I have an interesting story relating to your question.

I recently visited Tuzigoot National Monument in Arizona, which, for those who are unaware, is a preserved bunch of dwellings that had been built by indigenous populations many hundreds of years ago. It's now maintained by the National Park Service.

In reading the info placards at the site, in the early to middle part of the twentieth century, the NPS's strategy was to try to restore sites to what they once were--using modern materials, consulting pictures or descriptions of what something used to look like, etc. However, that strategy is no longer current with modern thinking. Instead, the NPS now tries to preserve sites solely to prevent them from degrading, but interferes with the sites as little as possible otherwise. So they may build some drainage to prevent water from destroying something, but they're not going to restore something to what it used to look like. This new way of thinking is apparently the modern norm.

Hmmm, that's odd--I tested it and it was broken for me too, but I just tried again and it seems to be working. Maybe it was temporarily down?

You're welcome. Here's kind of what it looks like in actuality (although even this photo shows it brighter than it actually is--the stars in the photo, for example, are brighter than they'd appear even at a very dark-sky site): https://p1-tt.byteimg.com/origin/pgc-image/26a4289388a84090929e80b9fcbc930b.jpg

It really just looks like a small very faint hard-to-find fuzzy ball to the naked eye in real life.

You can barely see Andromeda as a small ghostly pale splotch with the naked eye in a very dark sky. A slightly more resolved splotch if you use binoculars (you can see the centre splotch plus hazy oval splotch around it). It will be nothing like the well-defined colourful galaxy you see in photos. Just FYI :)

If I may jump in here as a former NYC resident: I've always recommended that anyone who wants to visit the ESB try to time your visit to just BEFORE sunset, while it's still light enough to see things in at least some kind of light. Then stick around if you can for a little while longer and get to see the "glittering city lights" at night.

Lots of people say to just come after sunset, but then you don't get to see the actual city around.

The "invaders from the west" thing also resonates very strongly with many Russians such as Putin, because the West sent troops to Russia during the Russian Civil War that ended the Russian Revolution. As the Wikipedia page on the subject says:

"Soviet and Russian interpretations greatly exaggerate the role of the Allies in the Civil War and try to portray these as attempts to suppress the Bolshevik revolution and to partition Russia."

So yes, there is a very strong sentiment against "invaders from the west" that doubtless plays a part in Putin's/Russians' thinking.

> If several states broke apart from the US, there would be a strong following of people who believe the US deserves to reclaim and reunite and that should be a political goal.

And, coincidentally enough, this actually happened, and Americans call it "The Civil War."

You're right. This is what's so discouraging--the Russians' "claim" to Ukraine is juuuust plausible enough, historically, for many people there to be won over by Putin's rhetoric. Add to that claims of "persecution of Russians" in eastern Ukraine, "Nazis" in the Ukrainian leadership who want to destroy Russia, and the general anti-Western and anti-NATO paranoia that there's always been....well, that's all very tough to try to argue against.

Thank you. I'm finding it hard to understand how, if everything in the universe is moving away from everything else (aside from local gravitational interactions), using the classic "expanding balloon" analogy, how are we moving in an identifiable particular direction relative to the "largest reference frame in the universe". I would've thought that we'd be "stationary" with respect to the CMB if everything is moving away from everything else.

> the Sun is moving at about 370 km/s (1/800 the speed of light) with respect to the CMB rest frame

In what direction is the Sun moving at that speed, relative to the CMB?

Just to be clear, this image is heavily processed by a grad student who studies planetary atmospheres....scaled 2x, colours added, etc. This is not an original unprocessed image from JWST.

When you say to pay the money for "this tape", do you mean the HVAC multipurpose foil duct tape, or the "bath fan installation tape" I mentioned? If it's the latter, I have no idea where to buy it...Home Depots everywhere in my area are out of it, and I can't find it anywhere else online (I'm in Canada).

Oh okay, thanks. So basically any general HVAC foil tape will work? It's interesting, because Nashua also makes that specific "bath fan installation tape", so that's why I thought that it was some special specific tape that had to be used :)

I have a 65-square-foot bathroom and I'm replacing the current bathroom fan. I'm looking at getting a Panasonic model that has a switch between 80 CFM and 110 CFM. I know the rule of thumb is "1 CFM per square foot", so 80 CFM would technically be "more than enough", but is there any harm in setting it to 110 CFM (other than slightly increased energy costs and maybe a little extra noise)? It wouldn't have to run as long that way, right? And would be faster to clear out, say, the bathroom mirror after a hot shower?