Vanakkam….Namaskar….Slamalaikum….Namaste…. This week has been busy, so I’ve had little time for blogging, but things are getting done where they need to be. That includes work on study notes, and my weekly Bengali quizzes as my pre-semester learning review continues. I’m halfway through the Great Courses lectures on Indian history with three discs to go before finishing, and have at the awesome Sharmishtha Basu’s suggestion found a book on the subject by historian Romila Thapar. I’m also practicing unfamiliar but damned useful study methods so as to make them customary in all my learning. Some methods are better supported than others by evidence, and it’s those that should be favored, as those lead to more solid and reliable learning. Part of that involves giving myself time to pause from Internet use and think, while also absorbing as much as I can in the time that remains. After all, thinking is useful, but you can’t think well without good content to think about!
Still, I try to post on this site at least once, twice, or more each week, as I’m not on blogcation this time of year. I’m making plans that I’ll announce soon once I formulate them on the future of this blog toward the end of this year, as it’s been close to eight years since this site’s founding, actually my third blog, my second to be created using WordPress. This one was created on December 28, 2008, and it’s now-defunct predecessor on January 15 of that same year. Barring accident or misfortune, the next major blogcation this year will be during November, when Election Day rolls around and my country’s future for at least the next four years is decided by the utterly insane American political process. It’s a process worthy of Lovecraft’s madness-inducing alien gods, and Nyarlathotep only knows how it will turn out!
*tentacles crossed metaphorically*
Tf. Tk. Tts.
Milky Way Over Quiver Tree Forest
Clouds of the Carina Nebula
The Orion Nebula in Visible and Infrared
Halo from Atacama
The Surface of Europa
3D Mercury Transit
Milky Way and Planets Near Opposition
LL Orionis: When Cosmic Winds Collide
Inside a Daya Bay Antineutrino Detector
Milky Way Over the Spanish Peaks
NGC 5078 and Friends
IC 5067 in the Pelican Nebula
The Great Carina Nebula
Cat’s Eye Wide and Deep
Image of the Fortnight

Astrognuz
Spiral Galaxy M81 Photograph by Robert Gendler
Clue to Mars’ Climate History: Polar Cap Slowly Building
Next Time You’re Late to Work, Blame Dark Energy!
Mysterious Martian Plumes in Upper Atmosphere May Be From Solar Storms
SETI’s Dr. Janice Bishop Wins Award for Clay Science Research on Mars
A Lord of Rings: Saturn at Opposition 2016
Sand Dunes in Arabia Look Like Pits in This Optical Illusion
The House Makes NASA a Counteroffer It Probably Can’t Refuse
Jupiter Estimated to Get Hit by an Asteroid Six Times a Year
New Hints at a Kinder, Gentler World
Anti-Vaxxers, Conspiracy Theories & Epistemic Responsibility
Hat Tip to Andy Hall of Laughing in Disbelief and CrashCourse‘s YouTube channel