Sunsets never get boring to me.
Sun setting at the Pacific Ocean, Santa Monica Bay. January 29, 2013. Photo: Reinhard Kargl
Journalist and media professional currently based in Los Angeles, California. Focusing on science and technology.
Sunset
Author Archives: Reinhard Kargl
Let’s Keep Dryden
Congressman Kevin McCarthy has recently introduced a bill (HR 6612) to change the name of the NASA Dryden Flight Research Center in California’s Mojave Desert to “Neil A. Armstrong Flight Research Center”.
Although I greatly admire Neil Armstrong (who doesn’t?), I am opposed to the proposed name change. One reason is tradition, and another: The world does not need one more reminder of the first man on the moon. Every literate person knows who he was. But we should keep a reminder of the very significant and essential contributions of space pioneer Hugh L. Dryden, with whom the general public is less familiar. (Armstrong himself would be the first to point out that getting to the moon was a gigantic team effort and impossible to achieve without the likes of Dryden).
In an article posted on the Smithsonian Air & Space magazine’s web site, Paul Spudis makes a much more informed plea for Dryden than I ever could. Please read it here:
Hugh L. Dryden and the American Space Program
Journalist and media professional currently based in Los Angeles, California. Focusing on science and technology.
Ernest Hemingway Playing In The Snow
One of my heroes, Ernest Hemingway playing in the snow. On the reverse of this print, Papa wrote: “This is to re-assure you if you hear reports of another of your authors dying of drink.” Signed, “Ernest Hemingway, Feb 1927.
Photo Credit: Ernest Hemingway Photograph Collection, John F. Kennedy Presidential Library and Museum, Boston. Click to enlarge.
Journalist and media professional currently based in Los Angeles, California. Focusing on science and technology.
US Marines Volunteering To Guard Schools
In the aftermath of the Sandy Hook school massacre, reports are coming in from several cities in which US Marine Corps reservists, retirees and active duty personnel are standing uniformed guard in front of elementary schools.
They are unarmed volunteers and strive to greet and reassure the kids coming to school each day. Some have said they will keep this up for weeks or as long as needed. I don’t know where this got started, but it seems to be a spreading.
This too, is America.
Sorry, I have no photographer credit for the image.
Journalist and media professional currently based in Los Angeles, California. Focusing on science and technology.
Watching The Wheels
My favorite photograph of John Lennon is this one, taken by Jürgen Vollmer in April of 1961. At the time, the Beatles were on their second engagement in Germany. The location is a doorway at Jägerpassage 1, Wohlwillstrasse 2 in Hamburg.
(click to enlarge)
Vollmer recalls how the image was taken.
This picture was one of John Lennon’s favorites as well. In February of 1975 it hung, framed, on a wall at the home he shared with Yoko Ono at the Dakota building in New York:
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The object in the background is a jukebox filled with 45-singles Lennon found influential.
The same Hamburg photo also appears on the cover of “Rock ‘n Roll“, a compilation of Lennon’s versions of classic rockabilly tunes.
Journalist and media professional currently based in Los Angeles, California. Focusing on science and technology.
In My Life
Journalist and media professional currently based in Los Angeles, California. Focusing on science and technology.
Flight Of The Owl
Since observing an almost invisible owl flying in complete silence during a starlit winter night, I have been fascinated with how nature’s stealth birds fly. How aerodynamic are they? See for yourself:
Journalist and media professional currently based in Los Angeles, California. Focusing on science and technology.
Realms
“I believe that behind the physical world we see with our eyes and study in our microscopes and telescopes, and measure with instruments of various kinds, is another, more fundamental realm which can not be described in physical terms. In this non-physical realm lies the ultimate origin of all things, of energy, matter, organization and life, and even of consciousness itself.”
Gustaf Srömberg, Astronomer, 1948
Journalist and media professional currently based in Los Angeles, California. Focusing on science and technology.
R.I.P. Jim Blumenthal :.
I am profoundly saddened by the death of Jim Blumenthal, who had been suffering from cancer for a while. He passed away in the morning of December 1.
I have known Jim as a most kind, sweet and caring person. Jim and I did not agree on scientific subjects and had passionate discussions about these topics. But I considered him a friend and brother. His jovial nature and warmth will be deeply missed and remembered.
Journalist and media professional currently based in Los Angeles, California. Focusing on science and technology.
Black Eagles
The aerobatics team of the South Korean air force during a performance. The team flies the indigenously developed T-50 Golden Eagle. (Click image to enlarge).
Journalist and media professional currently based in Los Angeles, California. Focusing on science and technology.