#houlton maine

[mainesoapboxderby]

2023 Maine State Soap Box Derby Race Is June 24th!

Looking To Race On “Derby Hill” In The Maine Soap Box Derby Event?

Reach out to mainestatesoapboxderby@gmail.com to learn more about exciting State of Maine downhill racing fun! Friendly, family oriented, competitive and educational. Outdoor fun in Houlton Maine!

Tech day is May 20th! Sign up today and reach out to Houlton Maine Parks & Rec. 207.532.1310 or 207.532.1313.

Reach out, let’s connect and get your driving a car or sponsoring one. Why wait until you are 16 to drive a car? The Houlton Maine Northern ME Soap Box Derby Race was the nation’s largest for five years in a row!

NMSBD built their own engineered hill with a garage topside to store scales, launch, derby car parks and more.

Watch out videos! #mainesoapboxderby #soapboxderby #houltonme

[unplaces]

Green St, Houlton, Maine.

[unteriors]

Willard Street, Houlton, Maine.

[syzygytailor]

Total eclipse of the heart 🖤

[wihinaphe-makhoche]

6/24/24: Reflections on Visiting Homeland & Indian Policy

This will be a series of short essays about my experiences visiting CRST (Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe). Edited & posted 7/30/24.

Standing beside the graves of my great-grandparents, William Garreau and his wife On the Lead.

I've just returned from a trip to the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe (CRST), sovereign Lakota land surrounded by the state of South Dakota. This experience of going to this place where my ancestors lived was humbling, informative, and intense above all.

While I am an enrolled member of the Cheyenne River Lakota, I was born and raised in Maine; In many ways, this is where my heart is. I connect with the woodlands and the river that has been a constant companion to me through all my years. This, though, is not where my blood family or ancestors are from.

The sky here seems to stretch forever. You don't fully understand the enormity of it until you're under its expanse--But despite what you might hear about "prarie madness" in places where the "sky is too big", I felt comforted in knowing that this is where my family and ancestors lived, and continue to live.

Coming from Maine, tribal lands are handled differently. In traveling to a Native community here, you are very nearly assured that everyone living on reservation land is either Native themselves, or integrated into a Native family one way or another (married, adopted, etc). In off-reservation areas, there is still often recognition of the land's Indigenous roots, whether it be through place names or by signage. This is not to give too much credit to colonizers. The Wabanaki community has been steadfast in maintaining their cultural identity and asserting their presence. This is helped by the fact that these are truly ancestral lands; Wabanaki have lived here since time immemorial, and their archaeological record in the area goes back at least 5,000 years.

Indian policy in Maine also fundamentally differs from that out West. In my paper Triumph and Tribulation: Wabanaki Experiences, 1950-2020, I cover MICSA, perhaps the most significant Maine Indian land policy in recent years:

For the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot, their long battle with the State of Maine for land claims would bear fruit in 1980, with the passing of the Maine Indian Claims Settlement Act (MICSA).[1] MICSA was initially deemed a success and was the largest land claims settlement at the time, as well as the first to include provisions for land reacquisition.[2] The Act had tribes cede 12.5 million acres, or 60% of Maine, in exchange for $81.5 million divided between tribes.[3] The Houlton Band of Maliseets joined the settlement in 1979 and were provided with $900,000 for the purchase of a five-thousand-acre reservation, as well as federal recognition.[4] The breakdown of the $81.5 million between the Passamaquoddy and Penobscot was $26.8 million for each tribe, or 150,000 acres in unorganized territories—soft money.[5] The remaining $27 million would be split between the two with one million dollars set aside for infrastructure for elders.[6] MISCA also created the Maine Implementing Act (MIA) and the Maine Indian Tribal-State Commission (MITSC), which would define tribal-state relationships by establishing specific laws about Wabanaki peoples and their lands.[7] This served as a means to define and resolve discrepancies with MICSA, as it was largely considered much more legally rigid than the Wabanaki tribes had initially understood it to be.[8] This rigidity would ultimately be a major critique of MICSA and its associated provisions. There were concerns that MISCA did not respect Wabanaki tribes as sovereign nations but, rather, reduced reservation lands to municipality status.[9] State paternalism toward Indigenous peoples of Maine was effectively allowed to continue. Per-capita payments for MISCA were ultimately very little for many, hardly the windfall gain that many perceived it to be; additionally, many saw acceptance of the payments as agreement to the terms of MICSA, with which not all Wabanaki agreed.[10] Though MICSA was perhaps the first step in a road toward true self-determination, Penobscot, Passamaquoddy, and Maliseet people continued to struggle. Fears surrounding termination still loomed in the minds of many ...

The 1990s would bring the Aroostook Band of Micmacs (or Mi’kmaq, now considered the correct spelling) into the MICSA agreement. Following the 1980 settlement, and with the MIA considered no longer necessary, the Mi’kmaq had been largely left to fend for themselves.[11] Their fellow Wabanaki found it inappropriate to speak on their behalf.[12] In 1991, Congress would seek to correct this oversight: similar to the Maliseet, Mi’kmaq would receive $900,000 for a five thousand acre reservation, federal recognition, as well as $50,000 in additional property funds in dispersed settlements.[13]

However, like many tribes in the West, my oyate were affected by the disastrous Dawes Severalty Act (also known as General Allotment Act) in 1887. In short, this act would give Indians an allotment of land to farm or ranch (regardless of traditional living and subsistence practices). "Surplus" land not allotted was then sold off cheaply to white farmers and ranchers, creating something of a checkerboard affect in Indian country. I talk more about this in reblog discussing the issues of cottagecore on my main blog back in January.

Because of this, Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe land is still inhabited by a minority of white farmers and ranchers. While we had no incidents while picking timpsula, traveling through fields to Thunder Butte, or otherwise exploring and learning, the discomfort my aunties (residents of CRST) felt when encountering white ranchers was palpable.

Digging timpsula at CRST with my thiwahe (family)

Reservation lands have historically been a place where Indians are cloistered away. My grandfather would recall times when there were curfews for when they had to be back (though he would gleefully recall violating this curfew and riding around with friends and getting up to all sorts of car-related hijinks); an extension of US paternalism towards Indians. In earlier times (though not in such a distant past), Indian agents policed and monitored Indian behavior. Nuns and priests evangelized and enforced the ban on Indigenous religious practice. The cultural devastation created by these systems is still felt today. My great auntie, who lived on the reservation, was very Christian until the day she died. Our language continues to be endangered. Efforts to revitalize and maintain our culture are critical and complicated by generations of racial shaming, residential schools, and forced US paternalism that has caused us to become unwilling dependents.

This is one of the biggest recurring themes in Indian policy in the United States. We are set up to fail, and when we do, the US government can swoop in and claim we can’t take care of ourselves. 

I don’t mean to engender a sense of hopelessness within this essay, far from it. There is hope. I want to make those outside of Indigenous communities viscerally aware of our struggles and our existence in the current moment. We are here, we are not peoples of the past, and everything is not okay. There is pain, but how we navigate our cultural wounds is a testament to our resilience as a people. 

Within the Lakota Nation, there have been a number of programs to preserve and revitalize the culture. The Lakota Cultural Center in Eagle Butte has recently experienced a massive overhaul under the leadership of Dave West, current program director.

Me and Até outside the Lakota Cultural Center in Eagle Butte after getting my tribal ID

We were lucky enough to catch Dave during his work day at the center, and he graciously gave us an extremely in-depth and powerful tour of the museum. What stood out to me during my conversation with him was a re-orientation of cultural knowledge.

The Lakota Cultural Center has been doing important work in facilitating community nights and days were our oyate can come together and share knowledge on more equal footing. Tables and chairs are set up in a circle, so that, as Dave put it, "A six year old child and seventy year old elder can both be heard." Workshops may range from traditional crafts to singing, story-telling, gathering, and language-sharing.

Elk hide prepared by CRST youth.

Community engagement with traditional practices is not only sacred, but helps heal and offers a healthy outlet for pain we may be feeling.

Something I've taken away from my work this summer, and what I intend with this blog is similar to the cultural center's message-- Knowledge sharing. Knowledge is power as much as it is healing. I believe it is critical to share knowledge not only without our own communities, but outside of them as well; To facilitate a conversation between Indigenous communities and our neighbors (all residents of Turtle Island).

I hope to share more about my trip in follow-up posts. This installment has been focused on Indian land policy and cultural revitalization. If you've made it to the end, I want to thank you for taking the time to read and engage. Please feel free to share your thoughts in comments! Respectful conversation around my posts is very encouraged. Have a wonderful day!

Check out my (free) substack!

Citations & References:

[1] Lecture NAS 222, 4/15/24. [2] Girouard, 60. (Girouard, Maria L. 2012. “THE ORIGINAL MEANING AND INTENT OF THE MAINE INDIAN LAND CLAIMS: PENOBSCOT PERSPECTIVES.” Graduate School: University of Maine.) [3] Lecture 4/15/24. [4] Ibid. [5] Ibid. [6] Ibid. [7] Ibid; Girouard, 60. [8] Girouard, 60. [9] Lecture 4/15/24. [10] 4/19/24.

[11] Brimley, Stephen. 2004. “Native American Sovereignty in Maine” Maine Policy Review 13.2 (2004) : 12 -26. http://digitalcommons.library.umaine.edu/mpr/vol13/iss2/4., 22. [12] Ibid. [13] Lecture 4/19/24.

[cat-eye-nebula]

Total solar eclipse from Houlton, Maine, 2024! - Source: naturerelaxation

[revscarecrow]

since you're living in Maine now, any plans to go up to one of the Maine towns where you can see the total eclipse in April? Houlton's the main maine one, but there's some smaller towns more out in the timber lands that'll also be solid choice. also grats on leaving texas

My mom gave me extra glasses for it hopefully the weather let's us

[chaoticdesertdweller]

Houlton, Maine c.1887

[vintageweddingdresses]

Posts so far....

I have now posted approximately 27,000 scans. That's about half of the collection. I also have 8 magazines to scan, and 7 sitting in escrow in Houlton, Maine. It never stops!

[mainesoapboxderby]

Images From Houlton Maine / State Of Maine 2024 Soap Box Derby. The Big Race June 22nd, Houlton Maine In Aroostook County On "Derby Hill".

[unplaces]

US-1, Houlton, Maine.

[unteriors]

Houlton Road, Westfield, Maine.

[cuti2u]

Looking for trans woman nearby houlton Maine

[kingbriar]

⟨Seth Rollins. cis male. he/they. 37.⟩ We just saw Ansel Briar entering L’Antique C’est Chic. I heard through the grapevine that their loyalties lie with the Jolly Rogers and that they also go by the King of Hearts. Be careful, they work for them as an assassin and can sometimes be bored by repetition, jealous, petty, or even bloodthirsty but I’ve also heard some people say that they were dedicated, confident and quite stylish.— Moss. they/them. 23. EST. violence against children (< 10)

AESTHETIC | MUSIC | LONDON FALLING RPG

STATS

Real name: Ansel Ford Briar

Code name: King of Hearts

Alliance: Jolly Rogers

Job: Contract Assassin. (Works part time coaching at Crossfit North London, esp in conditioning. Bit of a reputation for being intense, but that’s the point, right?)

Age: 37

Physical: 6'1", 225 lbs

Birthplace: Houlton, Maine, US

DOB: August 10, 1986

Star sign: Leo

Gender: Male-adjacent (he/they) 

Sexuality: Bisexual disaster

FC: Seth Rollins

Family: Dan Briar (Father), Evelyn Summers-Briar (Mother), Four Siblings (I'll name 'em someday), Rebecca Briar (formerly Ballagh, Ex-Wife)

BIOGRAPHY

Ansel’s from the sticks. His father was a hunter first and owner of the local general store second, born and raised in the woods of northern Maine, where his mother settled there later with a group of poets and artists who were inspired by the quiet snowy mountains and the way the sun shines through the leaves. Those same mountains meant she had to be driven nearly two hours in the family’s beater red pickup to the nearest hospital to bring him and his younger siblings into the world. All of them were hard on her, but that didn’t stop them from having five kids. 

His mother called him Ansel, after Ansel Adams. His dad said that was some pretentious bullshit and always called him Andy, or the leader of the pack, so Ansel did his best to step up and be the best role model he could. He started following his father out hunting when he was five, and maybe they should’ve started worrying when he took to it so quickly. Maybe Ansel had a couple too many questions about how to balance wearing camo to blend in with bright, flashy hunter oranges and yellows, but was happy enough to sit still and quiet, listening for a broken twig or rustling leaves, and he never cried when his dad showed how they’d have to slit a buck’s throat to kill it quickly if the first shot didn’t get it done. Ansel killed his first deer at 8 without his dad holding the rifle steady, skinned it a little too quickly and held onto the antlers as a trophy as long as he could.

Ansel went to a university in Boston, and both reveled in finally being a small fish in a much bigger pond, and itched for attention. He studied literature to keep his mother happy, spent hours hitting the gym to look more impressive than he was and make up for the lack of mountains to climb, and made the rounds through anyone looking for a messy one-night stand. 

But then met Rebecca Ballagh in some 300 level poetry class he suddenly had to pretend he cared about. She was something special, had enough of a dangerous edge that Ansel couldn’t get bored of her if he tried. He met her family at a shooting range outside the city after dating for about a year, and they offered to put him up and give him a job if he wanted to stay in Boston. It took him a little too long to realize her family were the last, quiet dregs of the Winter Hill Gang and US-based IRA that were slowly building themselves back up, but hey, the one thing he’d missed about home was hunting. 

A person ain’t too different from a deer, to a wolf. Everything bleeds the same.

But now that he ran with a pack again, it came with new rules. Clean up, cut your hair, kid. Pipe down. Dress like everyone else. Wear black. Shut the fuck up and become a ghost. Becca helped when she could, but she liked him better this way too. Colder, a soldier. They got married in 1998, and Ansel didn’t quite look like himself in the pictures.

He tried as hard as he could to just focus on blending in- you don’t wear camo without orange, you’ll get shot- but the longer he stayed, the whole gang made his skin crawl. Every hit was scripted down to the second, and if he deviated from it in the moment to keep himself alive and useful he got beat down and hung out to dry in front of the rest of the gang. He started spending more time at their local crossfit box than with his wife. At least something was intensive enough to make him feel something. But even that after a while started to feel monotonous. The same fights with the family. The same rotation of classes and workouts and late night jobs. The same accusations that he was having an affair with his trainer. Always the fucking same. Boredom sunk its claws into him, but breaking routine only shortened his leash. 

They slowly fell apart over seven years, until Becca served him their divorce papers in 2004. Maybe he bitterly sent an anonymous tip to the local PD about the plans for the family’s next few moves the day before they had to appear in court. Served them right, Ansel thought. At least until cops had barricaded the entrance to his new studio apartment he just finished moving into a week later, saying that they’d been given anonymous information that warranted arrest and trial.

He didn’t know who else to call except one of the gang’s lawyers, who came in all smug smiles and talked him through exactly what had been given to the cops like he’d written up the list. With the given evidence, he would have done life in prison and paid thousands of dollars in fines on top of legal fees. But by already coming back to them? The gang could put in some work, get it down to a lot of hearsay and a manslaughter charge on one of the hits that Ansel had really fucked up. The angle was clear, and the gang were convinced that by getting it down to ONLY 15 years in a State Prison, he’d have to come crawling back to them on his knees. He walked free in 2019, finally sick of sick of sewing orange and camo, but with enough scattered online classes for a quasi fashion degree and a developed enough collection that he could apply and get his visa to work a brutal, grunt seamstress job at Burberry, and get the fuck away from Boston before he could even be approached by his former pack.

Being American and an ex-convict did him very little favors and that job was falling through before he knew it, but he had found a couple crossfit boxes along the way, and did his best to fight off the bone-deep itch to draw blood other than pricking his own fingers, and take sharpened fabric scissors to someone’s flesh. The wolf was almost free of his chains, screaming to be fed so he could be truly free and then suddenly he’d killed his landlord after Burberry fired him and Ansel couldn’t quite scratch together rent. A vague shape of a heart carved into the side of his neck with a kitchen knife just so he could watch it bleed. Instinct took over, and he covered his ass, watched the press run wild, and was quickly approached by a different sort of pack. Not a family, like Winter hill, but a crew. The Jolly Rodgers.

[spacenutspod]

Earth Observer Earth Home Earth Observer Home Editor’s Corner Feature Articles Meeting Summaries News Science in the News Calendars In Memoriam More Archives 9 min read Looking Back on Looking Up: The 2024 Total Solar Eclipse Credit: NASA’s Glenn Research Center (GRC) Introduction First as a bite, then a half Moon, until crescent-shaped shadows dance through the leaves and the temperature begins to drop – a total solar eclipse can be felt growing in the atmosphere. As the sky darkens in the few minutes before totality, the sounds of animals begin to dissipate along with the vibrancy of red and orange hues, and we enter the mesopic zone, or twilight vision. All is quiet in these cold, silvery-blue moments, until the Moon lines up perfectly with the Sun from our viewpoint on Earth – an odd quirk of the Moon–Earth system, and an occurrence that does not exist elsewhere in the solar system. Millions of people gazed up at the sky on April 8, 2024, as a total solar eclipse darkened the skies across a thin ribbon of North America – spanning Mexico’s Pacific coast to the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland, Canada – see Figure 1. Figure 1. A total solar eclipse was visible along a narrow track stretching from Texas to Maine on April 8, 2024. A partial eclipse was visible throughout all 48 contiguous U.S. states. Figure credit: NASA Scientific Visualization Studio A pearly, iridescent halo lined the perimeter of the Moon as it crossed in front of the Sun, revealing the Sun’s corona – see Photo 1. Solar prominences – bright features made of plasma flowing outwards through tangled structures of magnetic fields along the Sun’s surface – were observable as reddish-pink dots rising from the edges of the eclipsed Sun – see Photo 2. Photo 1. The moment of totality in Cleveland, OH. Photo credit: NASA’s Glenn Research Center (GRC) Photo 2. Solar prominence [lower right of the solar disc] seen during totality in Cleveland, OH. Photo credit: GRC Snapshots of NASA Science Outreach Along the Path of Totality Over 400 NASA staff took up positions along the path of totality, hosting various events to engage the public in outreach activities spanning the scope of NASA Science. NASA staff hosted 14 “SunSpot” locations across 7 states (Texas, Arkansas, Ohio, Indiana, Pennsylvania, New York, and Maine), including 224 NASA engagement and Science Activation events. As an example, Zoe Jenkins [NASA Headquarters/Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) Federal—Graphic Designer] was stationed in Maine to view the eclipse –see Photos 3–4. More information about events at these SunSpots is available at the eclipse website. The Science Activation Program furthered NASA’s message, reaching all 50 states through public events by sharing information and providing professional development programming for educators. (To learn more about NASA’s Science Activation Program, see NASA Earth Science and Education Update: Introducing the Science Activation Program, The Earth Observer, 35:6, 6–12.) Photo 3. NASA Eclipse celebration at the SunSpot in Houlton, ME. Photo credit: Zoe Jenkins/NASA Headquarters (HQ)/Arctic Slope Regional Corporation (ASRC) Federal Photo 4. View of the black hole of the Moon’s shadow over the Sun during totality in Houlton, ME. Photo credit: Zoe Jenkins Among the SunSpot locations across the path of totality, NASA’s Science Support Office (SSO) staffed events at two of them: in Cleveland, OH and Kerrville, TX. The Great Lakes Science Center and its two partners – NASA’s Glenn Research Center (GRC) and the Cleveland Orchestra – presented “Total Eclipse Fest 2024,” a three-day celestial celebration at North Coast Harbor in downtown Cleveland beginning April 6 and culminating on the day of the eclipse. The event included free concerts, performances, speakers, and hands-on science activities. At the heart of the festival was the “NASA Village,” an immersive experience featuring the agency’s major missions and projects aimed at advancing space exploration and revolutionizing air travel. Figure 2 shows the location of each outreach tent in the village, while Figure 3 provides descriptions of each activity. More than 36,000 attendees visited the NASA village over the three-day event. Exhibits focused on innovations in aeronautics, space, solar, and lunar science, and best practices for ensuring a safe solar eclipse viewing experience. Through virtual and augmented simulations, attendees had the opportunity to take a supersonic flight, walk on Mars, and visit the International Space Station. Attendees of all ages participated in hands-on activities and talked to NASA scientists and engineers about their work and how to join the NASA team. Attendees could also walk through Journey to Tomorrow, a traveling exhibit complete with interactive English and Spanish-language content, and see an Apollo-era Moon rock. Visitors also explored large-scale, inflatable displays of the X-59 plane designed to quiet supersonic air travel, the Space Launch System rocket slated to take the first woman and person of color to the Moon, and a Mars habitat concept. Throughout the NASA Village, attendees could take advantage of several photo opportunities, including iconic NASA cutouts and displays. NASA also hosted astronaut autograph signing sessions, as well as special guest “meet and greets.” Figure 2. Map of the “NASA Village” at the Eclipse festival in Cleveland, OH, hosted by GRC. See Figure 3 for activity descriptions. Figure credit: GRC Figure 3. Descriptions of each outreach activity stationed at individual tents within the NASA Village over the three-day festival. See Figure 2 for map. Figure credit: GRC A View of the Eclipse from Cleveland In Cleveland, the eclipse began at 1:59 PM EDT, with totality spanning 3:13–3:17 PM. The eclipse concluded at 4:28 PM. SSO staff supported total eclipse outreach from April 5–9, specifically engaging attendees at the Solar Science tent within the NASA Village and providing information about eclipse safety and heliophysics, and handing out items such as the NASA Science calendar, NASA tote bags, and other outreach materials. SSO also supported a NASA photo booth with eclipse-themed props and took hundreds of souvenir photos for visitors to remember their time at the festival – see Photos 5–9. Photo 5. SSO staff member Dalia Kirshenblat [NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center (GSFC)/Global Science and Technology Inc.(GST)] handed out NASA Science calendars, eclipse glasses, posters, and other NASA outreach materials. The materials informed attendees about eclipse viewing safety and shared NASA science, engaging in topics that explained how eclipses occur. Photo credit: GRC Photo 6. Jack Kaye [NASA HQ—Associate Director for Research, Earth Science Division (ESD)] hands out eclipse posters and other outreach materials to attendees at Eclipse Fest 2024. Photo credit: GRC Photo 7. Steve Graham [GSFC/GST], Dalia Kirshenblat, and Danielle Kirshenblat [Space Telescope Science Institute (STScI)] pose with NASA SSO photo booth props at Eclipse Fest 2024. SSO staff took hundreds of pictures of visitors with the photo booth props as keepsakes. Photo credit: NASA Photo 8. Dalia Kirshenblat and Danielle Kirshenblat watching the eclipse begin in Cleveland, OH, at approximately 2:00 PM EDT. Photo credit: NASA Photo 9. Steve Graham, Dalia Kirshenblat, Danielle Kirshenblat, and other Eclipse Fest attendees gaze at the celestial show unfolding above them as totality begins in Cleveland, OH, at approximately 3:13 PM EDT. Photo credit: Danielle Kirshenblat Eclipse Engagement in Texas In addition to the Cleveland eclipse festival, SSO staff members supported total eclipse engagement in Kerrville, TX, from April 5–9, including several small events at Cailloux Theatre, Doyle Community Center, Trailhead Garden, and Kerrville-Schreiner Park leading up to the eclipse. (While a bit more remote than Cleveland, Kerville was chosen as a SunSpot location during the total eclipse because it was also in the path of the October 2023 annular eclipse, NASA had outreach activities in Kerville for that eclipse as well). The events culminated on April 8 at Louise Hays Park. NASA’s impact on the community was wide-reaching, engaging approximately 4000 individual interactions with community members and visitors. The feedback was overwhelmingly positive and appreciative. On April 8, SSO provided astronaut handler support for NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman – who will command the Artemis II Moon mission – during a “photos with an astronaut” session. SSO staff also escorted Wiseman to and from a main stage speaking engagement and the NASA broadcast engagement – see Photos 10–13. Photo 10. Ellen Gray [GSFC/KBR—Senior Outreach Specialist] engaging attendees in Kerrville, TX with various NASA Science outreach materials. Photo credit: NASA Photo 11. NASA Astronaut Reid Wiseman poses with a potential future astronaut and attendee at the Eclipse event in Kerrville, TX. Photo credit: NASA Photo 12. Astronaut Reid Wiseman speaks at a NASA broadcast in Kerrville, TX. Photo credit: NASA Photo 13. [left to right] Nicola Fox [NASA HQ—Associate Administrator for the Science Mission Directorate (SMD)], Alex Lockwood [NASA HQ—Strategic Engagement Lead], and Astronaut Reid Wiseman. Photo credit: NASA NASA Science Engagement Across the Agency As millions gazed at totality from the ground, NASA was conducting science from the skies. Atmospheric Perturbations around the Eclipse Path (APEP), a NASA sounding rocket mission, launched three rockets from NASA’s Wallops Flight Facility in Virginia to study how the sudden dip in sunlight that occurs during an eclipse affects the upper atmosphere. Each rocket deployed four scientific instruments that measured changes in electric and magnetic fields, density, and temperature – see Photo 14. Photo 14. The Atmospheric Perturbations launched around the Eclipse Period (APEP) sounding rocket during the total eclipse on April. This photo shows the third APEP sounding rocket – launched during the October 2023 annular eclipse – leaving the launchpad. Photo credit: WSMR Army Photo As part of the Nationwide Eclipse Ballooning Project, student teams constructed hundreds of balloons and launched them during the eclipse, encouraging students to consider careers in the STEM workforce. Also, two WB-57 aircraft carried instruments to further extend scientific observations made during the eclipse. By taking images above Earth’s atmosphere, scientists were able to see new details of structures in the middle and lower corona. The observations – taken with a camera that images in infrared and visible light at high resolution and high speed – could improve our understanding of the dust ring around the Sun and help search for asteroids that may orbit near the Sun. The WB-57 flights also carried instruments to learn more about the temperature and chemical composition of the corona and coronal mass ejections – or large bursts of solar material. By flying these instruments on a WB-57, the scientists extended their time in the Moon’s shadow by over two minutes from what could be achieved using ground-based observations. A third experiment used an ionosonde to study the ionosphere – the charged layer of Earth’s upper atmosphere. The device functions like a simple radar, sending out high frequency radio signals and listening for their echo rebounding off the ionosphere. The echoes allow researchers to measure how the ionosphere’s charge changed during the eclipse – see Photo 15. Photo 15. Pilots prepare for the 2024 total solar eclipse experiments on the NASA WB-57 aircraft on April 8, 2024 at Ellington Field in Houston, TX. Photo credit: NASA/James Blair The eclipse also provided an opportunity for the public to contribute to the NASA Citizen Science program – a project called Eclipse Soundscapes reached over 900 people during their training programs to prepare for the eclipse. Over 36,000 individual citizen scientists contributed more than 60,000 data submissions across the eclipse path, recording the reactions of wildlife before, during, and after this celestial event. As part of NASA’s Heliophysics Big Year to celebrate the Sun, NASA played a key role in enabling safe participation as well as working with new-to-NASA audiences. NASA’s Science Mission Directorate ordered and distributed 2.05 million eclipse glasses across the country, with distribution locations including K–12 schools, libraries, minority-serving institutions, community events, museums, partner organizations, underserved communities, science centers, and NASA personnel. As of April 8, Science Activation reached over 2000 educators across the country through programming designed to prepare educators for the eclipse and provide them with educational resources to train students in STEM. NASA broadcasted a livestream of engagement events on NASA+, the NASA App, NASA.gov, and NASA social media channels. By 4:30 PM EDT, NASA’s websites spiked (e.g., nasa.gov, science.nasa.gov, plus.nasa.gov, and ciencia.nasa.gov) with nearly 28.9 million views and 15.6 million unique visitors. At its peak, 1,458,212 people watched the eclipse broadcast live, experiencing the eclipse together through the eyes of NASA. Total viewership as of 4:30 PM EDT was 13,511,924. NASA’s Office of Communications Engagement Division organized at least 17 in-person and digital partner interactions, including several Major League Baseball games, Google eclipse safety Doodle and search effect, coverage of NASA on NASDAQ’s screen in Times Square, a solar songs request weekend on Third Rock Radio, and a Snoopy visit to the Cleveland sunspot. Several partners also interacted on social media, including Barbie, Cookie Monster, Elmo, Snoopy, LEGO, and other partner accounts. Conclusion The 2024 total eclipse brought joy and awe to millions, inspiring so many to look up, be curious about the natural world around them, and explore the sky. The next total solar eclipse will occur in 2026 and will be visible in Spain, a small area of Portugal, as well as Iceland, Greenland, and Russia. We won’t see another total eclipse in the U.S. until 2044. To view this video please enable JavaScript, and consider upgrading to a web browser that supports HTML5 video Movie. Timelapse of the eclipse’s totality in Cleveland, OH. Video credit: Danielle Kirshenblat Dalia Kirshenblat NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center/Global Science and Technology, Inc.dalia.p.zelmankirshenblat@nasa.gov Share Details Last Updated Aug 22, 2024 Related Terms Earth Science

[wihinaphe-makhoche]

im finding that one of my massive pet peeves is academics referring to groups of indigenous people (especially when its a SPECIFIC GROUP) as "the indians" "the natives" "the native population" "native americans"

referring to any group of people lacking specificity and using "the" when referring to them is kind of off-putting to begin with, there's a certain detachment and dehumanization that i feel comes with this type of reference. i don't think referring to any other racial designation with "the" attached to it would be acceptable, why is it in discussing indigenous people that this continues?

further, lumping us all together as a monolith is not only upsetting, but inaccurate!

anyways, i think i've put it here before, but if not, the wabanaki alliance has a great style guide that offers some pretty solid "do's" and "don't's" when it comes to writing about indigenous peoples.

a recap of name usage in the article, and note that these specific rules do not apply to every tribe. do your research on how they prefer to be referred to!!! anything in italics below are my own additional thoughts.

DO:

name individual tribes that your story references in the headline and intro, or name the Wabanaki Nations or the Wabanaki Nations in Maine if referencing all four tribes collectively. - (note that some tribes are referred to by colonizer names that may not be preferred by some people. i personally (lakota) do not like being called sioux, this is too general a term + comes from a colonizer term for us. if referring to the confederation of tribes, "the great sioux nation", i prefer to say "the seven council fires" or "oceti sakowin")

name Indigenous people according to their specific tribal affiliation. People counted among the population of one of the Wabanaki Nations should be referred to as citizens of their specific tribe. If the story refers to all of the Wabanaki Nations collectively, people can be referred to as citizens of the Wabanaki Nations.

use appropriate titles for government officials. All four Wabanaki Nations elect chiefs. The Passamaquoddy Tribe elects a representative to the Maine Legislature who has committee assignments and can speak on the House floor, but cannot cast floor votes. The Penobscot Nation and Houlton Band of Maliseet Indians appoint tribal ambassadors. - (note that some indigenous groups do not use the term "chief" and that tribal structures WILL vary depending on the group of people)

DON'T:

use generic terms like the tribes or Maine’s tribes.

use generic terms like Native Americans, Native people, or Indigenous people if your story references specific tribes and their citizens.

use generic terms like tribal elders when referring to tribal government officials.

i recommend reading the whole article, it gives some great explanations and insights into how to use specificity in talking about certain people. further, if you're writing historically, be specific about the region, group of people, AND time period!

if you have a hard time wrapping your head around why this is important, imagine if someone was writing about the dancing plague of 1518 (which occurred in strasborg, alsace --modern day france-- within the holy roman empire), but simply wrote, "the archaic europeans would dance until they died sometimes." without further elaboration of time perod, of any of the context leading up to the event, that these were a specific group of people, or even that modern europeans don't continue to do this.

additionally, using general terms like "the native americans" places us in the past and not as people who continue to exist today. we are very much still here!