Corsair pilot “Jake” Wilson recalls the Flintlock Disaster. — Hawkins Field, Tarawa Atoll. January 25, 1944. Twenty-four brand new Vought F4U Corsairs were readying for takeoff. It was expected to be a straightforward operation, a “milk run” to relocate the entire squadron in readiness for Operation Flintlock — an offensive to be launched against the Japanese. …

Come on a journey with me. Suspend your traditional notions of cause and effect. I will reveal the one cause of a billion negative effects. The idea is not my own. Its truth is not new. …

From the files of “Faustian Bargains” — It is one thing to make an agreement. To make an agreement without knowing you are making one is quite another. The year is 1840. Electricity is but a parlor trick. The only communication is person to person. Or a guy on a horse with a note. Or smoke signals. …

John Singer Sargent and Virginie Amélie Avegno — A New Orleans native, Virginie Amélie Avegno’s odd beauty and natural grace attracted attention in 19th century Paris. In her, J.S. Sargent found his muse — a socialite, named, Madame Gautreau. …

In 1918, one of the greatest painters of the Western World was dispatched to the Western Front to gather some artistic impressions of Western Civilization gone mad. — John Singer Sargent was 62 when he went to paint what was to be called, “The Great War”. “Best known for his bravura society portraits and dazzling, sun-filled watercolors, the cosmopolitan American painter John Singer Sargent (1856–1925) might seem an unlikely candidate to document the Great War.”

At the atomic scale, what is done to the least of us is done to all of us. — Philosophers and Physicists When I first heard of Dark Matter I thought, this must be a joke … those physicists are at it again, conjuring up more fantastic tales. Turns out, it’s no joke, though it may contain approximately 90% humor. The Physicist I had some physics in college, not…

(Smoke of Ambergris) — John Singer Sargent’s Alchemy of Color. What an enchanting image. What’s going on here? Some provenance: J. S. Sargent was 24 years old when he traveled to Africa. He finished this one in Paris from memories and sketches he’d made while in Morocco. Sargent’s friend and fellow émigré, Henry James, said of it, “[She] stands on…

“General principle: Transparency for the powerful, privacy for the rest of us.” — Julian Assange I was 12 years old when I caught my first glimpse of politics. My family was headed to the Virgin Islands and I was inspecting the wonders of our ship. One of the stewards informed me that I could walk through the ship’s bar but couldn’t stop…