Category Archives: Uncategorized
Announcement of Public Lecture: 40th Anniversary of Viking Landings on Mars
Join us for a series of presentations at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, July 19, Virginia Air & Space Center, Hampton, Virginia, to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Viking landings on Mars. Open to the public Admission is free. In this special Sigma Series … Continue reading
Announcing the Space Policy and History Forum #18
The next Space Policy and History Forum takes place on December 1, 2015, and will feature Michael Meyer, the Mars Exploration Program Scientist at NASA Headquarters, presenting “Astrobiology in Action.” Please note that this forum will be held at the Applied Physics Laboratory, not … Continue reading
Wednesday’s Book Review: “Space Careers”
Space Careers. By Leonard David and Scott Sacknoff. Bethesda, MD: International Space Business Council, LLC, 2015. 232 pp. ISBN: 9781887022194. $20.00 USD. This is a very fine book that offers an introduction to the space industry and the wide variety … Continue reading
Wednesday’s Book Review: “The Economic Laws of Scientific Research”
The Economic Laws of Scientific Research. By Terence Kealey. New York: Palgrave Macmillan/St. Martin’s Press, 1996. Illustrations, figures, notes, index. 382 pages. ISBN: 978-0312128470. $51.00 paperback. Terence Kealey is a clinical biochemist, his profession at Cambridge University, who journeys out … Continue reading
Wednesday’s Book Review: “The Roots of American Exceptionalism”
The Roots of American Exceptionalism: Institutions, Culture, and Policies. By Charles Lockhart. New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2003. This book seeks to answer the core question: is the United States different from other wealthy democracies, and if so how? Is it exceptional? … Continue reading
The Apollo Program and the Idea of Progress
It is somewhat trite to suggest that America was founded on the idea of progress and that it remains both an amorphous concept and one central to American national identity. In the 1830s an astute French interpreter of United States … Continue reading
Wednesday’s Book Review: “The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap”
The Divide: American Injustice in the Age of the Wealth Gap. By Matt Taibbi. New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2014. I have appreciated the reporting of Matt Taibbi since he published “The Great Derangement” in 2009. His very human reaction … Continue reading
A Clear View of Alaska, and the Problem it Presents
This is really interesting. NASA released this rare photograph of Alaska from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) on NASA’s Terra satellite on June 17, 2013. Most of the time the state is covered with clouds, but not on that … Continue reading
The Whole Earth Image and Earth Day
Today is Earth Day, 2011, and it is appropriate to take this opportunity to reflect on its meaning. Many people are doing this around the world, but I would like to focus on the effort in the 1960s to obtain … Continue reading
My Top Ten Television Private Detective Shows
I have seen a lot of these lists over the years and I suppose one list is as good as another. But this one is my list, intended as my take at this point in time and in my life, … Continue reading
Roger Launius's Blog 