James' World 2

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President Eisenhower signed the law establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration on July 29, 1958. At the time, the United States had put about 30 kg of small satellites into orbit. Less than 11 years later, Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin landed on the Moon.

President Obama signed a NASA Authorization Act on October 11, 2010. Among its provisions, the law called on NASA to create the Space Launch System rocket and have it ready for launch in 2016. It seemed reasonable. At the time, NASA had been launching rockets, including very large ones, for half a century. And in some sense, this new SLS rocket was already built.

The most challenging aspect of almost any launch vehicle is its engines. No problem—the SLS rocket would use engines left over from the space shuttle program. Its side-mounted boosters would be slightly larger versions of those that powered the shuttle for three decades. The newest part of the vehicle would be its large core stage, housing liquid hydrogen, and oxygen fuel tanks to feed the rocket’s four main engines. But even this component was derivative. The core stage’s 8.4-meter diameter was identical to the space shuttle’s external tank, which carried the same propellants for the shuttle’s main engines.

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NASA’s Space Launch System Rocket at LC-39B, preparing to lift off at 8:33 am ET on August 29th, 2022.

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Dear Prudence,

I’m 49, and my husband, Quinn, is 42. I love the way I look and the way I’ve aged, so I don’t say the following to be self-deprecating: Quinn is breathtakingly gorgeous and has only grown more handsome with age. Women and men are drawn to him, and I can’t fault them for taste. Most people are respectful about it, but there have been a number of people over the years who’ve either believed I wasn’t good-looking enough for Quinn or that he would cheat on me (possibly with them). Those experiences bothered us both, but we love and trust each other, and it’s easy to move on from them. Seventeen years and three kids in, I don’t think about the so-called discrepancy between our looks unless someone calls my attention to it.

Recently, Anna, a good friend whom I met through our daughters’ school, texted me screenshots of a conversation between her and Bridget and Rita, two other good friends. Bridget and Rita spoke very graphically about what they’d like to do to Quinn and said some really unkind things about me. She said she thought I should know what was being said behind my back. I was shocked and haven’t replied to her.

I’m really sad that my friendship with Bridget and Rita wasn’t genuine. Our daughters are friends, and we facilitate Skype play dates each week, so I’m not sure what to say to them or whether our kids should play together anymore. I’m also angry about how they talked about Quinn like a slab of meat. And a small part of me that I hate most of all feels shame about the things Bridget and Rita said about me, which is what’s kept me from showing Quinn the messages. I like myself a lot, and it feels so stupid that I’ve let two mean girls affect that and make me feel embarrassed to confide in my husband. This has shaken me, and I want to start moving forward. What should I do?

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Photo illustration by Slate. Photo by fizkes/iStock/Getty Images Plus. 

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If you worry about a wet or damp basement, a busy sump pump, or muddy puddles in your yard after a heavy rainfall, this story is for you. We want to introduce you to a new tool to improve drainage— a rain garden.

A rain garden is basically a plant pond, that is, a garden bed that you plant with special deep-rooted species. These plants help the water rapidly seep into the soil, away from your house, and out of your hair. You direct the rainwater from the downspouts to the garden via a swale (a stone channel) or plastic piping. The garden captures the water and, when properly designed, drains it into the soil within a day. You don’t have to worry about creating a mosquito haven; the water drains before mosquitoes even have time to breed.

If there’s an especially heavy rainfall, excess water may overflow the rain garden and run into the storm sewer system. Even so, the rain garden will have done its job. It will have channeled water away from your foundation and reduced the load on the sewer system. A rain garden also reduces the amount of lawn chemicals and pet wastes that may otherwise run off into local lakes and rivers. In some communities, the runoff problem is so big that homes with rain gardens qualify for a tax break! Call your municipality to learn your local policy.

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Family Handyman

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If you want to know how to do something, don’t just search the internet. Instead, find a person who already knows how and ask them. At first, they’ll give you a hurried, broad-strokes kind of answer, assuming that you’re uninterested in all the procedural details. But of course, that’s precisely what you’re after! Ask for a slowed-down, step-by-step guide through the minutiae of the thing.

For seven years, I did exactly that — I called a stranger and asked that person to describe how to do a specific task or skill. For my weekly advice column in The New York Times Magazine, I interviewed hundreds of experts, among them a heart surgeon; a congresswoman; a boy scout who survived a tsunami; a hospital baby cuddler; a telenovela star; an iceberg-dodging sea captain; many psychologists; a grave digger; scientists; artists; astronauts; and a 13-year-old lemonade entrepreneur.

Sometimes the instruction was for a physical task (How to Rescue a Cat From a Tree or How to Milk a Killer Whale), and other times the skill was emotional (How to Apologize to a Child or How to Propose an Open Relationship). In every case, the advice eventually drifted from precise instructions to the most existential guidance on how to navigate the world. Take the safecracker from Providence, R.I., who, after some 40 years on the job, knows that nearly all locked safes will be empty but that humans will want them opened anyway; we’re curious, covetous, and prone to disregard terrible odds (How to Crack a Safe). Or the laughter researcher who has tickled humans, chimpanzees, bonobos, orangutans, and gorillas and reminds us that touch should be consensual (How to Tickle Someone). Or the octogenarian British actor’s advice on how to play dead: You don’t need flailing, gasping or guts spilling out — sometimes death is just a quiet slide toward stillness.

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