Commemorating the Assassination of Abraham Lincoln

Last Thursday’s “Now He Belongs to the Ages”, an evening commemorating the 145th anniversary of President Abraham Lincoln’s death at the hands of assassin John Wilkes Booth, was absolutely stellar.

Wichita State University Professor Emeritus Dr. J.C. Combs delivered an insightful and engaging exploration of the event, its context and aftermath, complete with the display of a remarkable collection of representative objects from the age. Among these authentic antiques was a derringer virtually identical to the one now displayed at Ford’s Theater, wielded by Booth in perpetrating his shameful crime.

We were so delighted with Dr. Combs’ perspicacious presentation that we’ve already arranged for his return for two other events to be announced later.

Happy Birthday, Hubble

Light Echoes From Red Supergiant Star V838 Monocerotis (Dec 2002) (NASA, ESA)

This coming Saturday, the amazing Hubble Space Telescope will celebrate its 20th birthday.

To mark this anniversary, Discover magazine offers a slideshow of what it characterizes as 10 of Hubble’s most underrated images — although several among these will almost certainly be familiar to observers of Hubble’s stunning decades of discovery.

If this short selection of images only whets your appetite, visit the brobdingnagian gallery of images in the gallery at NASA’s HubbleSite. You won’t be disappointed.

Gardening With Allergies

Pollen-Coated Bee Dines on Nectar

For millions of Americans, springtime is the favored time for heading outdoors, sinking a spade into the warming earth and planting a garden. For many of those inspired gardeners, however, vexatious allergies prevent them from fully enjoying their pastime.

Three years back, the National Wildlife Federation printed a useful set of basic guidelines from Janet Marinelli on how to Create an Allergy-Friendly Garden.

If you love gardening, but suffer from allergies, try putting a few of their practical suggestions to the test.

Hot Topic: Volcanoes

Volcano Diagram: 1) magma chamber, 2) bedrock, 3) conduit (pipe), 4) base, 5) sill, 6) branch pipe, 7) layers of ash, 8 ) flank, 9) layers of lava, 10) throat, 11) parasitic cone, 12) lava flow, 13) vent, 14) crater, 15) ash cloud.

With voluminous coverage of the continuing eruption of Iceland’s Eyjafjallajokull volcano and its wide-ranging disruptive effects, current interest in volcanism is high; but much reporting has concentrated on the immediate and transitory phenomena rather than the deeper context.

If you’re interested in a little something more, you might try, for starters, the quick introduction to How Volcanoes Work at HowStuffWorks.com, followed by Robert I. Tilling’s short monograph on Volcanoes at the US Geological Survey site, and a related USGS monograph on Volcanoes of the United States by Steven R.Brantley.

The USGS also has an excellent detailed map of volcanoes, earthquakes, impact craters and plate tectonics at The Dynamic Planet. (You might also want to take a quick look at the USGS page for Current Alerts for US Volcanoes.)

For items more directly related to the current Icelandic eruption, see Volcanic Eruption in Iceland Unlikely to Have Global Effects,
Iceland Volcano Could Continue Erupting for More Than a Month and Icelandic Volcanoes Can be Unpredictable and Dangerous in Science Daily, Get Ready for Decades of Icelandic Fireworks in New Scientist and Icelandic Volcanoes Disrupting Weather History Since 1783 in Discover Magazine’s 80beats Blog.

For more on related topics, you might also check our earlier posts on the Yellowstone Supervolcano here, here and here, and this brief review of Simon Winchester’s Krakatoa.