Commentary - Xcentric Diffractions

Xcentric Diffractions

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Commentary

A collection of 59 posts

Astrophotography image of the Little Dumbell Nebula. A thick white bar flanked by blue loops on a field of stars.

Gone Rogue

"Max? Where are we? Where are we going?" "What do you mean, 'Where are we going?" he replied. "I can't … I can't remember. I can't find it. It's like something's corrupted a whole section

A small sailboat passes behind a foreground rock reef in calm blue water

The Strain in Maine

Landscape picture featuring the Washington Monument reflected in the pool at sunrise.

Washington Monument to House Very Best Snipers!

USPS mail dropbox on a street corner curb. Floating in the foreground are images of a red "Return to Sender" marking, and a 32 cent US postage stamp.

Supreme Court Sides with Trump, Affirms Unitary Voter Theory

Bifurcations

Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, And sorry I could not travel both And be one traveler -- Robert Frost, The Road Not Taken A bifurcation is the point at which a dynamic system undergoes an irreversible division into two separate pathways with qualitatively different behaviors. It results from small

For a World in Flames

For a World in Flames

"IC 405?" asked Max. "Are you sure?" "The Flaming Star Nebula. Yes, I'm sure. I need to see it." "Okay," he replied. "It does seem appropriate." And then, as an aside, he added, "You know, you could

$$$ You Too Can Make Billions $$$

$$$ You Too Can Make Billions $$$

A Modest Proposal

A Modest Proposal

The Reign in Maine

The Reign in Maine

Agriculture Secretary to Test All Farm Animals for Bovine Serum Albumin

Agriculture Secretary to Test All Farm Animals for Bovine Serum Albumin

The Disconnect

Xcentricdiff's first law of politics: A body in Congress tends to stay in Congress Unless acted upon by an unbalanced force. (Apologies to Sir Isaac.) This won't come as a surprise to any of you, but the U.S. Congress is getting old. By the session.

Restore the Lagoon

Restore the Lagoon

What you see depends on your point of view. From his observatory in the Hôtel de Cluny in downtown Paris, May 23, 1764, Charles Messier must have had some excellent points of view. The southern-most object in his catalog of deep sky objects, M7, known as Ptolemy's

The Embrace of Ignorance

The Embrace of Ignorance

What you don't know won't disappear just because you don't know it The early June evening had turned a little more moderate after heat and drought. The broccoli leaves looked a little less sad. A little less droopy. And so I broke for the

More Judgment Fun(d)

More Judgment Fun(d)

Some lose ends from the vault today. After writing, a couple of weeks ago, about Trump paying the French energy conglomerate TotalEnergies not to do wind turbines, I became kind of fascinated with the Judgment Fund. The Judgment Fund, remember, is that permanent, indefinite, never empty piggy bank that US

We're Very Close to Having a Very, Very Good, Strong, Powerful Deal

We're Very Close to Having a Very, Very Good, Strong, Powerful Deal

Judgment Fund Day

Judgment Fund Day

The banner image above is a map, by country, of the fraction of electricity generated by renewable energy sources. If you look in the rear view mirror, the US can be seen receding into the distant past. While the Trump Regime forces us to "Burn, Baby, Burn!" the

A Missing Messier Mystery

A Missing Messier Mystery

"There's a trick with M102," said Max. "A trick?" I asked. "What do you mean a 'trick'. It's a galaxy. The 'Spindle' galaxy." "Come on, let's go, and I'll show you.

Make It a Dummymander

Make It a Dummymander

Trump: Mexico Will Pay For Ballroom

Trump: Mexico Will Pay For Ballroom

"I Don't Think It Means What You Think it Means"

"I Don't Think It Means What You Think it Means"

The Trump Regime is Pissing Into the Wind

The Trump Regime is Pissing Into the Wind

How much offshore wind energy potential is there in the US? The National Renewable Energy Laboratory (NREL) carried out a coastal resource analysis in 2022 to answer that question. Combining near shore anchored platforms and deeper water floating platforms, NREL identified a total of 4.3 terawatts of production sites,

The Absurdity of These Priorities

The Absurdity of These Priorities

Old Signs

An Epic Clash of Epochs

An Epic Clash of Epochs

Our destination wasn't listed anywhere in the deep space catalogs. That was the interesting thing. At least, that was the interesting thing for me. Up until now, we just needed to type the name of some deep space object, like "Andromeda Galaxy," and its coordinates would

An architects rendering of the proposed Train Hall renovation of Washington Union Station. T

Like a Business

This is Part 3 of series in which we travel by train to Vermont. You can read Part 1 here, and Part 2 here. The purpose of the Project is to expand and modernize Washington Union Station, the National Capital Region’s principal intermodal transportation hub. – Federal Railroad Administration 2022