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Blue Jets, Red Sprites, Trolls, and Elves in Space
“Blue jets” rise up from clouds. Above the lightning, “red sprites” can be seen (plasma discharges). Known about since 1886, not photographed until 1989….and now known to occur on Jupiter. Check out this page for some amazing photos… “NASA captures blue jets and red sprites above thunderstorms from space” (somebody needs to help Forbes with […]
Bringer of Light, Chapter 11: Ceres (Part Two)
(Weng and his “assistant” Gen have arrived at Ceres, where after some difficulty they convinced the Ceres Mining Council to give them water supplies for an increasingly crowded Mars. None of them realize what the water will do…) “Smells like the ocean,” Weng muttered. “Yes,” Talbot said. “This used to be the Sea of Salt.” […]
How to get a new tooth in Japan
This past Thursday I got a metal spike screwed into my jaw. And it hurt. But not as badly as I feared. To be honest, it’s all my fault. Well, all my 20-year-old-self’s fault. Too much soda and not enough brushing and flossing in college. Damn you, Dr. Pepper!
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Category Archives: trips
Home for the holidays (Part 1)
After a series of fairly serious blog posts related to an ongoing complaint against Amazon (which was somewhat, but not entirely, resolved), I thought it was about time to post about a slightly more innocuous topic: Making pottery at the … Continue reading
Usagi and the Bear
Since my daughter was a baby, she’s been obsessed with rabbits (usagi, in Japanese). We first had a stuffed sheep doll for her, but she quickly became enamoured of a musical pink bunny whose cord she could pull to start … Continue reading
On the Pond
This past Sunday, my wife, daughter, and I joined in an outdoor barbecue at a prefectural park originally built for a Japanese emperor. Sounds impressive, I guess…Taisho Tenno wasn’t a particularly long-lived emperor by modern standards, and was in poor … Continue reading