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Yesterday, Cameron wrote another one of her beautiful essays that make you remember how nice it is to be alive. Or, (in her words), once again she’s vomiting rainbows.
“You’re going to have to forgive us our shouting about Europe for now,” says guest poster Chris Lintott, an astrophysicist at University of Oxford, in the wake of the Philae’s landing on a comet, yes, a comet! The European Space Agency has always defined itself in opposition to NASA, he says, and if ESA wants funding for other expeditions they’ll need to get the European public and their distracted and harried politicians on board.
Drawing on his experience as a member of a grand jury, Richard finds parallels between the scientific process and the judicial system, notices that the word “trial” is applied to both science and justice, and comes to a verdict on the prosecutor’s strategy in the Michael Brown case.
Helen discusses how the thing about extraordinary experiences is that they’re hard to share without seeming like a showoff or a jerk. Or, as one of her Facebook friends remarked, “It’s not just that the person regaling you with their adventures in the Days of the Raj hunting Indian rhinos is an asshole or overbearing: it’s that we weren’t there…”
Jessa shares the paralyzing shock of being capsized in an icy cold Great Slave Lake. Don’t try this at home.