The Japanese Spacecraft Ikaros Successfully Deployed Its Solar Sail

The Last NASA Space Shuttle Lifted Off

John Howe’s Imagining of the Opening Events in “The Lord of the Rings” — for some reason this image just captured my imagination. I think it’s the combination of the gathering storm in the far background, the sunlit valley in the middle, and the wizard’s urgent strides in the foreground. Few painters these days work all three grounds like the Dutch Masters once did. And I have long loved the work of Brueghel et al.