-
Letters Blogatory: Still Against Abolishing The Leap Second
In her prologue to The Human Condition, written at the dawn of the space age, Hannah Arendt wrote: The earth is the very quintessence of the human condition, and earthly nature, for all we know, may be unique in the universe in providing human beings with a habitant in which they can move and breathe……
-
America’s Pastime
Our English friends got a taste of America this weekend when the greatest rivalry in sports came to London. You might have been forgiven for wondering whether the teams were playing American football rather than baseball, since the two teams combined for thirty runs over the weekend, but the score aside, I hear the organizers……
-
Article of the Day: “Are We Alone In The Universe?”
If you’ve been reading Letters Blogatory for a while, you know that I am an enthusiast for astronomy and cosmology. I have often surprised people by saying that I hope we do not discover extraterrestrial life, especially simple extraterrestrial life. I get the same reaction I get when I tell people that it is illegal……
-
Forget Politics, Let’s Talk About ʻOumuamua!
Let’s put all of the political kvetching aside for one day and think about something really cool. By way of background, before I got interested in the law I thought I might grow up to be an astronomer. In high school I was a very good physics and calculus student—good enough that when I got……
-
Old Ironsides
Whether or not you’re interested in the Age of Sail, I hope you’ll like these photos of “Old Ironsides,” USS Constitution, which I took from my office last week. The ship, the oldest commissioned warship still afloat, is berthed at the Charlestown Navy Yard, which is just out of view from my window. She is……