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Deadly train derailment in Philadelphia has brought US rail infrastructure into focus again, and why Amtrak cannot thrive in a culture and political environment that values individualism, cars, and highways over train travel — a collective action that somehow threatens personal liberty.
Washington Post’s derailment map visualization shows where the train sped too fast around a curve. Ongoing NTSB investigation here.
— Patrick J. Murphy (@PatrickMurphyPA) May 13, 2015
It’s not everyday you get to see a 1940s B-29 Superfortress named “FIFI” fly right over DC’s National Mall; one of many historic planes to join in the World War II Flyover last week.
I was working at NASA HQ in SW DC at the time so I walked outside with thousands of others to the Capitol over lunch break to witness the event. It was an amazing sight: wave after wave of historic planes flying in formation for an hour, Mustangs, Corsairs, Hellcats, B-25 Mitchells such as those that flew the Doolittle raids, and yes, FIFI.
I also got some video but it wasn’t great.
My Full WW2 Flyover photo album here, and also see Samer Farha’s photos from Rosslyn, and Djenno Bacvic’s composite of all the planes in the flyover.
Got to see some rare mammatus clouds over Herndon earlier this week: round, pouchlike formations caused by damp, unstable air sinking below storm clouds.
I also tried getting a timelapse video, but somehow it didn’t seem quite so spectacular in motion:
Continuing an unbroken string of annual DC cherry blossom photos, we ventured down to the Tidal Basin for peak bloom on April 11th. Mostly I just used my NEX3’s fisheye lens attachment, occasionally detaching it to use the wide angle pancake lens.
Selfie sticks abounded amongst the crowd, such as this one that peeked out from behind a tree trunk.
The Washington Monument, finally out of its post-earthquake scaffolding.
The Marine One chopper (no president on board) flew by and I managed to get a nice picture of it through the blossoms.
Some equestrian park police also rode by.
Really a perfect weekend for some hanami.
A few days later I returned to the Tidal Basin over lunch break, this time with my new Google Glass to see the post-peak blossoms.
Pink was giving way to green in the canopy and petals rained down on the grass below. Still beautiful, and I was glad for the second opportunity to see the blossoms.
Someone lost a hat.
My Google Glass suffered some damage over Thanksgiving, snapping at a weak point in the frame despite my taking pains to keep it from stress and bending.
I thought that was the end for my Glass experience, but their excellent customer support quickly replaced the unit with an upgraded Glass XE-C. It was a marked improvement over the previous version: better battery life, more RAM, more responsive UI and less prone to overheating and crashing.
“In like a lion, out like a lamb,” they say, but mostly March was in and out like a bunch of snow.
My reading backlog included a bunch of links about Ebola from late last year, but the panicked craze of media coverage died down long before I was done with all these articles.
Lady just chilling at Dulles in her homemade Hazmat suit pic.twitter.com/Ljlny8t4pr
— Joe Henchman (@jdhenchman) October 15, 2014
The Nib: Ebola, A User’s Guide
One Powerful Illustration Shows Exactly What’s Wrong With How the West Talks About Ebola
MetaFilter: Perhaps the 4 most intelligent things you can read about Ebola today.
Diary: Ebola — by Paul Farmer. “Ebola is more a symptom of a weak healthcare system than anything else.”
Life After Death: NPR interactive presentation on how Ebola affected the village of Barkedu, Liberia.
An Ebola Doctor’s Return from the Edge of Death
Maternal health: Ebola’s lasting legacy
After November, when it became evident that Ebola was not going to overrun the US and political fortunes were suddenly less dependent on public panic, the coverage simmered down, and other health issues became the focus of the media hype machine.
Our thoughts are also with the measles-ravaged country America. I hope we are screening them before they come to Africa.
— Elnathan John (@elnathan) February 1, 2015
Three narratives of faith that recently caught my attention:
On Fear and Identity. I like Jason’s unique visualization of “Christ lighting the city” as a response to spiritual despair, a redemptive journey geographically superimposed over one’s soul, something akin to prayer-walking.
I Used to Believe Better. From Aaron J. Smith, aka “Cultural Savage.” This is where I’ve often found myself, wondering how I ended up in a nominal state of jaded doubt — I recover daily, but it’s much harder for someone with depression to deal with the climb out of that pit.
Why I’m Coming Out as a Christian. From Ana Marie Cox, once founder of Wonkette. She’s not so much concerned with the predictable reactions of nonbelievers as with the outrage of fellow Christians who cannot countenance that a snarky liberal woman could be a sister in Christ. As a fellow liberal Protestant egalitarian, I countenance this wholeheartedly.
Shortly after RadioShack filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, stores near us closed down and emptied out.
Good time to read Jon Bois’s stories on working for RadioShack through the course of its decline:
Older article of interest from a former employee: 6 Confessions Of A Former RadioShack Employee (2008) — and a Reddit “Ask Me Anything” thread by an employee as of three months ago.
When I was an introverted and emotionally befuddled third-culture kid who struggled daily with feelings of isolation and alienation while growing up, Star Trek and Leonard Nimoy’s Spock reached me in my confused youth, in ways that gave me comfort, confidence, and hope that I had a place in the world — a place that would involve space, science, and computers. I’m me today because of that, and today is the future in part thanks to him.
Goodbye, Leonard Nimoy, and live long and prosper.