Out of Ambit
Astronomy
The galactic bar scene
PASADENA, Calif.–Bars abound in spiral galaxies today, but this was not always the case. A group of 16 astronomers, led by Kartik Sheth of NASA’s Spitzer Science Center at the California Institute of Technology, has found that bars tripled in number over the past seven billion years… So what’s the cause? Gentrification, or looser liquor [...]
Local definition of being focused on work: totally forgot about the solar eclipse
Sheesh. Unusual for me. But here’s the info. (The path of totality has also been Google Mapped.) Stockholm will only be getting a partial — I estimate 35–40%-ish coverage from the diagram — but that’s still more than I’d have seen at home in Ireland. What great timing! Here’s a magic phrase, though: The path of [...]
How I Missed the Conjunction of Tarva and Alambil
“At the dead of night, two noble planets, Tarva and Alambil, will pass within one degree of each other. Such a conjunction has not occurred for two hundred years.” (Dr. Cornelius in Prince Caspian) Irish weather strikes again. We had a tight conjunction of Mercury, Mars and Jupiter this morning. When I went to bed [...]
In the “Why was I not told about this earlier” department
From an article about the deploying of the International Space Station’s new solar panels: one astronaut is mentioned… …Christopher J. Ferguson, another Navy captain, who is on his first shuttle mission and is a member of the all-astronaut rock band Max Q. The all-astronaut rock band??!! Where do they play? Where can a geek(ette) buy [...]
The tenth planet gets a name
Or the second planette. (Or dwarf planet, or planetoid, or whatever-the-F we’re calling the Small Guys Out Past Neptune this week.) Anyway: the planet formerly known as Xena is now Eris. …Which makes so much sense, given recent events. And her moon is Dysnomia. (Which I would otherwise have pegged as the word for the [...]
About the blogger
30+ years in print, 50+ novels, assorted TV and movie work, the NYT Bestseller List a few times, blah blah blah. Also: the Young Wizards series, 1983-2010 and beyond.
That said, sometimes I want to talk about anything but writing. This is one place where that happens.
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