Five Bullets 9.30.22
This week: DART, Stork Club, Whale Songs & more
Happy Friday everyone! Welcome back to Circles In Space, where each Friday I share five interesting things. This week’s topics:
Seven million miles from Earth, NASA’s DART craft impacted with asteroid Dimorphos on Monday. DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test) executed an autonomous targeting and deflecting of the asteroid, just in case there’s ever an asteroid hurtling towards Earth. Though large Dino-killing asteroids only happen once every 10 million years or so, a smaller asteroid could still impact with a force equivalent to a nuclear explosion. Telescopes aimed at the asteroid captured the impact.
The last vestige of a bygone era of New York City history is located behind the closed doors of Jim Brady’s pub, home to a mahogany bar that belonged to the famed Stork Club. The Stork Club opened in 1925 and become a haunt for celebrities, politicians and wealthy industrialists by the time it closed in 1965. The bar was purchased by Jim Brady’s in the 1970s and now sits in the derelict pub, which closed during the pandemic.
In my 8.26.22 newsletter I covered Michael Heizer’s City. A recent article discusses indigenous artists’s views on Heizer’s work. It’s important to remember that City, located three hours north of Las Vegas, isn’t ‘in the middle of nowhere’ but is the ancestral home of the Western Shoshone Nation who has fought against the United States for control of the land. The article renews an ongoing discussion on land art, capitalism and Indigenous rights.
Recently I viewed Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World, a naval war film set during the Napoleonic Wars. Russell Crowe stars as Jack Aubrey, the fearless and intelligent captain of the HMS Surprise, with Paul Bettany as friend and ship surgeon Stephen Maturin. Master and Commander jumps right into the action - it’s a cat and mouse game around Cape Horn to the Pacific Ocean as we see Aubrey make some tough decisions. The film grandly portrays the beauty and danger of naval life during the period, accompanied by a moving soundtrack. The film is based on a series of books written by Patrick O’ Brien.
In 1970, bio-acoustician Roger Payne produced Songs of the Humpback Whale. Payne learned about the recordings of whales made by US Navy engineer Frank Watlington who monitored a hydrophone in Bermuda listening for Russian submarines. Payne determined that the whales produced repeated rhythmic patterns - songs! Songs of the Humpback Whale became a best selling multi-platinum album and contributed to the Save the Whale movement. A track off the album was included on the Voyager spacecraft’s Golden Record. The ethereal beauty of the whales songs is a reminder of an intelligent species with which we share a planet.
Got something to share? Leave me a comment! I’m always on the lookout for new and interesting things to dive into.
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That's all for this week! As always, thanks for reading and have a great weekend!
Until next time,
KW