Category Archives: USA

Down the research rabbit hole

Posted on 10 November 2018 by

While writing Resilience, I needed to estimate how much maintenance a shuttle might need after each hour of space flight. As a guide, I looked up maintenance requirements of US military jets and was floored. Not my shuttle. On average, a military … Continue reading →

Posted in USA, writing | Tagged | 2 Comments

“Portugal is not the USA”

Posted on 1 July 2018 by

I’m guessing this was not trumpeted all over the US news, but the President of Portugal, Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, met with Trump at the White House last week. The meeting started off with a handshake. It’s clear from this … Continue reading →

Posted in politics, Portugal, USA | 13 Comments

The right-wing megacorp controlling your local news

Posted on 2 April 2018 by

Once upon a time, your local news stations were a reliable bastion of independent journalism. Chance are good that isn’t the case now. If your local station is owned by Sinclair Broadcast Group, then it is required to run certain … Continue reading →

Posted in politics, USA | 1 Comment

Know your gunfire

Posted on 2 October 2017 by

I did something today that I never imagined myself doing: I sat down on the sofa with my wife and teen son and played them a video from the Las Vegas mass shooting. Why? Because my wife and I frequently … Continue reading →

Posted in USA | 3 Comments

Wallpaper Wednesday

Posted on 4 February 2015 by

This is probably not where you think it is. It’s Beaver’s Bend State Park, located on the shore of Broken Bow Lake in Oklahoma—a state that is not exactly known for its scenery. Though I hear the Witchita Mountains are … Continue reading →

Posted in USA, wallpaper | 1 Comment

A most amazing “failure”

Posted on 24 January 2015 by

Sometimes the mainstream press really does not know what’s going on when it comes to anything techy. Case in point: earlier this month, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying a Dragon capsule that was destined to dock with the … Continue reading →

Posted in astronomy, science, tech, USA | 11 Comments

Wallpaper Monday

Posted on 19 January 2015 by

When most people hear the word “Maui,” they don’t think of a scene like this. But all of the Hawaiian islands have a similar geographical division in which the prevailing winds bring tons of rain to the east and north … Continue reading →

Posted in USA, wallpaper | 2 Comments

Wallpaper Monday

Posted on 15 December 2014 by

On Thursday, 11 December, the Grand Canyon experienced a “total cloud inversion.” If this sounds like something backwards, that’s because it is. Normally, temperatures are much higher in the canyon than above it (and it is not uncommon to have … Continue reading →

Posted in USA, video, wallpaper, weather | 1 Comment

Anti-arachnophobe post

Posted on 2 November 2014 by

Remember when I posted that video of the gigantoid web produced in Brazil by a colony of cooperatively-hunting spiders? And many of you North Americans said, “OH GOD — well, at least that’s in South America and not here”? Guess … Continue reading →

Posted in biology, USA | 9 Comments

The sunlit path

Posted on 30 October 2014 by

Watching my home nation undergo a tidal change in social understanding has been an amazing experience. There are very few times in our lives when we can know, without a doubt, that we are watching history in the making. When … Continue reading →

Posted in life, politics, USA, video | 11 Comments