Friday, December 30, 2022

Happy Friday and welcome to the last issue of 2022. I hope you have enjoyed some of my newsletter this year. If not, there are still a few more items to share with you that might just change your mind. But honestly, if you didn't like the other stuff I don't have high hopes for this slapdash last minute edition. Anyway... here.

Item 1: a link

Sharing Stories, and a View, Aboard the California Zephyr

Here's a photo essay, and also a regular essay, about a train I'd like to take someday.

Amtrak’s California Zephyr, considered by many rail enthusiasts to be among the most scenic long-distance train routes in the United States, operates between Chicago and Emeryville, Calif., near Oakland. The entire route takes some 52 hours and includes 33 stops. In 2018, while traveling through the United States on a three-month photography project, I completed a majority of the trip, departing from Mount Pleasant, Iowa, on a sweltering mid-August day.

Item 2: a list

Avatar: The Way of Water major characters, ranked

1. Kiri
2. Quaritch
3. Scoresby
4. Tuk
5. Neytiri
6. Neteyam
7. Tonowari
8. Lo’ak
9. General Ardmore
10. Dr. Garvin
11. Tsireya
12. Mo’at
13. Jake
14. Spider
15. Norm
16. Ronal

Item 3: a media recommendation

Item 4: word of the week

Sprezzatura

Item 5: a photograph

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope has revealed details of the Southern Ring planetary nebula that were previously hidden from astronomers. Planetary nebulae are the shells of gas and dust ejected from dying stars.

Webb’s powerful infrared view brings this nebula’s second star into full view, along with exceptional structures created as the stars shape the gas and dust around them.

New details like these, from the late stages of a star’s life, will help us better understand how stars evolve and transform their environments.

These images also reveal a cache of distant galaxies in the background. Most of the multi-colored points of light seen here are galaxies – not stars.

See ya!

Thanks for another year of enthusiastic emails of support from a few, downright rude texts from several, and silent lurking from the great majority. I hope the rest of your 2022 is a delight. See you again next year.