. She is on the opposite side of a stream which he has found. And there appeared to me … A lady all alone, who went along Singing and culling floweret after floweret … [...]
After Dante passes the last ledge in Purgatory and braves the flames that he compares to molten glass in temperature, the sun sets and he can not go further. Even though he is now at the top of Mount Purgatory the rule that no progress is made in the dark remains. He lies down on [...]
